A method for the time synchronization of a multi-carrier signal receiver consisting of a sequence of symbols each formed by a plurality of carrier frequencies. Each carrier frequency is modulated by a modulation coefficient. The position of some of said carrier frequencies in the time-frequency space is known to the receiver, and said frequencies are reference carrier frequencies. Each reference carrier frequency bears a reference coefficient with a value that is known to the receiver. The method includes a fine synchronization step, wherein the signal transmission channel impulse response is estimated on the basis of reference coefficients belonging to at least two received symbols. The beginning of the useful portion of each of the symbols is determined, and/or a receiver clock is controlled by analyzing the estimate of said impulse response.