Hier is undoubtedly the most common and direct way to say “yesterday” in French. But what if you wanted to add a touch more nuance, specify a particular 'yesterday', or simply vary your vocabulary to sound more natural and fluent?

As you progress in your French learning journey, mastering different expressions for common concepts like time can significantly enhance your communication skills.

Let’s dive into 9 different ways to say “yesterday” in French, helping you expand your linguistic toolkit!

The standard 'yesterday' – hier

The standard 'yesterday' – hier is the most basic and common word for 'yesterday' in French.

As an adverb of time, hier is generally placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, or directly after the conjugated verb in simple sentences.

Hier is predominantly used with past tenses, most frequently the passé composé to describe completed actions. It can also appear with the imparfait or plus-que-parfait for background actions or actions prior to another past event.

You'll frequently encounter hier in conjunction with parts of the day: hier matin (yesterday morning), hier après-midi (yesterday afternoon), and hier soir (yesterday evening/last night).

It's important to remember that while hier means 'yesterday', 'the day before yesterday' is expressed as avant-hier. These are distinct and not interchangeable.

Hier is an invariable adverb, meaning its spelling and form remain constant, regardless of the subject's gender or number.

💡 * J'ai vu mon ami hier. (I saw my friend yesterday.)

• Hier, il a plu toute la journée. (Yesterday, it rained all day.)
• Nous avons mangé au restaurant hier soir. (We ate at the restaurant last night.)
• Qu'as-tu fait hier après-midi ? (What did you do yesterday afternoon?)
• Elle m'a appelé hier matin. (She called me yesterday morning.)

The 'last night' or 'yesterday evening' – hier soir

The 'last night' or 'yesterday evening' – hier soir

When you want to refer to the evening that just passed, the French phrase you'll use is hier soir. It directly translates to 'yesterday evening' or, more commonly in English, 'last night'.

It's important to distinguish hier soir from simply hier ('yesterday'). While hier refers to the entire previous day, hier soir specifically narrows down the timeframe to the evening portion of yesterday. This precision helps avoid ambiguity.

As an adverbial phrase, hier soir is invariable, meaning it doesn't change based on gender or number. It typically appears at the beginning or end of a sentence.

Hier soir is frequently used with verbs describing activities that happen in the evening, such as manger (to eat), regarder (to watch), sortir (to go out), or dormir (to sleep). It sets the scene for past events.

While hier soir clearly refers to the previous evening, you might wonder about cette nuit (literally 'this night'). Cette nuit can sometimes mean 'last night' if you're referring to the night that just ended, especially in the morning. However, hier soir is the go-to for 'last night' when speaking about the previous evening's activities, implying a completed event from the day before. Cette nuit can also mean 'tonight' depending on the context, adding to its ambiguity.

Mastering hier soir is crucial for accurately recounting past events in French, ensuring your listeners understand exactly when something occurred.

💡 * J'ai regardé un film hier soir. (I watched a movie last night.)

• Nous sommes allés au restaurant hier soir. (We went to the restaurant last night.)
• Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier soir ? (What did you do last night?)
• Elle a bien dormi hier soir. (She slept well last night.)
• Il a plu hier soir. (It rained last night.)

The 'yesterday morning' – hier matin

To express 'yesterday morning' in French, you use the simple and direct phrase hier matin.

The word hier translates to 'yesterday,' and matin means 'morning.' When placed together, they naturally form 'yesterday morning'.

This phrase is quite straightforward and directly translates to its English equivalent, making it easy to integrate into various sentences.

Hier matin is a very common temporal expression, frequently used in everyday French conversation to refer to events that occurred on the previous morning.

Unlike some other time expressions, hier matin does not typically require a definite or indefinite article before it when used as an adverbial phrase, directly modifying the verb or sentence.

💡 * J'ai vu mon ami hier matin. (I saw my friend yesterday morning.)

• Elle a travaillé hier matin. (She worked yesterday morning.)
• Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier matin ? (What did you do yesterday morning?)
• Hier matin, il faisait beau. (Yesterday morning, the weather was nice.)

