Module 2 of the free French course (CEFR A1, completed), lesson 18 of 30: The French date is number + month: le douze mai, le vingt-trois août. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 18.
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| la date | the date | lah DAHT |
| quelle est la date? | what is the date? | kel eh lah DAHT |
| le premier | the first (of the month) | luh pruh-MYAY |
| le premier janvier | January first | luh pruh-myay zhah(n)-VYAY |
| le douze mai | May twelfth | luh dooz MEH |
| c'est le quinze mars | it is March fifteenth | seh luh ka(n)z MAHRS |
| la semaine | the week | lah suh-MEHN |
| l'annéefeminine — the article elides to l' | the year | lah-NAY |
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
The French date is number + month: le douze mai, le vingt-trois août. Only the first of the month is special: le premier janvier.
Quelle est la date? — C'est le quinze mars. Write today's real date every day this week.
Only the first of the month uses premier: le premier janvier. Every other date is a plain number: le deux janvier, never le deuxième.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.
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