Spot the mistake
French dates without a capital: spot the English-style errors
Correct eight French day or month capitals inside sentences. Keep personal and place names capitalised, and distinguish a weekday at the start of a sentence.
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In short
Inside these French sentences, weekdays and months use lower-case letters: lundi, janvier, août. Proper names such as France, Paris and Léa keep their capitals. A weekday at the start of a sentence takes the sentence’s initial capital: Lundi, je pars.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
English capitalises Monday and January wherever they appear. The French words lundi and janvier do not follow that pattern inside an ordinary sentence. Each line below contains one day or month with an English-style capital. Change that word and leave the correct personal and place names alone.
Tap the word that's wrong in each sentence.
Julie arrives in France on Monday.
Lundi is a weekday inside the sentence, so it is lower-case. Julie and France keep their proper-name capitals.
The course starts in January in Paris.
Janvier is a month name in the middle of the sentence. Paris remains a capitalised place name.
We are leaving in August with Léa.
Août becomes août inside the sentence. Léa is a person’s name and keeps its capital.
Nora is free on Thursday mornings.
The weekday jeudi is lower-case here, while Nora is the proper name beginning the sentence.
The visit is on 12 November in Lyon.
The month in the date is novembre with a lower-case n. Lyon keeps its capital.
My appointment is on Friday in Marseille.
Vendredi is a weekday within the sentence, so use vendredi. Marseille is a place name.
Sophie celebrates her birthday at home in February.
Février becomes février in the month phrase. Sophie remains capitalised as a personal name.
The train runs on Sundays in France.
The recurring weekday dimanche is lower-case. France is a country name and keeps its capital.
A month is not the same kind of name as Paris
| Lower-case within the sentence | Proper name with a capital |
|---|---|
| lundi | Julie |
| janvier | Paris |
| août | Léa |
| novembre | Lyon |
| dimanche | France |
The correction is not to remove every capital on the line. Le begins a sentence and therefore keeps its capital. France and Marseille name places and keep theirs. Only the targeted weekday or month conflicts with the ordinary sentence pattern in these examples.
The beginning of a sentence still has a capital
Lundi, Julie arrive en France.
On Monday, Julie arrives in France.
Julie arrive en France lundi.
Julie arrives in France on Monday.
The same weekday is Lundi when it begins the sentence and lundi when it comes later. Its grammatical role has not changed; its position at the beginning explains the capital. A short standalone heading can also begin with a capital, so use the surrounding text before correcting a word on a sign.
When writing a message, form the date first, then compare the day and month with the rest of the sentence. Preserve accents as well as case: août retains its circumflex and février its acute accent. Lower-case does not mean removing the accents.