You're standing at a train station in Lyon. Or maybe you're just trying to fill out a visa form for a trip to Paris. You see a sign that says 03/04/2026. If you're coming from the United States, you're thinking April 3rd. But you'd be wrong. Dead wrong. In France, that’s March 4th.
Getting the date wrong is one of those small things that causes massive headaches. Missing a flight because you misread a calendar is a rite of passage for some travelers, but it's an avoidable one. Honestly, writing the date in order in French isn't actually that hard once you ditch the American "Month-Day-Year" habit. It's just a different logic. Europe, and specifically the Francophone world, follows a linear progression. Smallest to largest. Day, then month, then year. It makes sense, right?
The logic of writing the date in order in French
The French language is obsessed with structure. Académie Française levels of obsessed. When it comes to dates, they stick to the Day-Month-Year format (DD/MM/YYYY). It’s the international standard (mostly), but for North Americans, it feels upside down.
Think of it like a pyramid. You start with the most specific bit—the day. Then you move to the slightly broader month. You finish with the big picture: the year.
If you want to say "today is May 15th, 2026," a French speaker writes le 15 mai 2026. Notice something? No commas. French doesn't use that little "comma after the day" thing we do in English. It’s just one smooth line of information.
The "Le" Factor
In English, we often say "May fifteenth" or "the fifteenth of May." In French, you almost always start with the definite article le.
- C'est le 20 juillet. (It's July 20th.)
- Nous sommes le 1er janvier. (It's January 1st.)
If you forget the le, you sound a bit like a robot. It’s the glue that holds the sentence together. Interestingly, French speakers don't capitalize months. It’s janvier, not Janvier. To a French eye, capitalizing a month in the middle of a sentence looks like you're shouting for no reason.
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That weird "Premier" rule
Here is where it gets slightly tricky. You don't use cardinal numbers for every day of the month. For the first day of the month, you have to use an ordinal number.
You don't say le un mai. That sounds clunky and wrong. Instead, you say le 1er mai (le premier mai).
But here’s the kicker: that’s the only time you do it. For every other day—the 2nd, the 3rd, the 22nd—you just use the regular number. Le deux mai, le trois mai, le vingt-deux mai. It’s a strange little linguistic quirk that trips up beginners who try to say le deuxième for the second of the month. Don't do that. Just say le 2.
Basically, it's premier for the 1st, and then you're back to basics for the rest of the month.
Numbers vs. Words
In formal letters, you might see the date written out in full words, but honestly, that’s becoming pretty rare unless you're writing an invitation to a wedding at a chateau. In 99% of daily life, use digits for the day and year, and words or digits for the month.
If you’re writing a check (yes, people still do that in France sometimes) or a formal email, you'd write: Mardi 14 octobre 2025.
Abbreviations and the numeric trap
If you’re just jotting down a date on a notepad, you’re going to use slashes or dots. This is the danger zone for Americans.
In the US: 12/05/2026 is December 5th.
In France: 12/05/2026 is May 12th.
If you're booking a hotel or a table at a restaurant, double-check this. Triple-check it. I've seen people show up a month late for reservations because they didn't realize the French system flips the script.
Sometimes you’ll see dots instead of slashes: 12.05.2026. It means the exact same thing. The French also love the 24-hour clock, but that's a whole different rabbit hole for another day. Just know that if someone says the meeting is on 10/11, they mean the 10th of November.
Days of the week
When you’re writing the date in order in French, you often start with the day of the week.
- lundi (Monday)
- mardi (Tuesday)
- mercredi (Wednesday)
- jeudi (Thursday)
- vendredi (Friday)
- samedi (Saturday)
- dimanche (Sunday)
Notice something? No capital letters here either. French treats days and months as common nouns, not proper nouns. It feels weird at first to write mardi 4 mars, but that's the "correct" way. If you capitalize them, any French teacher worth their salt will start circling things in red ink.
Real-world examples of French date formatting
Let’s look at how this actually looks in different contexts.
The Casual Text:
"On se voit le 12 ?" (See you on the 12th?)
Here, the month is implied because you're already in it. It's simple.
The Official Document:
"Fait à Lyon, le 25 février 2026."
This is a classic French formula for signing documents. "Done in [City], on the [Date]." You'll see this on everything from work contracts to apartment leases.
The Digital Age:
On websites, you’ll often see the short version: 25/02/26.
Again, it’s always Day/Month/Year.
French culture is deeply rooted in history, and you’ll often see dates referenced as names of streets or squares. The Place du 8 Mai 1945 (commemorating the end of WWII in Europe) or Rue du 4 Septembre. These names always follow the Day-Month-Year order. It’s baked into the geography of the country.
Common mistakes to avoid
Even people who have studied French for years still mess this up. Muscle memory is a powerful thing.
- Don't use 'de' between the day and month. In Spanish, you say el cinco de mayo. In French, you do not say le cinq de mai. It’s just le cinq mai. Adding the "de" makes you sound like you’re translating directly from another language in your head.
- Don't capitalize. I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. juillet, not Juillet.
- The "1er" abbreviation.
When writing "the first," use a superscript "er" if you can, like this: 1^er. If you can't, just 1er is fine. Don't use "1ere" unless you're talking about something feminine, and "day" (le jour) is masculine.
Why does France do it this way?
It’s all part of the metric-style logical overhaul that happened a couple of centuries ago. France likes systems that scale. Day (small), Month (medium), Year (large). It’s a progression.
The US system (Month-Day-Year) is actually an old British carryover that the UK eventually abandoned but America kept. Most of the world has moved to the Day-Month-Year format or the Year-Month-Day format (ISO 8601), which is what computer programmers love because it sorts perfectly.
But in France, the DD/MM/YYYY format is king. It’s used in schools, in the government, and in every boulangerie across the country.
Cultural Nuance: The "Huit Jours" thing
This is a weird one. Sometimes, French people will say dans huit jours (in eight days) when they mean "a week from today." Or dans quinze jours (in fifteen days) when they mean "two weeks from today."
They are essentially counting "today" as day one. So, if it's Monday and you say you'll see someone in "eight days," you mean next Monday. It’s a bit of a linguistic "round up." It doesn't change how you write the date, but it definitely changes how you calculate it in your head.
Actionable steps for mastering French dates
If you want to stop making mistakes, you need to reprogram your brain.
- Change your phone settings. Go into your phone’s language and region settings and switch it to France. This will force you to see the date in the DD/MM/YYYY format every time you look at your lock screen. It’s the fastest way to build the habit.
- Practice with "Le." Every morning, tell yourself what day it is. "Aujourd'hui, nous sommes le [Number] [Month]."
- Ditch the commas. When writing in French, imagine the comma key on your keyboard is broken.
- Remember the 1st. The only time you get fancy with "Premier" is the first of the month. Everything else is just a number.
Writing the date in order in French is really just a matter of slowing down for a second before you hit "send" or "print." Once you get the rhythm—Article, Day, Month, Year—it becomes second nature. No commas, no capitals, just a simple, logical progression from the moment to the era.