How do you ask what time it is in French?

Quelle heure est-il ? is the standard question, and Il est quelle heure ? is its everyday spoken equivalent. To ask a stranger, Vous avez l'heure, s'il vous plaît ? is softer. For the time of an event, use à quelle heure : à quelle heure ouvre la boulangerie ?

How do you say half past in French?

Add et demie to the hour: il est cinq heures et demie, it's half past five. After midi and minuit the adjective drops its e, because those two nouns are masculine: à midi et demi. In the twenty-four-hour clock you'd say quinze heures trente instead.

Why does French say moins le quart?

Because after the half hour French names the hour it's approaching and subtracts the difference: quatre heures moins le quart is literally four hours minus the quarter, so quarter to four. Quart is the only unit that keeps an article there; with plain numbers you just say moins dix, moins vingt.

Does French use am and pm?

No. Either the context is clear, or you add du matin, de l'après-midi, du soir, or de la nuit: sept heures du matin, sept heures du soir. In writing, French switches to the twenty-four-hour clock instead, which is why timetables show 19 h 05.

Do you say midi or douze heures for noon?

Say midi. Douze heures is understood but sounds technical, and midi is what appears in ordinary sentences: on mange à midi, le musée ferme entre midi et deux. Midnight works the same way: minuit, not zéro heure, unless you're reading a timetable.

French grammar · Beginner

Telling Time in French: Il Est, Et Demie, Moins Le Quart

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

French tells the time with il est plus a number plus the word heure or heures, which can never be left out. Past the half hour it counts backwards from the next hour with moins, and it replaces twelve o'clock with midi and minuit.

Il est huit heures et demie, on va être en retard.

It's half past eight, we're going to be late.

What it is

Where English says it's three, French says il est trois heures, literally it is three hours. The word heure is the unit being counted, so it has to be there, and it goes plural from two o'clock onwards. Everything else on the clock is built around that phrase.

Il est une heure, il est deux heures, il est midi. — It's one o'clock, it's two o'clock, it's midday.

How to spot it

Decide first whether you're before or after the half hour. Up to and including thirty, French adds minutes to the hour you've just passed; after thirty, it takes them away from the hour ahead.

Il est neuf heures dix. — It's ten past nine.
Il est neuf heures et demie. — It's half past nine.
Il est dix heures moins vingt. — It's twenty to ten.
Il est dix heures moins le quart. — It's quarter to ten.

Only quart takes an article after moins: moins le quart, but moins dix and moins vingt-cinq.

Telling Time Quick Reference

The clock face in French

Clock	French	Word for word
3:00	Il est trois heures.	it is three hours
3:10	Il est trois heures dix.	three hours ten
3:15	Il est trois heures et quart.	three hours and a quarter
3:30	Il est trois heures et demie.	three hours and a half
3:45	Il est quatre heures moins le quart.	four hours minus the quarter
3:50	Il est quatre heures moins dix.	four hours minus ten
12:00	Il est midi.	it is midday
15:45	Il est quinze heures quarante-cinq.	fifteen hours forty-five

Common Telling Time Examples in French

Asking, answering, and arranging, in the words people actually use:

Asking What Time It Is

Quelle heure est-il ?: What time is it? (neutral to formal)
Il est quelle heure ?: What time is it? (spoken)
Vous avez l'heure, s'il vous plaît ?: Do you have the time, please?
À quelle heure commence le film ?: What time does the film start?

Heure is feminine, so the question word is quelle. Quel heure is a spelling error, not a variant.

On the Hour

Il est une heure.: It's one o'clock.
Il est sept heures.: It's seven o'clock.
Il est midi.: It's midday.
Il est minuit passé.: It's gone midnight.

Une heure is singular; from deux heures onwards the noun is plural, even though nothing else in the phrase changes.

Minutes Past and Minutes To

Il est six heures cinq.: It's five past six.
Il est six heures et quart.: It's quarter past six.
Il est sept heures moins vingt.: It's twenty to seven.
Il est huit heures pile.: It's eight o'clock exactly.

Nothing joins the hour to the minutes when you're counting forwards: six heures cinq, with no et except before quart and demie.

Arranging a Time

On se retrouve à sept heures et demie.: We're meeting at half past seven.
Le magasin ouvre vers dix heures.: The shop opens around ten.
Je travaille de 9 h à 17 h.: I work from 9 to 5.
Il rentre entre six et sept heures.: He gets home between six and seven.

À marks the appointment, vers means approximately, and de… à frames a stretch of the day.

How French Tells the Time

Five habits, and only one of them has no equivalent in English.

The Sentence Is Always Il Est

Time is impersonal in French, so the subject is the empty il, the same one used for weather. C'est is not an option here: c'est trois heures is the single most recognisable learner slip.

Il est déjà onze heures.

It's already eleven o'clock.

il est, never c'est.

