À l'école (At school)
Primary 5 · French
À l'école (At school)
Lesson 2 of 3
14 min
Let's begin
On Monday morning Ishimwe copies the new timetable from the blackboard into the back of his exercise book: which subject, which day, what time.
A timetable is the easiest French text in the world to read, because it is only three kinds of word: a day, a time, a subject.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to read Ishimwe's timetable out loud — in French.
Keza's favourite lesson is French. She says:
J'aime le français. — I like French.
Notice what she did not say. She did not say « J'aime français. » When you talk about a school subject in general, French always puts a little word in front of it: le, la, l' or les — all four mean “the”. Which one you use depends on the family of the word, exactly as in the last lesson.
Two things to spot in that list:
Sentences you can use today:
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| lundi | Monday | lun-DEE |
| mardi | Tuesday | mar-DEE |
| mercredi | Wednesday | mair-kruh-DEE |
| jeudi | Thursday | zhuh-DEE |
| vendredi | Friday | von-druh-DEE |
| samedi | Saturday | sam-DEE |
| dimanche | Sunday | dee-MONSH |
Two surprises for anyone who writes English:
Useful:
Aujourd'hui, c'est mardi. — Today is Tuesday.
Demain, c'est mercredi. — Tomorrow is Wednesday.
Put le in front of a day and it stops meaning one single day and starts meaning “every”:
Le vendredi, j'ai le sport. — On Fridays (every Friday), I have sport.
The question is Quelle heure est-il ? — What time is it? (kell UR ay-TEEL)
The answer always starts the same way: Il est … heures. You just drop the number into the gap.
The clock in Ishimwe's classroom says 8 o'clock:
Il est huit heures. — It is eight o'clock.
Here are your numbers again: une (1), deux (2), trois (3), quatre (4), cinq (5), six (6), sept (7), huit (8), neuf (9), dix (10), onze (11), douze (12).
So: Il est trois heures. (3 o'clock) · Il est dix heures. (10 o'clock) · Il est onze heures. (11 o'clock)
One trap, and only one. At 1 o'clock there is only a single hour, so heures loses its -s, and the number is une, not un:
Il est une heure. — It is one o'clock.
Two extra words worth having: midi (twelve in the middle of the day) and minuit (twelve at night). Il est midi. — It is midday.
Half of an hour is demie. You simply hook et demie onto the end.
Worked example
The clock says 9:30. Build the sentence step by step.
Step 1 Take the frame: Il est … heures.
Step 2 The hour is 9 → neuf. That gives Il est neuf heures.
Step 3 Now add the half: et demie.
Il est neuf heures et demie. — It is half past nine.
Watch the spelling: demie keeps its final -e because it is agreeing with heure, which is feminine. (After midi and minuit, which are masculine, you write demi: Il est midi et demi.)
Here are three lines from Ishimwe's timetable. In French, times are written with an h where English writes “:” — 8h00, 9h30.
| Jour (day) | Heure (time) | Matière (subject) |
|---|---|---|
| lundi | 8h00 | les mathématiques |
| mardi | 9h30 | le français |
| vendredi | 10h00 | le sport |
Now turn the first line into a whole sentence. Three pieces, in this order:
Step 1 — the day: Le lundi (with le, because it happens every Monday)
Step 2 — the time: à huit heures (à means “at”)
Step 3 — what you have: j'ai les mathématiques (j'ai = I have)
Le lundi, à huit heures, j'ai les mathématiques.
Do the second line the same way, and the half hour slots straight in:
Le mardi, à neuf heures et demie, j'ai le français.
Tip
Two checks before you write a time
1. Did I put the -s on heures? Yes — always, except for the lonely une heure. (And midi and minuit never take heures at all.)
2. Did I put the -e on demie? Yes, whenever it follows heures: sept heures et demie.
And for days: if you find yourself writing a capital M for mardi, your English is leaking into your French. Small letters, every time.
Say each one out loud before you tap Show answer — your mouth learns faster than your eyes.
Quelle heure est-il ? The clock shows 7:00.
Answer: Il est sept heures.
Quelle heure est-il ? The clock shows 4:30.
Answer: Il est quatre heures et demie. Frame + quatre + et demie.
Quelle heure est-il ? The clock shows 1:00.
Answer: Il est une heure. This is the trap: no -s on heure, and une, not un.
Today is Thursday. Say it in French.
Answer: Aujourd'hui, c'est jeudi. Small j.
Say: “On Wednesdays, at ten o'clock, I have English.”
Answer: Le mercredi, à dix heures, j'ai l'anglais. Day + time + subject. Le mercredi because it is every Wednesday, and l'anglais because anglais starts with a vowel.
Umutoni loves music and does not like maths. Write both sentences.
Answer: J'aime la musique. Je n'aime pas les mathématiques. musique is feminine (la), and mathématiques is always plural (les).
What you learned today
Quick check
Match each French day to its English name.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
