heure de l'Est
feminine
Eastern time in French is heure de l'Est.
heure de l'Est is the most common way to say Eastern Time in French.
Meaning: timezone (name)
Which one should you use?
If daylight saving time is active, you should use heure avancée de l'Est (HAE) to specify Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
Is it said differently in some regions?
In France, speakers use heure de l'Est to refer to the time zone in North America. To be more specific about the location, you can use Heure de l'Est des États-Unis for the Eastern Time Zone in the United States or Heure de l'Est du Québec to specify the time zone in the province of Quebec, Canada.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase is feminine. When you are referring to the specific time zone, it is typically used with the definite article, appearing as l'heure de l'Est.
Did you know?
- The word heure shares a distant ancestor with the English word 'hour' and the Greek word ὥρα, which originally meant 'season' or 'year' rather than just a fixed unit of time.
- In formal administrative documents in Canada, the phrase heure légale is sometimes used to refer to the official time of a specific zone like l'heure de l'Est.
- In Quebec, you will often see the abbreviation HNE for Eastern Standard Time, but in English-speaking Canada, you see 'EST'.
Examples in context
- L'heure de l'Est est en avance.Eastern time is ahead.
Example conversation
Hugo and Léa are talking about a video call.
- HugoÀ quelle heure commence l'appel ?What time does the call start?
- LéaC'est à dix heures, heure de l'Est.It is at ten o'clock, eastern time.
- HugoD'accord, je vais noter ça.Okay, I will note that down.
- LéaN'oublie pas le décalage, Hugo.Don't forget the time difference, Hugo.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “eastern time” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries de, heure, CC BY-SA 4.0.