The 'yesterday afternoon' – hier après-midi

To express 'yesterday afternoon' in French, you use the phrase hier après-midi. This is the direct and most common way to refer to this specific time period.

This compound phrase combines hier (yesterday) and après-midi (afternoon). While après-midi itself can be masculine (le après-midi) or feminine (la après-midi) depending on speaker preference or context, hier après-midi functions as a fixed time expression and does not require an article.

The phrase hier après-midi is commonly used to specify an action or event that occurred during the afternoon of the previous day. It often appears at the beginning or end of a sentence for clear temporal indication, similar to how 'yesterday afternoon' is used in English.

Unlike some other French time expressions, hier après-midi is an invariable phrase, meaning it does not change form for number or gender. It precisely refers to the specific period of the day preceding the current one, providing a clear and unambiguous reference point in the past.

💡 * J'ai vu Paul hier après-midi. (I saw Paul yesterday afternoon.)

• Hier après-midi, nous avons visité le musée. (Yesterday afternoon, we visited the museum.)
• Qu'as-tu fait hier après-midi ? (What did you do yesterday afternoon?)
• La réunion a eu lieu hier après-midi. (The meeting took place yesterday afternoon.)

The 'day before yesterday' – avant-hier

In French, to express 'the day before yesterday,' you use the straightforward term avant-hier.

Avant-hier directly translates to 'before yesterday' and is used in the same way you'd use 'the day before yesterday' in English.

This term functions as an adverb of time, meaning it is invariable. It doesn't change its form based on gender or number.

You typically place avant-hier at the beginning or end of a sentence, or directly after the verb, to indicate when an action occurred.

It's a very common and essential adverb for discussing past events, similar to hier (yesterday) and aujourd'hui (today).

Pronouncing avant-hier is quite simple: 'ah-vahn-tee-air'. The 't' from 'avant' links to 'hier' for a smooth flow.

💡 * J'ai vu mon ami avant-hier. (I saw my friend the day before yesterday.)

• La réunion était avant-hier. (The meeting was the day before yesterday.)
• Qu'est-ce que tu as fait avant-hier ? (What did you do the day before yesterday?)
• Il est arrivé avant-hier matin. (He arrived the day before yesterday morning.)

The 'day before' (in a narrative context) – la veille

In French, to refer to “the day before” in a narrative or storytelling context, you’ll most commonly use la veille. This expression is crucial for recounting past events and indicating something that happened on the preceding day relative to another past action.

Unlike hier (yesterday), which always refers to the day before today, la veille is used when you are already talking about a past event and want to refer to the day before that specific past event. It sets a temporal anchor within a recounted story.

You'll often find la veille used when describing a sequence of events in the past. For instance, if you're talking about something that happened on Tuesday, and you want to mention something from Monday, you'd use la veille to refer to that Monday.

La veille functions as a feminine noun phrase, meaning 'the eve' or 'the day before.' It remains singular and feminine regardless of the context. It typically precedes or follows the verb in a sentence, establishing a clear temporal link.

Remember, use la veille when you're telling a story about the past and need to refer to the day immediately preceding the main event you're describing. It's a precise tool for chronological narration, distinct from the simple 'yesterday' of hier.

💡 *Il est parti le mardi. La veille, il avait préparé toutes ses affaires. (He left on Tuesday. The day before, he had prepared all his belongings.)
*Elle a réussi son examen. La veille, elle n'avait presque pas dormi. (She passed her exam. The day before, she had barely slept.)
*Quand je suis arrivé, la veille, il faisait un temps magnifique. (When I arrived, the day before, the weather was magnificent.)
*Ils ont décidé de se marier. La veille, ils avaient eu une longue discussion. (They decided to get married. The day before, they had a long discussion.)
*Le concert a été annulé. La veille, les organisateurs avaient annoncé la nouvelle. (The concert was cancelled. The day before, the organizers had announced the news.)

The 'preceding day' (more formal) – le jour précédent

To refer to 'the preceding day' in a more formal context, especially in written language or official reports, you would use le jour précédent.

This phrase is often encountered in historical accounts, administrative documents, or journalistic writing when precise, formal language is required. It emphasizes a specific day that immediately came before the reference point.

