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Talking about Time in French

By Frederic Bibard Published: November 9, 2023

3 min read

Here’s a handy list of French words and phrases about time, duration, and frequency. Check it out here!

On this page

I. French Words and Phrases about Frequency II. French Words and Phrases about Relative Time III. French Words and Phrases about Points in time / Periods of time IV. Prepositions about Time

Let’s talk about TIME. There is a huge list of words and topics about time but today, we’ll be narrowing it down and only talk about French words and phrases related to time.

If you are looking for a lesson on how to tell time in French, it’s another topic for another day. But you can head over to that separate article here.

This particular article is quite short and concise and is divided into four parts. You can click the Quick Navigation guide below to jump to specific lists.

Let’s begin learning about French time phrases and words, shall we?

I. French Words and Phrases about Frequency

These words answer the question, “how often?”

une foisonce
une fois par semaineonce a week
deux fois par semainetwice a week
quotidiendaily
tous les joursevery day
tous les deux joursevery other day
hebdomadaireweekly
toutes les semainesevery week
mensuelmonthly
annuelyearly

II. French Words and Phrases about Relative Time

These words answer the questions, “When did it happen?” or “When will it happen?”

avant-hierthe day before yesterday
hieryesterday
aujourd’huitoday
maintenantnow
demaintomorrow
après-demainthe day after tomorrow
la veille dethe day before
le lendemainthe day after, the next day
la semaine passée/dernièrelast week
la dernière semainethe final week
la semaine prochainenext week
il y a peu de tempsa little while ago

III. French Words and Phrases about Points in time / Periods of time

Now for the particular moment/ period of time.

une secondesecond
une minuteminute
une heurehour
un jour, une journéeday
une semaineweek
un moismonth
un an, une annéeyear
une décenniedecade
un sièclecentury
un millénairemillennium
le matinmorning
l’après-midiafternoon
midinoon
le soirevening
le crépusculedusk
l’aubedawn
la nuitnight
minuitmidnight

IV. Prepositions about Time

Now for the prepositions related to time. Keep these in mind as these little words can be quite confusing to some!

Preposition	Usage	Example
à	used when expressing the time when a certain action will occur.	à 8 heures. At 8 o’clock.
en	used for seasons, months and years, or the time needed to complete an action.	En été. In summer. Il a préparé le repas en 30 minutes. He prepared the meal in 30 minutes.
dans	used when telling the amount of time before an action will happen.	Nous mangerons dans 10 minutes. We’ll eat in 10 minutes.
depuis	used when saying the duration of an ongoing activity.	Nous parlons depuis une heure. We’ve been talking for an hour.
pendant/durant	refers to the entire duration of an action.	Il a dormi pendant/durant 12 heures. He slept for 12 hours.
pour	used for an intended or planned duration, often with a departure, stay or arrangement.	Il part pour deux semaines. He is leaving for two weeks.

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