Pascal says: Filling in a French form, reading a letter, or arranging a meeting all require you to understand — and write — dates in French. The format is different from American English, and the seasons come with their own vocabulary. Today we bring it all together.

🎯 Today's Mission

Write and say full dates in the correct French order.
Learn the four seasons and their prepositions.
Use date and season vocabulary in real sentences.

📄 Document Déclencheur

Un e-mail administratif: Objet: Confirmation de rendez-vous Madame, Monsieur, Votre rendez-vous est confirmé pour le 22 septembre 2026. Veuillez arriver 10 minutes en avance. Cordialement, le secrétariat.

Qu'est-ce que tu remarques ?

Dans quel ordre est écrite la date ? → jour + mois + année (22, puis septembre, puis 2026)
Quelle saison correspond au mois de septembre ? → l'automne

Section 1: Writing and Saying Dates

Pascal's Tip: French dates go Day → Month → Year. Think of it as zooming in: small detail first, then the bigger picture. Just remember: France is not American. The 07/04 in France is the 7th of April, not July 4th!

French dates follow the order: day + month + year.

14 juillet 2024 — 14th July 2024
1er janvier 2025 — 1st January 2025 (use "premier" only for the 1st)
25 décembre — 25th December
3 mars 2026 — 3rd March 2026

To say a date aloud:

C'est le 14 juillet. [say luh katorz zhwee-yay] — It's the 14th of July.
C'est le 1er janvier. [say luh pruh-myay zhon-vyay] — It's the 1st of January.
On est le combien? [on ay luh com-byaN] — What's the date today?
Nous sommes le 20 juin. — It's the 20th of June.

Mini-dialogue:

— On est le combien aujourd'hui? (What's the date today?) — On est le 3 mars. C'est l'anniversaire de mon frère! (It's the 3rd of March. It's my brother's birthday!)

Note: only the 1st uses premier (1er). All other dates use the regular number: deux, trois, quatre…

Quick Date Vocabulary

| French | English | |

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Common Mistakes

❌ 07/04 read as "July 4th" → ✅ read as le 7 avril — French dates go day-first, always.
❌ le 1 janvier → ✅ le 1er janvier — only the 1st uses "premier."
❌ Quelle date est-il? → ✅ Quelle est la date? or On est le combien? — dates use "être," not "il est" like the clock.

In France, how would '07/04' be read?

How do you correctly say 'It's the 1st of January'?

What does 'le mois dernier' mean?

Section 2: The Four Seasons

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Notice: use au for le printemps, and en for the other three.

🔊 Phonétique: Listen for the nasal vowels in this lesson's words: printemps [praN-tom] and automne [lo-ton] both hide the "n" — you never fully pronounce it, the sound is nasalized through the vowel before it. Compare with janvier, where the "an" is nasal too. Practice au printemps / en automne slowly, feeling the air go through your nose, not your mouth, on those syllables.

Pascal's Tip: Remember 'au printemps' — au is used because printemps is masculine and starts with a consonant. Été, automne, hiver all use 'en' for smoother pronunciation. When in doubt, try saying it fast — you'll feel which one sounds better!

Seasons in Context

Au printemps, les fleurs poussent. — In spring, the flowers bloom.
En été, je vais à la plage. — In summer, I go to the beach.
En automne, les feuilles tombent. — In autumn, the leaves fall.
En hiver, il fait froid. — In winter, it's cold.
Ma saison préférée, c'est l'automne. — My favorite season is autumn.
En été, les jours sont longs. — In summer, the days are long.

Mini-dialogue:

— Quelle est ta saison préférée? (What's your favorite season?) — J'aime l'automne, parce que les couleurs sont belles. (I like autumn, because the colors are beautiful.) — Moi, je préfère l'été! (Me, I prefer summer!)

Common Mistakes

❌ en printemps → ✅ au printemps — printemps is the one exception, taking "au" instead of "en."
❌ Je préfère été. → ✅ Je préfère l'été. — Season names need their article (l', le) when standing alone as the subject or object.

Which preposition is used before 'printemps' to mean 'in spring'?

How do you say 'In autumn, the leaves fall'?

Which season is 'l'hiver'?

Civilisation

The French school year is built around the seasons in a very visible way: la rentrée (back-to-school) happens in early September, right as l'automne begins, and the year is punctuated by two-week breaks roughly every six weeks — les vacances de la Toussaint in autumn, les vacances de Noël in winter, and les vacances de printemps in spring. Administrative letters, like the appointment email above, almost always spell out the date in full (day, month, year) rather than using numbers only, since Francophone institutions consider the all-numeric format ambiguous and informal.

Recap

French dates go day → month → year — the opposite of American English.
Only the 1st uses premier (1er); all other dates use regular numbers.
Use dates with c'est or on est, never il est.
Seasons: le printemps, l'été, l'automne, l'hiver — remember au printemps but en été / en automne / en hiver.

🙌 Agissons !

Find an official-looking French document online (a bank letter template, a rendez-vous confirmation, an official form) and locate the date written in it. Read the date aloud using le + number + month + année, and say which season it falls in.

✨ Coming Up Next...

Pascal: Now that you can talk about the calendar, let's step outside and talk about the sky! Tomorrow we cover weather — rain, sun, wind, and everything in between. À demain!