Telling time in French
I am currently working on French3 lesson15. The lesson includes instruction on telling time in French. It introduces two ways of expressing time. First by simply expressing the time on a 24 hour (military) clock, eg quatre heures (4am), seize heures (4pm), vingt-deux heures (10pm), etc. Second by saying huit heures de matin (8am) or huit heures de soir (8pm), dix heures de soir (10pm).
In all of my discussions with native francophones in France and Africa, I have found that natives always use the 24 hour clock and never the "eight in the evening" way of expressing time. I'll ask one of my Parisien friends about this, but in the meantime I pose this observation to the forum. If natives use the 24 hour expression, why does the program teach the other way?
Open Jun 25, 2017 - 05:29 PM
French, French > Culture