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French Numbers – Count Perfectly from 0 to Infinity

From buying that little black dress to giving someone your phone number, from paying the bill in a restaurant to keeping track of your budget, numbers rule your world. Along those lines, let’s dip our toes into French numbers so that, just like in English, your math foundation is solid.

We created a Quiz, which is at the end of this article, so that you can test your knowledge on French Numbers → OK, take me to the Quiz!

The Baby Numbers: 0 to 10

0 Zéro
1 Un 6 Six
2 Deux 7 Sept
3 Trois 8 Huit
4 Quatre 9 Neuf
5 Cinq 10 Dix

 

The Rebellious Teens: 11 to 20

The next set introduces a new concept: joining two numbers with a hyphen. For example, 18 is “ten-eight” in French, or dix-huit.

11 Onze 16 Seize
12 Douze 17 Dix-sept
13 Treize 18 Dix-huit
14 Quatorze 19 Dix-neuf
15 Quinze 20 Vingt

If you memorize these, forming the later numbers becomes easier. So before going to sleep tonight, count sheep in French with these beginning numbers.

The Young Adults Settling Down: 21 to 30

Now that you have the power of the above numbers, the rest of them for a while will be a piece of cake. Just remember that 21, 31, 41, etc. up to 61 have et in between. Confused? Check out the tables that follow, and it’ll be clear.

21 Vingt et un 26 Vingt-six
22 Vingt-deux 27 Vingt-sept
23 Vingt-trois 28 Vingt-huit
24 Vingt-quatre 29 Vingt-neuf
25 Vingt-cinq 30 Trente

 

The Mid-Life Crisis: 31 to 69

For the next set, follow the same patterns as before, except instead, you’ll replace vingt with trente, quarante, etc. Thirty-one becomes trente et un, 32 will be trente-deux and so on. Continue using hyphens and the same baby numbers through 69.

31 Trente et un 51 Cinquante-et-un
32 Trente-deux 60 Soixante
40 Quarante 61 Soixante-et-un
41 Quarante-et-un 69 Soixante-neuf
50 Cinquante

Take a break to practice your pronunciation of French numbers:

Getting Old Is Strange: 70 to 79

You maybe thought x+y and all that arithmetic would be useless in life if you aren’t a math fanatic. But the basic calculations you learned will be a big help here.

When we reach seventy, you start addition. So, 70 will be sixty plus ten or “sixty-ten” — soixante-dix. Then 71 will be sixty plus eleven or “sixty-eleven.” Again, go through the table below and things will be clearer.

70 Soxiante-dix 75 Soixante-quinze
71 Soixante-et-onze 76 Soixante-seize
72 Soixante-douze 77 Soixante-dix-sept
73 Soixante-treize 78 Soixante-dix-huit
74 Soixante-quatorze 79 Soixante-dix-neuf

Old Age Is Stranger: 80 to 89

Coming to the 80s, there’s even more math (Oh no?)! But fear not, if you can do 2+2, you can do this. So, 80 in French is basically “four twenties,” and if you think about it, 20+20+20+20=80!

80 Quatre-vingts
81 Quatre-vingt-un
82 Quatre-vingt-deux

And you know the rest. Observe there’s something missing in 81. The et has been eliminated because there is no French language without exceptions!

The Older You Are, the Crazier It Gets: 90 to 99

The last hurdle seems a bit tricker, but the 90s actually follow the same pattern as the 70s. For 90, you will take 80 and add 10 to it: quatre-vingt-dix. It’s all logical. It’s basically 4*20+10=90. Then 91 will be 4*20+11, and so on.

90 Quatre-vingt-dix
91 Quatre-vingt-onze
92 Quatre-vingt-douze

The Age of Immortality: 100 and Above

After 100, you’ll already be an expert on the patterns. See the table below, and you’ll be able to say French numbers until a million. Start counting your hair in French!

100 Cent 500 Cinq cents
110 Cent-dix 1,000 Mille
200 Deux cents 2,000 Deux mille
250 Deux cent cinquante 1,000,000 Un million

 

Don’t Miss These Regional Differences!

Francophone regions don’t all follow the herd. Swiss and Belgian francophones have their own system. Here, 70 is septante, septante et un, and so on. Likewise, 80 is huitante and 81 becomes huitante-et-un, 90 is nonante, all the way unil nonante-neuf (99).

 

Why should you just sing along to Ricky Martin’s “Un, dos, tres” when you can have your own un, deux, trois? It won’t take you long to grasp the pattern so keep practicing. If you still face difficulty, our French tutors will help you out. See you next post!

Quiz: Test your knowledge of French Numbers!

0%
836
, French Numbers – Count Perfectly from 0 to Infinity

French Numbers

1 / 8

“Julien veut un verre d’eau.” means

2 / 8

“Un chien” means

3 / 8

“Il a gagné (un million / un milliard d’ / un millier d’ / un billion / un milliard) euros !”

English: He won 1 billion euros!

4 / 8

“J’aimerais avoir quatre (million de / millions / million / millions de) dollars”

English: I would like to have four million dollars

5 / 8

Ma grand-mère a (soixante-deux / soixante-douze / trois-vingt-deux / setante-trois) ans. 

English: My grandmother is seventy-two years old.

6 / 8

Il me doit (quatre-vingt-treize / quatre-vingt-trois / soixante-dix-treize / seize-trois) euros. 

English: He owes me ninety-three euros.

7 / 8

“Ils ont reçu trois cents lettres.” means

8 / 8

“Une tortue peut vivre jusqu’à cent-cinquante ans” means

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