Free Telling Time in French Worksheets

How the French clock worksheets work

Read the clock prints faces with two lines under each for the time in words, the answer to quelle heure est-il. Draw the hands puts the time in words over an empty face, and students draw the hands in. Match clocks to times has six clocks, A to F, and six times in words, and students write the letter that matches. Digital to words gives a time such as 2:45, or 14:45 on the 24-hour clock, to write out in French. The Reference chart is a single page with the phrase for every five minutes past an hour, one o'clock, noon and midnight, the parts of the day and 24-hour examples, and it has no answer key.

You choose the minutes (o'clock, half hours, quarter hours, every five minutes or any minute), the 12-hour or 24-hour clock and 6, 12, 18 or 24 clocks or times. On the 12-hour clock, the part of the day can be on or off, as in de l'après-midi. Read the clock and Draw the hands print standard clocks, 12 to a page, or bigger ones, 6 to a page. A fixed PDF prints the same clocks every time. Shuffle gives new times with the same settings, and the answer key matches the new sheet.

The faces are drawn by code. The hour hand moves between the hours with the minutes, the way a real one does, and at 2:45 it sits three quarters of the way to the 3. On a French 24-hour clock worksheet, a small inner ring shows 13 to 23 and 00. With the 24-hour clock or the part of the day on, the faces on Read the clock and Match clocks to times have a.m., p.m., noon or midnight under them. The sheets are black and white for photocopying.

How to tell time in French

Heure is feminine, which is why one o'clock is il est une heure and two o'clock is il est deux heures. Quarter past and half past are et quart and et demie. After the half hour, French names the next hour and subtracts with moins: 2:45 is trois heures moins le quart, and 2:50 is trois heures moins dix.

Midi and minuit take no heures, as in midi dix and minuit moins cinq. Both are masculine, so 12:30 is midi et demi or minuit et demi, without the e that une heure et demie keeps. For the part of the day, add du matin, de l'après-midi or du soir. Midi and minuit need none.

The 24-hour clock is very common in France. On it, 14:30 is quatorze heures trente, and 00:15 is zéro heure quinze, in the singular, though the Académie française prefers minuit quinze. Le Robert keeps quart and demie for the hours 1 to 11, midi and minuit, so 15:30 is quinze heures trente, not quinze heures et demie. The minutes usually agree with minute, which is feminine: 2:21 is deux heures vingt et une, though you'll also see vingt et un.

The French time phrases chart

Every five minutes past three, then one o'clock, noon and midnight. The Reference chart exercise prints the same phrases on one page.

Using the worksheets in class

Hand out the Reference chart with the first sheet, or project the phrase chart on this page. Start on the 12-hour clock with o'clock and half hours, add quarter hours once students have et quart and moins le quart, and keep the 24-hour clock for after that. Press Shuffle between copies, and students sitting next to each other get different times. The answer key starts on its own page, so you can print the sheets without it.

If the numbers trip students up (quarante-cinq, vingt et une), the French numbers to words converter writes them out, and there are French verb conjugation worksheets for the verbs. Between lessons, the telling time in French quiz runs the same options on screen and explains every miss.

Frequently asked questions