While hier (yesterday) is common for everyday speech, le jour précédent offers a more detached and precise way to indicate the day before, without necessarily implying the day immediately prior to the current day, but rather the day before another specified event.

💡 * La décision a été prise le jour précédent la réunion. (The decision was made the day preceding the meeting.)

• Le rapport mentionnait des événements survenus le jour précédent. (The report mentioned events that occurred the preceding day.)
• Il a révisé ses notes le jour précédent l'examen. (He revised his notes the day preceding the exam.)
• Les résultats sont arrivés le jour précédent la clôture des inscriptions. (The results arrived the day preceding the registration deadline.)

The 'only yesterday' or 'still yesterday' (for emphasis) – hier encore

The French phrase hier encore literally means 'yesterday again' but is used to convey 'only yesterday' or 'still yesterday'. It's an adverbial phrase that emphasizes the very recent past.

This expression adds a strong emotional or temporal emphasis. It highlights that an event occurred extremely recently, or that a situation has persisted up until 'just yesterday', often implying a sense of surprise, nostalgia, or slight disbelief at the passage of time.

You'll often hear hier encore when someone wants to underscore how quickly things have changed, to express regret about a recent past, or to simply state that something was true or happening just a short while ago, almost as if it were still happening.

💡 Hier encore, il jouait dans le jardin, et maintenant il est parti à l'université. (Only yesterday he was playing in the garden, and now he's gone to university.)
*Je me souviens de leur mariage comme si c'était hier encore. (I remember their wedding as if it were only yesterday.)
Hier encore, tout semblait possible. (Still yesterday, everything seemed possible.)
*Elle nous parlait hier encore de ses rêves de voyage. (She was still talking to us about her travel dreams only yesterday.)

The 'of yesterday' (used in possessive phrases) – d'hier

When you want to express 'of yesterday' in French, especially in a possessive or descriptive context, the phrase to use is d'hier. It's a key element for specifying the origin or timing of an object, event, or person.

The phrase d'hier is a contraction of de (of/from) and hier (yesterday). The e of de elides before the vowel h of hier, forming d'hier. This construction is essential for linking a noun to the concept of 'yesterday'.

You'll most commonly find d'hier directly following a noun to describe it. For instance, le journal d'hier means 'yesterday's newspaper' or 'the newspaper of yesterday', indicating possession or origin in time. It clarifies that the noun in question pertains specifically to the day before.

It's important not to confuse d'hier with hier alone. Hier is an adverb meaning 'yesterday' and modifies verbs (e.g., Je suis allé hier - 'I went yesterday'). D'hier, however, functions as a descriptive phrase for a noun, acting like an adjective or a possessive complement (e.g., la réunion d'hier - 'yesterday's meeting').

💡 * J'ai lu le journal d'hier. (I read yesterday's newspaper.)

• La conversation d'hier était très intéressante. (Yesterday's conversation was very interesting.)
• Où est la photo d'hier? (Where is yesterday's photo?)
• Le match d'hier s'est terminé par un match nul. (Yesterday's game ended in a draw.)
• Elle a oublié son parapluie d'hier. (She forgot her umbrella from yesterday.)

Are there other ways to say 'yesterday' in French?

Are there other ways to say “yesterday” in French?

Our list features the most common ways to say “yesterday” in French. While hier is the primary word, French, like any rich language, offers nuances and expressions that can refer to the day before, or to the recent past, sometimes with specific connotations.

You can also do an online search for “comment dire hier en ___” followed by a specific Francophone country or region to see if there are local idioms or slang.

You might find some interesting expressions or alternative phrases for hier by exploring French media. Of course, make sure to check a word’s definition and try to see it used in context before you use it.

Pay attention as you read, watch, and listen to things in French — you may discover different ways to refer to “yesterday” or the recent past.

And if you’re looking for more specific ways to talk about “yesterday” or the past in French, the WordReference entry for hier and related terms is a great place to start!

I hope you found this article helpful. Here’s what I think is a perfect quote to finish it with, courtesy of Voltaire: Le temps qui passe est un maître qui enseigne à l'homme les choses qu'il ignorait. (The passing time is a master who teaches man things he ignored.)