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Who said that numbers in French are way too complicated? As long as you remember the basic number, know how to do the counting, and understand how the patterns work, you will get it eventually. Here we provide the tips on how to master the numbers in French!

 

0-16

First of all, you have to know the basic in order to do the rest of the counting:

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

 

17-19

17, 18, and 19 are as easy as 10+7, 10+8, and 10+9.

17	dix-sept	10+7
18	dix-huit	10+8
19	dix-neuf	10+9

 

20-69

Now, let’s take a look of twenty, thirty, up to sixty.

20	vingt
30	trente
40	quarante
50	cinquante
60	soixante

 

For number from 21 to 61 (with 1 at the back), add ‘et’ before the ‘un’. et is literally translated as ‘and’. French uses ‘une’ instead of ‘un’ for feminine nouns.

21	vingt et un
31	trente et un
61	soixante et un

 

This rule is applied for number from 22 to 69 (except for the numbers with 1 as the unit):

Tens + Hyphen (-) + units

22	vingt-deux
23	vingt-trois
36	trente-six
44	quarante-quatre
58	cinquante-huit
69	soixante-neuf

 

70-79

Unlike Belgian or Swiss, French do not use ‘septante’ to count seventy. They continue the counting from 69 (soixante-neuf). Thus, 70 means 60+10 (soixante-dix), 71 means 60+ et +11 (soixante et onze), etc. Note that the same rules of ‘et’ and ‘une’ are applied on 71 as well.

70	soixante-dix	60+10
71	soixante et onze	60+11
72	soixante-douze	60+12
73	soixante-treize	60+13
74	soixante-quatorze	60+14
75	soixante-quinze	60+15
79	soixante-dix-neuf	60+19

 

80-99

We use four-twenties (quatre-vingts) to express 80, which makes sense because 4×20 equals to 80. To continue, 81 means 4×20+1 (quatre-vingt-un), and the pattern is unchanged until 99 (4×20+19, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf). Note that there is no additional ‘-s’ on vingt from 81 to 99. Besides, we do not have to add ‘et’ for 81 and 91.

80	quatre-vingts	4×20
81	quatre-vingt-un	4×20+1
82	quatre-vingt-deux	4×20+2
88	quatre-vingt-huit	4×20+8
90	quatre-vingt-dix	4×20+10
91	quatre-vingt-onze	4×20+11
97	quatre-vingt-dix-sept	4×20+17
99	quatre-vingt-dix-neuf	4×20+19

 

100-999

So far, so good! ‘cent’ is used to count 100. Hundreds go with deux cents (200), trois cents (300), quatre cents (400), and so on. Note that there is an additional ‘-s’ behind the ‘cent’.

100	cent	100
200	deux cents	2×100
300	trois cents	3×100
400	quatre cents	4×100
500	cinq cents	5×100
600	six cents	6×100
700	sept cents	7×100
800	huit cents	8×100
900	neuf cents	9×100

 

Starting from 101 to 999, all you have to do is to put the hundreds – cent (100), deux cent (200), trois cent (300) and so on ­– before the last two digits of 1-99. For this time, omit the ‘-s’ behind cent.

101	cent un	100+1
102	cent deux	100+2
111	cent onze	100+11
173	cent soixante-treize	100+73
207	deux cent sept	2×100+7
218	deux cent dix-huit	2×100+18
503	cinq cent trois	5×100+3
777	sept cent soixante-dix-sept	7×100+60+17
999	neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf	9×100+4×20+19

 

1000-10¹⁰⁰

For 1000 and above, use these following at the beginning. The rest of the digits are followed by using the pattern we learned above.

1000	mille	1000
2000	deux mille	2×1000
3000	trois mille	3×1000
6363	six mille trois cent soixante trois	6×1000+3×100+60+3
10 000	dix mille	10×1000
20 000	vinght mille	20×1000
30 000	trente mille	30×1000
40 000	quarante mille	40×1000
50 000	cinquante mille	50×1000
60 000	soixante mille	60×1000
70 000	soixante-dix mille	(60+10) ×1000
80 000	quatre-vingts mille	4×20×1000
90 000	quatre-vingt-dix mille	(4×20+10)×1000
100 000	cent mille	100×1000
200 000	deux cents mille	2×100×1000
300 000	trois cents mille	3×100×1000
1 000 000	un million	1 000 000
2 000 000	deux millions	2×1 000 000
3 000 000	trois millions	3×1 000 000
1 000 000 000 (109)	un milliard	109
2 000 000 000 (2×109)	deux milliards	2×109
1 000 000 000 000 (1012)	un billion	1012
1015	un billiard	1015
1018	un trillion	1018
10100	un gogol	10100

Note that there are no additional ‘-s’ for mille.

 

For the pronunciations, check it out on LingoCards!