L’heure

In French, you may ask the time in one of two ways :

1. Quelle heure est-il ? (informal).
2. Est-ce que vous avez l’heure / Est-ce que tu as l’heure ? (formal).

Time can be expressed by using the following expressions:

“Il est” + the hour + minutes”                    (“Ce sont” and “C’est” do not work for telling time)

             il est une heure – il est 1h00. Notice that there is no s on heure. (singular, one hour)

             il est huit heures – Il est 8h00.  Notice that there is an s on heures. (plural, several hours)

Note this vocabulary requires agreement for singular/plural and for masculine/feminine 

             il est une heure et demie – il est 1h30.

             il est huit heures et demie – Il est 8h30.

Since “heure(s)” is feminine, we use the feminine spelling of “demi”, which is “demie”

Regardez la vidéo et prenez des notes

Note: Military time, or the 24 hour clock is used to express official time, such as for movie time, meeting times and train or bus schedules.

In order to express this time, any hour past 12PM (noon) will be added to 12.

-1PM would be “une heure,” unofficially, and “treize heures,” officially (13h).

-3:30PM would be “trois heures et demie (de l’après midi),” unofficially, and “quinze heures trente,” officially (15h30).

-9:40AM would be “dix heures moins vingt,” unofficially, and “neuf heures quarante,” officially (09h40).

When using the 24 hour clock, unofficial terms such as “et demie” or “et quart” will not be used.