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The French months of the year: pronunciation, dates, and the calendar!

Last updated: March 26, 2025

A photo of some baguettes, representing National French Bread Day in the month of March!

Good news:

  • French also has 12 months
  • With the exception of August (août ???) they look very similar to the English months

That out of the way, let's get into how to say the French months, how to talk about dates and seasons, and a bit of grammar related to the French calendar. We'll also include audio samples and rough English approximations of key vocabulary words, as beginners often feel that there's at best a dubious relationship between French spelling and French pronunciation.

We'll talk about:

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[Table] Les mois de l'année: Learn the months of the year in French (+ pronunciation notes)

We'll bust out a few example sentences in the next section. For now, just look through the table. If you're new to French, make a point to check out the audio recordings—while you'll likely immediately recognize all of the months (except perhaps for August), the way they sound may surprise you.

Also, note that months are not capitalized in French.

English Month

Mois en français

IPA guide

English pronunciation

Audio

January
janvier
ʒɑ̃.vje
zhahn-vyay
February
février
fe.vʁi.je
fay-vree-yay
March
mars
maʁs
mahrs
April
avril
a.vʁil
ah-vreel
May
mai
meh
June
juin
ʒɥɛ̃
zhwan
July
juillet
ʒɥi.jɛ
zhwee-yeh
August
août
u(t)
oot
September
septembre
sɛp.tɑ̃bʁ
sep-tahm-bruh
October
octobre
ɔk.tɔbʁ
ok-toh-bruh
November
novembre
nɔ.vɑ̃bʁ
noh-vahm-bruh
December
décembre
de.sɑ̃bʁ
day-sahm-bruh

[Examples] The French months in sentences

The good news continues: in the same way as we say "in {month}", French people say "en {month}". Again, notice that the French months are not capitalized in these sentences.

  • L'école commence en septembre.
    School starts in September.
  • La neige inattendue en avril a surpris les jardiniers.
    The unexpected snow in April took the gardeners by surprise.
  • Je suis née en février.
    I was born in February.
  • Mon anniversaire est en octobre.
    My birthday is in October.
  • En mai, il y a quelque chose à célébrer chaque jour.
    In May, there's something to celebrate every single day.

As you can see, just like in English, the placement of time words is quite flexible in French. Your "en {month}" can go in the beginning of a sentence, at the end, or somewhere in the middle.

Naturally, it's not enough to just know the months. They don't appear in isolation, after all!

Here's a hodgepodge of vocabulary and phrases that you'll likely use in tandem with the months.

Les saisons: How to say (and pronounce!) the seasons in French

We'll start with the seasons of the year. Note that, like the months, seasons are not capitalized in French, either.

English Season

Saisons en français

IPA guide

English pronunciation

Audio

Spring
le printemps
lə pʁɛ̃.tɑ̃
luh pran-tahn
Summer
l'été
le.te
lay-tay
Autumn/Fall
l'automne
lɔ.tɔn
loh-ton
Winter
l'hiver
li.vɛʁ
lee-vair

While I hate to immediately contradict myself, when you say "in {season}", the "le" or "l'" from the above table will be dropped. Observe:

  • †Au printemps, les fleurs fleurissent.
    In spring, flowers bloom.
  • Je vais à la plage en été.
    I go to the beach in summer.
  • Les feuilles tombent en automne.
    Leaves fall in autumn.
  • Il neige souvent en hiver.
    It often snows in winter.

Note: Yes, for whatever reason, Spring is the red-headed stepchild of French months. You use it with "au", despite the fact that you use all of the other months with "en".

How to refer to specific months or parts of the month in French

Here's some key phrases you can pair with the names of the months. To use them, simply replace {mois} with whichever month you'd like.

