French Numbers: 0-19

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 zro un deux trois quatre cinq six sept huit neuf dix onze douze treize quatorze quinze seize dix-sept dix-huit dix-neuf

Pronunciation note The consonants at the end of the French numbers cinq, six, huit, and dix are pronounced when at the end of a sentence or in front of a vowel. However, they drop the final sound when followed by a word beginning with a consonant (such as cent, mille, million, mois, or livres). For example, huit is normally pronounced [weet] and huit lves is [wee tay lehv], but 800 is pronounced [wee sa(n)]. For the French numbers 20 through 59, counting is just like in English: the tens word (vingt, trente, quarante, etc.) followed by the ones word (un, deux, trois). The only difference is that for 21, 31, etc., the word et (and) is introduced between the tens word and one: vingt et un, trente et un, quarante et un, etc. 20 21 22 23 vingt vingt et un vingt-deux vingt-trois

30 trente 31 trente et un 32 trente-deux 40 quarante 41 quarante et un 50 cinquante 51 cinquante et un

The French numbers 60 to 69 follow the same rules as 20 to 59. 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 soixante soixante et un soixante-deux soixante-trois soixante-quatre soixante-cinq soixante-six soixante-sept soixante-huit soixante-neuf

But then when 70 rolls around, instead of a new "tens" word, soixante is kept and the "ones" word continues counting from 10: 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 soixante-dix soixante et onze soixante-douze soixante-treize soixante-quatorze soixante-quinze soixante-seize soixante-dix-sept soixante-dix-huit soixante-dix-neuf

So 70, soixante-dix in French, is literally "sixty-ten." 71 is soixante et onze (sixty and eleven), 72 is soixante-douze (sixty-twelve), and so on, up to 79. In some French-speaking areas, such as Belgium and Switzerland, "seventy" is septante.

There is no word for "eighty" in standard French,* instead 80 is quatre-vingts, literally four-twenties (think "four-score"). 81 is quatre-vingt-un (four-twenty-one), 82 is quatre-vingt-deux (four-twenty-two), and so on, all the way up to 89. 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 quatre-vingts quatre-vingt-un quatre-vingt-deux quatre-vingt-trois quatre-vingt-quatre quatre-vingt-cinq quatre-vingt-six quatre-vingt-sept quatre-vingt-huit quatre-vingt-neuf

There's no word for ninety either, so you continue using quatre-vingt and adding from ten. 90 is quatrevingt-dix (four-twenty-ten), 91 is quatre-vingt-onze (four-twenty-eleven), etc. 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 quatre-vingt-dix quatre-vingt-onze quatre-vingt-douze quatre-vingt-treize quatre-vingt-quatorze quatre-vingt-quinze quatre-vingt-seize quatre-vingt-dix-sept quatre-vingt-dix-huit quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

*Once again, Switzerland and Belgium are exceptions. In Switzerland, 80 is huitante, but it's still quatrevingts in Belgium. In both countries, 90 is nonante.

In French, 100 to 999 work just like in English - just say how many hundreds and then add the other numbers. Note that when cent is at the end of the number, it takes an s, but when it's followed by another number, the s is dropped. 100 cent 101 cent un 125 cent vingt-cinq 200 deux cents 201 deux cent un

243 deux cent quarante-trois 1,000+ are also similar to English, but there are a few things to note:

The separator is a period or space, rather than a comma (learn more) Mille never takes an s When reciting a long number, you can pause to take a breath at the separator (after mille, million, or milliard) mille - 1 000 or 1.000 deux mille - 2 000 or 2.000 deux mille cinq cents - 2 500 or 2.500 dix mille quatre cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit - 10.498 or 10 498

1,000 2,000 2,500 10,498

1,000,000 un million 2,000,000 deux millions 3,800,107 trois millions huit cent mille cent sept - 3.800.107 or 3 800 107 a billion un milliard

Pronunciation note The consonants at the end of the French numbers cinq, six, huit, and dix are pronounced when at the end of a sentence or in front of a vowel. However, they drop the final sound when followed by a word beginning with a consonant (such as cent, mille, million, mois, or livres). For example, huit is normally pronounced [weet] and huit lves is [wee tay lehv], but 800 is pronounced [wee sa(n)].