French guides · Time & dates
The months in French: janvier to décembre.
The year runs janvier, février, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, août, septembre, octobre, novembre, décembre — and not one of them takes a capital letter, however oddly that reads to an English eye. Nine of the twelve are close enough to English that you will guess them. Two are pronounced nothing like they look. Below: all twelve with pronunciation you can read out loud, how to say an actual date, and the four seasons.
All twelve months, at a glance
| French | Say it | English |
|---|---|---|
| janvier | zhahn-vee-AY | January |
| février | fay-vree-AY | February |
| mars | MARSS — the s is pronounced | March |
| avril | ah-VREEL | April |
| mai | MAY | May |
| juin | zhoo-AN | June |
| juillet | zhwee-YAY | July |
| août | OOT | August |
| septembre | sep-TAHM-bruh | September |
| octobre | ok-TOH-bruh | October |
| novembre | noh-VAHM-bruh | November |
| décembre | day-SAHM-bruh | December |
The first thing to notice is what isn’t there: capital letters. English writes January, French writes janvier — lower case at the start of a date, lower case in the middle of a sentence, lower case everywhere. Days of the week and the seasons behave the same way. Writing le 3 Mars is one of the most reliable giveaways that a text was written by an English speaker.
The two that trip everyone up
Most of the list looks after itself. The four -bre months — septembre, octobre, novembre, décembre — all land on the same soft -bruh, so learning one gets you four. Janvier and février both finish on the same rising -ee-AY as juillet. Say them once and they stay.
Two of them do not play fair, and they are worth ten seconds each.
French normally swallows a final s — but mars keeps its own, so it comes out MARSS, near enough to the English word "farce". And août looks like it should have two or three syllables when it only has one: OOT. The a and the û melt together into a single "oo". You will also hear French speakers drop the final t and say plain "oo" — both are correct, but "oot" is the easier one to copy.
Saying a date
To say something happens in a month, you have two options: en janvier or au mois de janvier (literally "in the month of January"). The short one is what people actually say; the long one sounds a touch more careful and turns up in writing. Mon anniversaire est en juillet — my birthday is in July.
For a specific date, French uses le plus a plain counting number. Not "third", not "fourth" — just three, four: le 3 mars is the 3rd of March, le 14 juillet is the 14th of July, le 25 décembre is Christmas Day.
There is exactly one exception, and it is the first of the month. That one takes an ordinal: le premier janvier (January 1st), written in figures as le 1er janvier. Every other day of every other month is a plain number, so this is a single thing to remember rather than a whole system.
Order matters too. French puts the day before the month, the way British English does: le 3 mars is 3 March. In figures that means a French 06/07 is the 6th of July, not the 7th of June — worth knowing before you book a train. And to say what today is: Nous sommes le 3 mars, or more casually On est le 3 mars.
The four seasons
Seasons come with their article attached in French — you say "the spring", not bare "spring" — and like the months, they never take a capital.
| French | Say it | English |
|---|---|---|
| le printemps | pran-TAHM | spring |
| l’été | lay-TAY | summer |
| l’automne | loh-TUN | autumn / fall |
| l’hiver | lee-VEHR | winter |
Saying in a season is where it gets slightly fussy. Three of them take en. Printemps, alone, takes au.
| Say this | Say it | English |
|---|---|---|
| au printemps | oh pran-TAHM | in spring |
| en été | ahn nay-TAY | in summer |
| en automne | ahn noh-TUN | in autumn |
| en hiver | ahn nee-VEHR | in winter |
If you want a reason to hang it on: the other three all begin with a vowel sound, and en slides straight onto a vowel — which is why en été comes out linked, as "ahn-nay-TAY". (The h in hiver is silent, so it counts as a vowel too.) Printemps opens on a consonant, and it takes au instead. Learn au printemps as one fixed lump and let en cover the rest of the year.
Hear it, then say it
Reading about French isn’t speaking French.
Cocoon French teaches through slow, visual stories you understand from the first line — and a free Club account includes full lessons plus a speaking drill that listens to you say the French out loud and tells you how you did. No card required.
Quick answers
Months, answered.
The questions learners actually ask about the French calendar.