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In all languages, numbers are part of everyone’s daily life. If you learn French, you will definitely need counting in French. It is not that difficult to count in French but there are some tricky parts that I wanted to share with you! I will also give you the opportunity to practice the pronunciation with audios I have made specially for this article, so continue reading 😉
Counting in French, why do you need it?
Dates and time
You definitely need to know how to say the date and time in your daily routine. If you need to make an appointment to the doctor or remember your best friend birthday, the date and time are crucial. If you misunderstand it, it is going to be a big issue, especially if it is for an interview as it will be seen as unprofessional.
We will see in another article about date and time in French. Before adding the structure, you need to know the numbers.
Shopping
You are in Paris and you want to buy your favourite pâtisserie! You can ask for the price, but the most important is to understand it. Imagine one morning you want to eat croissants for your breakfast, you go to your local bakery (“boulangerie” in French) and you want to ask for one or two croissants, what do you do if you do not know numbers?
The age
What if when meeting people, you are asked your age? or you want to ask their age? It might be a bit embarrassing if you do not understand correctly… So, it is clear that knowing how to count in French is crucial!
Traveling
When traveling you encounter a lot of numbers everywhere. First, at the airport, with the gate number and your seat number in the plane! When you visit places, you have the address where you have numbers or even the address of your accommodation. If you book for a restaurant, you need to know the time, which is numbers. Of course, in the metro in Paris the different lines are numbers. So yes, when you travel or on holiday you are surrounded by numbers!
Counting in French
From 0 to 19
It is really important you learn perfectly these first numbers because you will need to use them again above 20. You have an audio that you can listen while reading them to learn the pronunciation.
| Numbers | Numbers | ||
| 0 | zéro | 10 | dix |
| 1 | un | 11 | onze |
| 2 | deux | 12 | douze |
| 3 | trois | 13 | treize |
| 4 | quatre | 14 | quatorze |
| 5 | cinq | 15 | quinze |
| 6 | six | 16 | seize |
| 7 | sept | 17 | dix-sept |
| 8 | huit | 18 | dix-huit |
| 9 | neuf | 19 | dix-neuf |
From 20 to 99
From 20, it will get slightly more difficult because you will need to learn how to say 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90.
For 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, you will add “et un” whereas from 22, 32, 42, 52, 62 “et” will be replaced by an hyphen.
70 and 90 are trickier:
- 70 is 60 + 10= soixante–dix
- 90 is 80 + 10= quatre-vingt–dix
| Numbers | Numbers | ||
| 20 | vingt | 60 | soixante |
| 30 | trente | 70 | soixante-dix |
| 40 | quarante | 80 | quatre-vingts |
| 50 | cinquante | 90 | quatre-vingt-dix |
| Numbers | Numbers | ||
| 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 |
Counting from 100 in French
From 100 it is pretty easy because you use what we just learnt!
| Numbers | Numbers | ||
| 100/200 | cent/deux cents | 100.000/200.000 | cent mille/deux cent mille |
| 1.000/2.000 | mille/deux mille | 1.000.000/2.000.000 | un million/deux millions |
| 10.000/20.000 | dix mille/vingt mille |
Ordinal numbers in French
If you become first in a sport competition, how would you said it?
| English | French | English | French |
| First | Premier | 11th | Onzième |
| Second | Deuxième | 12th | Douzième |
| Third | Troisième | 13th | Treizième |
| Fourth | Quatrième | 14th | Quatorzième |
| Fifth | Cinquième | 15th | Quinzième |
| Sixth | Sixième | 16th | Seizième |
| Seventh | Septième | 17th | Dix-septième |
| Eighth | Huitième | 18th | Dix-huitième |
| Ninth | Neuvième | 19th | Dix-neuvième |
| 10th | Dixième | 20th | Vingtième |
Tell me in the comments how you would write in French 174? Feel free to share this article!
A bientôt!
This is a nice website I ever seen. 174 is written as Cent et-soixante-dix et-quatre. I just attempted writing numbers for the first time.
Bonjour Henri! Thank you for your lovely feedback. Let’s split that number:
-First we have 3 values so we know it is one hundred so as you said “cent” is perfect.
-Then we have “74” but let’s start with “70” which is “60+10″= soixante-dix!
-And then to go further to 70 you continue with “eleven, twelve, thirteen….”
-so for “74” it is “soixante-quatorze”
-“174” is “cent soixante-quatorze”
I hope it is clear, let me know if you have anymore questions 🙂