Question 1

Why do we use il here if we are talking about time, not a person?

Accepted Answer

When telling time in French, you always use the pronoun il. Even though il usually means "he", here it acts exactly like the "it" in the English phrase "it is two o'clock".

Question 2

Why is the word heures used instead of a word for "o'clock"?

Accepted Answer

French doesn't have a direct translation for "o'clock". Instead, you literally say "it is two hours". You must always include the word heures when giving the time, whereas in English you can sometimes just say "it's two".

Question 3

Why does heures have an "s" at the end?

Accepted Answer

Because we are talking about two hours (deux heures), the word is plural and needs an "s". If it were one o'clock (une heure), you would drop the "s".

Question 4

I remember that negatives use ne ... pas. Why is it n'est pas here?

Accepted Answer

To make a sentence negative, you place ne and pas around the verb. Here, the verb is est (is). Because est starts with a vowel, the "e" in ne is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe to make it flow smoothly.

Non, il n'est pas deux heures.

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