French

English

IPA guide

English approximation

en début + {mois}
in early + {month}
ɑ̃ de.by
ahn day-boo
à la mi + {mois}
in mid + {month}
a la mi
ah la mee
à la fin + {mois}
at the end of + {month}
a la fɛ̃
ah la fah
†en {mois} dernier
last {month}
ɑ̃ {mwa} dɛʁ.nje
awe {mwah} dair-nyay
ce {mois}
this {month}
sə {mwa}
suh {mwah}
†en {mois} prochain
next {month}
ɑ̃ {mwa} pʁɔ.ʃɛ̃
awe {mwah} proh-shan

Example sentences:

  • En début septembre, l'école commence en France.
    In early September, school starts in France.
  • À la mi-mars, je pars en vacances.
    In mid-March, I'll go on vacation.
  • À la fin décembre, la France est couverte de neige.
    At the end of December, France is covered in snow.
  • Je suis allé à Paris le mai dernier.
    I went to Paris last May.
  • Comme je vous l'ai dit, ce juillet, pour la première fois depuis des années, je suis célibataire, et je compte bien profiter le plus possible de mon été.
    As I told you, this July, for the first time in years, I am single, and I plan on enjoying my summer to the fullest.
  • Cette rencontre de deux jours qui réunira des spécialistes du monde entier aura lieu en août prochain, à Vancouver.
    This two-day meeting, which will bring together specialists from around the world, will take place next August in Vancouver.

Note: Unfortunately, whether {mois} is proceeded by le, du, or au depends on what is happening in the rest of the sentence. That logic is beyond the scope of this blog article, but you may read about it (in French) here.

Le # mois: How to combine days and months to say the date in French

In French, there's a fixed way to say the date:

le + # + {month}

This is very similar to English's "The # of {month}", but French speakers do not say "of", as you can see in these examples:

  • La Fête Nationale est le 14 (quatorze) juillet.
    Bastille Day is on the 14th of July.
  • Cette année, l'école commence le 4 (quatre) septembre.
    This year, school begins on the 4th of September.
  • La Toussaint est le 1er (premier) novembre.
    All Saints' Day is on the 1st (premier) of November.
  • Le 1er (premier) mai est un jour férié en France.
    The 1st of May is a public holiday in France.

Important to notice here is that, with the exception of the first of the month (where they say premier), French just uses normal numbers to say the date: "the three february", not "the third of February"

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Some grammar notes about months and dates in French

We've sprinkled a few grammar notes throughout the above sections. Here's a quick recap:

  • Months and seasons in French are not capitalized, unlike in English
  • Use "en" to say "in" with months and most seasons (except for spring, which is "au printemps")
  • Dates follow the format "le + # + month" (e.g., "le 14 juillet" for the 14th of July)
  • The first of the month is always "le 1er" (le premier), but all other days use normal numbers like "le 2" (le deux) or "le 27" (le vingt-sept)
  • All calendar-related words (days, months, and seasons) in French are masculine, meaning they take masculine forms of articles and adjectives
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A simple way to learn the names of the months in French

We've got an entire post devoted to how memory works, but one simple thing worth knowing is that it's easier to remember things if we encounter them in contexts that somehow engage, move, or interest us.

While blog posts like these are useful as a reference, they're unfortunately not particularly moving. You probably won't remember many of the months just because you read through that list in the first section.

Instead, you'll find the months much "stickier" if you encounter them in the wild, in real French content.

For example, say you're watching Trois Personnes Célèbres on YouTube. You'll end up running into a sentence like this:

Cette personne est née le 4 août, le 4 août 1961.

And if you're watching YouTube with Migaku, you can just click on those words to see what they mean:

A screenshot showing Migaku's ability to transform YouTube videos into learning materials

Since you're learning the French months, you can go ahead and click the orange button in the top-right corner of the dictionary window. Doing so will generate a flashcard that looks like this:

A screenshot showing a flashcard that Migaku automatically created from a YouTube video

Migaku automatically takes a screenshot and an audio recording, fetches the word you've selected and the sentence it appeared in, and turned it into a flashcard. From here, we'll periodically nudge you to review it, ensuring that you eventually remember it.

It's pretty simple, but that's the only "secret" there is to learning vocabulary. If you consume French content you enjoy, you will encounter new words in interesting contexts, and that real-life connection to French media will make the words easier to remember.

Try Migaku for free
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So, you've learned the names of months and mastered the French calendar... but what now?

Huzzah! We're done. That wasn't too hard.

What makes learning French cool (and challenging) is that there isn't a set path from here. Where you go next is up to you! In fact, the golden rule of language learning is:

If you consume French media you enjoy, and you understand at least some of the messages and sentences within that media, you'll make progress. Period.

So now that you've got this boring stuff out of the way, go do something cool in French 💪