What are the days of the week in French and how can you teach them to your child? Days of the week is an interesting concept to try to teach to a toddler since the concept of time to them is still very basic.
Our approach at home with Surya is to highlight the different activities that she does each day. For instance, every Thursday, she goes to gymnastics while dance is on Friday. But most importantly, banana pancakes are on Saturday. She understands that she has a daily routine and is beginning to understand that there are special days for specific activities.
Depending on what your child likes, you may say:
Today’s Saturday, and on Saturday, we eat pancakes!
Aujourd’hui, c’est samedi, et samedi, on mange des crêpes!
Wednesday nights, for example, we may tell her that she has to go to bed early because she has gymnastics the next day.
While it takes time and a lot of repetition to help our toddler understand the concept of the days of the week, it’s been much easier teaching her the names of the days of the week. After all, that is pure memorization.
Days of the week in French, with audio pronunciation
Monday – lundi
Tuesday – mardi
Wednesday – mercredi
Thursday – jeudi
Friday – vendredi
Saturday – samedi
Sunday – dimanche
Note that the first letter of the days of the week in French isn’t capitalized. You’d only capitalize it if it was the first word of a sentence.
Lundi matin nursery rhyme with lyrics
Here’s a fun nursery rhyme that will help you teach the days of the week to your child. I strongly encourage following along with the movements and gestures in the video!
| Lundi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi nous reviendrons mardi Mardi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi nous reviendrons mercredi Mercredi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi nous reviendrons jeudi Jeudi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi nous reviendrons vendredi Vendredi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi nous reviendrons samedi Samedi matin L’empereur, sa femme et le petit prince Sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince Mais comme j’étais parti, le petit prince a dit Puisque c’est ainsi, nous ne reviendrons pas | On Monday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand But since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we’ll come back on Tuesday On Tuesday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand But since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we’ll come back on Wednesday On Wednesday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand But since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we’ll come back on Thursday On Thursday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand Since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we’ll come back on Friday On Friday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand Since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we’ll come back on Saturday On Saturday morning The emperor, his wife and the little prince Came to my house to shake my hand Since I had left, the little prince said Since this is how it is, we won’t be back |
I’m not sure why the song doesn’t continue with Sunday, but we like to continue the song with “dimanche“, so feel free to do so too.
