In France, are there eight days to a "week"?

Question

In my French II book, a "Flash d'Information" had this written down exactly as is:

"

15 jours = 2 weeks

8 jours = 1 week

"

(Jours meaning days)

I know that week in French is semaine, but here they put exactly, "week". Is a week a different unit of time in France?

(In case anyone wants to know, this is on page 404 of the textbook Discovering French, Blanc Edition, by the Valettes)

Answer 1

I see two possibilities, one of them being Rillifane's answer, and the other, a mere typo.

Answer 2

Of course a week is 7 days wherever you are in the world. Quinze jours is the name for 'fortnight', never heard of huit jours being used for week...Hope that helps.

Answer 3

It is a matter of phraseology.

If you say "See you in a week" in English you really mean "See you in eight days" IF you count the day you are speaking and the day you intend to next see the person.

In French this is explicit which is to say people say "dans une huitaine" or 'en huit'.

Thus one might think that the French mean that a week is 8 days long but this is not the intention.

The same reasoning applies to a fortnight which is 2 weeks but which is 15 days when counting both the day it is determined from until the day intended.

Answer 4

hummm  now you got me thincking...  i have heard that phrase.. but of course we know that one week is 7 days...

Answer 5

I'm french and have never heard that 8 days=1 week ...no...for me one week represents 7 days...

Answer 6

Actually, I think it is just a way of speaking. People will never say "dans 7 jours" for "dans une semaine", but they will say "dans 8 jours". Of course, a week is seven days even in France. I've wondered why people do say it, but I guess it is because it sounds better!