Prepare your note
Opening-hours messages mix repeated routines with temporary changes. This task asks you to construct a small weekly schedule from a short notice. It is not a lesson on all French time expressions. Your answer must show whether a shop is open at a specific moment. A list of numbers cannot do that by itself. You need the day, the opening period, and any exception that removes part of the normal schedule. The shop in this exercise is fictional.
Draw three rows headed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Divide each row into morning and afternoon. Imagine that you want to visit on Wednesday at 10:00 and again at 16:00. Leave the cells empty until you have read the whole notice. This stops the normal schedule from becoming your final answer too soon. If you are preparing for a real recording, make the same blank grid before playback, then resist filling gaps from what you expect shops to do.
Your scene task
Nous sommes ouverts du mardi au samedi, de neuf heures à midi et de quatorze heures à dix-huit heures.
Exceptionnellement, mercredi, le magasin sera fermé le matin. Nous vous accueillerons à partir de quatorze heures.
Show English translations
We are open Tuesday to Saturday, from nine to noon and from fourteen to eighteen hundred.
As an exception, on Wednesday the shop will be closed in the morning. We will welcome you from 14:00.
Make your decision
Fill the three rows. Decide whether both planned Wednesday visits are possible. Identify the phrase that marks the notice as an exception. Then answer a separate question: can you conclude that the shop opens on Monday? Do not assume a Monday schedule from the other days. Record unsupported information with a question mark. This is useful practice because real notices rarely answer every question that a listener has. A careful blank can be more accurate than a confident invented detail.
Open the answer key
Tuesday and Thursday have two opening periods: 09:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00. Wednesday has only the afternoon period in this notice. The 10:00 visit is not possible; the 16:00 visit is possible. Exceptionnellement marks the special case. The notice gives no Monday opening period. You cannot use it to confirm a Monday visit. À partir de quatorze heures means from 14:00 onward, but the earlier closing time still supplies the end of the afternoon period.
The distinction that matters
Do not read du mardi au samedi as two isolated days. It describes the range Tuesday through Saturday. Also keep midi distinct from minuit. Midi is noon; minuit is midnight. This particular notice uses midi. The temporary closure is limited to Wednesday morning. It does not remove Wednesday afternoon or every future Wednesday. If the date matters in real life, check which week the notice concerns. The exercise deliberately provides only the wording needed to practise the schedule logic.
Try the task on your own video
Choose a French clip where a speaker explains opening hours or a daily timetable. Build a grid rather than transcribing full sentences. We make Jibber Jabber. Its captions can help you check whether you heard fermé or ouvert in an available video. That check matters more than collecting all the numbers. After the captioned pass, hide your note and restate the exception. For an actual visit, confirm the current hours with the shop. A learning clip can be old even when its French is clear.
Questions and answers
Does à partir de include the stated time?
Here it marks the start of the opening period at 14:00.
Must I use a 24-hour clock?
No, but use one clear system and keep noon distinct from midnight.
What should remain unknown?
Monday hours and the date of the temporary notice are not supplied.
Sources for this entry
- Jibber Jabber: matching French guide ↗. Publisher context for further practice. We make Jibber Jabber. Product access and pricing were checked against the official product facts on 9 November 2026.
- The French scene, translation, task, and key are original editorial examples. They are not quotations, recordings, or research evidence. Read our checking method and source policy.
Continue this reading path
Connected entries
- Find the stop that a French bus will skip
- Catch a corrected appointment time in French
- Follow French delivery instructions with a fallback
Terms used in this task: condition, inference.
Read the Jibber Jabber product profile for its limits.
How the related sites connect
This workbook is one of a coordinated collection of comprehensible input guides published by Jibber Jabber. They share one publisher and are not independent endorsements.
Cite this page
Jibber Jabber. “Read the exception in French shop opening hours.” French Listening Atelier. Updated 9 November 2026. https://frenchcomprehensibleinput.com/shop-opening-hours/.