Heure Is Compulsory and Counts

Heure is a real noun being counted rather than a decoration, which is why it can't be dropped and why it takes the plural from two onwards. English o'clock is optional; heure is not.

Il est quatre heures, pas trois heures.

It's four o'clock, not three.

une heure, deux heures, trois heures.

After the Half Hour, Count Down From the Next Hour

From thirty-one minutes past, French names the hour ahead and subtracts. Six heures quarante is possible but sounds like a timetable; sept heures moins vingt is what people say.

Il est une heure moins cinq.

It's five to one.

next hour + moins + minutes.

Midi and Minuit Replace Twelve

Noon and midnight have their own nouns, and they're masculine, so demi loses its final e after them. Une heure et demie but midi et demi.

On déjeune à midi et demi.

We have lunch at half past twelve.

midi et demi, une heure et demie.

The 24-Hour Clock Just Adds the Minutes

Official times run from zéro heure to vingt-trois heures and simply state the minutes in order. The moins system and et quart belong to the twelve-hour clock only.

Le train de 18 h 47 est annoncé quai 3.

The 6:47 pm train is announced on platform 3.

vingt heures quinze, not huit heures et quart du soir.

Common Mistakes with Telling Time

Incorrect: Il est trois. — It's three.

Correct: Il est trois heures. — It's three o'clock.

Heure is the noun being counted, not an optional extra like o'clock. Without it the sentence has a number and nothing for it to measure.

Incorrect: C'est huit heures. — It's eight o'clock.

Correct: Il est huit heures. — It's eight o'clock.

Clock time uses the impersonal il, like weather. C'est introduces or identifies something, which isn't what a time does.

Incorrect: Il est deux heures et demi. — It's half past two.

Correct: Il est deux heures et demie. — It's half past two.

Demie agrees with the feminine heures. It only loses the e after midi and minuit, which are masculine: midi et demi.

Incorrect: Il est quinze heures moins le quart. — It's quarter to three.

Correct: Il est quatorze heures quarante-cinq. — It's quarter to three.

Moins le quart belongs to the twelve-hour clock. Once you're using the twenty-four-hour hours, minutes are read forwards and in full.

Expressions Built on Heure

Heure carries a whole family of phrases about punctuality and duration, and they come up far more often than the clock itself.

Being on time

French describes punctuality with prepositional phrases rather than adjectives: you are at the hour, in advance, or in delay.

Le train est à l'heure.: The train is on time.
Je suis arrivé en avance.: I arrived early.
Elle est toujours en retard.: She's always late.
Il s'est levé de bonne heure.: He got up early.

De bonne heure means early in the day, while tôt is early relative to anything. En avance is early relative to an appointment.

Lengths of time

For a duration rather than a point on the clock, heure keeps its noun behaviour and takes a normal quantity in front of it.

J'attends depuis une demi-heure.: I've been waiting for half an hour.
Le film dure deux heures et quart.: The film lasts two and a quarter hours.
Donne-moi un quart d'heure.: Give me fifteen minutes.
C'est à trois heures de route.: It's a three-hour drive away.

Une heure et demie can mean half past one or an hour and a half. Only context separates them.

Heure in everyday phrases

A small set of idioms uses heure to mean the right moment rather than sixty minutes.

À tout à l'heure !: See you later!
Je l'ai vu tout à l'heure.: I saw him a little while ago.
C'est l'heure de partir.: It's time to go.
On évite l'heure de pointe.: We avoid rush hour.

Tout à l'heure points either forwards or backwards, depending on the tense of the verb next to it.

Telling Time FAQs

How do you ask what time it is in French?: Quelle heure est-il ? is the standard question, and Il est quelle heure ? is its everyday spoken equivalent. To ask a stranger, Vous avez l'heure, s'il vous plaît ? is softer. For the time of an event, use à quelle heure : à quelle heure ouvre la boulangerie ?
How do you say half past in French?: Add et demie to the hour: il est cinq heures et demie, it's half past five. After midi and minuit the adjective drops its e, because those two nouns are masculine: à midi et demi. In the twenty-four-hour clock you'd say quinze heures trente instead.
Why does French say moins le quart?: Because after the half hour French names the hour it's approaching and subtracts the difference: quatre heures moins le quart is literally four hours minus the quarter, so quarter to four. Quart is the only unit that keeps an article there; with plain numbers you just say moins dix, moins vingt.
Does French use am and pm?: No. Either the context is clear, or you add du matin, de l'après-midi, du soir, or de la nuit: sept heures du matin, sept heures du soir. In writing, French switches to the twenty-four-hour clock instead, which is why timetables show 19 h 05.
Do you say midi or douze heures for noon?: Say midi. Douze heures is understood but sounds technical, and midi is what appears in ordinary sentences: on mange à midi, le musée ferme entre midi et deux. Midnight works the same way: minuit, not zéro heure, unless you're reading a timetable.