Learn French: Nous sommes en mai.

Nous sommes en mai.

It is May.

Breakdown of Nous sommes en mai.

in, to

mai

May

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Questions & Answers about Nous sommes en mai.

Why does this sentence use Nous sommes (we are) to say "It is"?

In French, it is standard to use Nous sommes when stating the current date, month, or season. While it literally translates to "We are," it is the natural way French speakers express "It is" for the time of year, as if saying "We are currently in May."

Can I say Il est en mai instead?

No, that would sound strange to a French speaker. While you use Il est for telling the time on a clock (like Il est midi for "It is noon"), it is not used for dates or months. To be more casual, you can say On est en mai, which uses the informal word for "we" (on).

Do you always use en to say "in" a month?

Yes! Whenever you want to say that something happens "in" a specific month, or that we are currently "in" that month, you use the preposition en. For example, en avril means "in April."

Why is mai written with a lowercase "m"?

Unlike in English, months and days of the week are not capitalized in French unless they appear at the very beginning of a sentence.