If you’ve ever seen any romantic movie about Paris,the city of love, I’m sure you were impressed by French, the language of love , one of the oldest languages that we speak nowadays. So did you ever think about learning French ? The vocabulary, the numbers in French, are all easy to learn.
Learning a new language is always a good idea. It helps communicate better, express yourself clearer and offers a lot more opportunities for you to discover new cultures. Learning new words can be fun and even funny sometimes. Discovering new sounds and letters can be very challenging and confusing, yet very enjoyable.
We also need to learn numbers in French if we want to communicate effectively. Can you imagine being in a souvenir shop while you travel, buying beautiful things to remember this beautiful place, you ask about the price, and they give you the number, you get confused for exemple : « 199 Euro : cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf » and suddenly you get all confused and don’t know how much to pay.
Or you could be in the hotel and forget your number,because you got confused by french numbers .
We need it when we are networking as well, to read phone numbers and be able to exchange with others.
So as you can see, understanding numbers is as important as letters and words.
We know that mixing letters and numbers makes things even more difficult and french numbers might appear confusing at first.but don’t worry about it ! In this article we’re going to teach you all about French numbers, no more confusions !
We will explain the magic of numbers and give you the tools that you need to talk about numbers with confidence around other people.
First, let’s start with the easiest numbers , from 1 to 16:
| Numbers | English | French |
| 1 | one | un |
| 2 | Two | Deux |
| 3 | Three | Trois |
| 4 | Four | Quatre |
| 5 | Five | Cinque |
| 6 | Six | Six |
| 7 | Seven | Sept |
| 8 | Eight | Huit |
| 9 | Nine | Neuf |
| 10 | ten | dix |
| 11 | Eleven | Onze |
| 12 | Twelve | Douze |
| 13 | Thirteen | Treize |
| 14 | Fourteen | Quatorze |
| 15 | Fifteen | Quinze |
| 16 | Sixteen | Seize |
The previous numbers are made of just one word, which makes them relatively easy to remember.
For the next 3 numbers, the word in french is composed of two numbers, for example 17 is actually 10+7, so we say dix-sept, which literally means ten-seven.
| Numbers | English | French |
| 17 | Seventeen | Dix-sept |
| 18 | Eighteen | Dix-huit |
| 19 | Nineteen | dix-neuf |
Numbers can also be used to express dates and year, let us learn about decades in French :
| Numbers | English | French |
| 10 | Ten | Dix |
| 20 | Twenty | Vingt |
| 30 | Thirty | Trente |
| 40 | Fourty | Quarante |
| 50 | fifty | Cinquante |
| 60 | sixty | Soixante |
| 70 | Seventy | Soixante-dix |
| 80 | Eighty | Quatre-vingts |
| 90 | Ninety | Quatre-vingt-dix |
Just like we saw before, some numbers in french are sort of a math operation, for example « Soixante-dix » means sixty-ten which is 70 , Quatre-vingts means four twenties and quatre-vingt-dix means four twenties and a ten.
And now you can never forget these numbers, because you know their meanings, right ? So let’s move to the next level of numbers.
So if you want to make a number, you have all the tools to do it.
Let’s say someone wants to ask you « How old are you ? » so in French, we say « Quel âge as-tu ? »
The answer is : I am 28 ( twenty-eight) years old : J’ai vingt-huit ans.
But what if they ask you about your date of birth or what year were you born ?
Don’t worry we’ve got the solution ! First, let’s start with the basics :
| Numbers | English | French |
| 100 | One hundred | Cent |
| 1000 | One thousand | Mille |
| 10000 | Ten thousand | Dix-mille |
| 100000 | One hundred thousand | Cent-mille |
| 1000000 | One million | Un million |
Then let’s try to combine some numbers !
When someone asks about a year, the number gets confusing, so the key is to divide it in your head to avoid confusion
Example : 1945
1000 : mille (one thousand)
900 : neuf cent (nine hundred)
40 : quarante (fourty)
5 : cinq (five)
Now the easy part : use all the words to say the number correctly :
1945 : mille neuf cent quarante cinq (one thousand, nine hundred, fourty, five)
2019 : deux mille dix-neuf ( two thousand nineteen)
Learning numbers is not just useful when you travel, it can also be very helpful for your professional life.
Whether you are an accountant or historian, you need to be comfortable around words in order to be good in your job .
Numbers are universal, yet their « names » differ from one language to another, so we need to make sure we use the correct name when we speak a different language, onee zero can change everything !
Example :
Cent : 100
Mille : 1000
Now can you imagine if an accountant got confused and wrote an extra 0 ? He would have a big problem ! But there is no need to imagine bad things, after explaing numbers to you in this article, you can now use numbers in French in any situation.
Before we finish, let’s see more examples to practice :
| Numbers | English | French |
| 36 | Thirty six | Trente six |
| 42 | Forty two | Quarante deux |
| 53 | Fifty three | Cinquante trois |
| 68 | Sixty eight | Soixante huit |
| 79 | Seventy nine | Soixante dix-neuf |
| 81 | Eighty one | Quatre vingt et un |
| 97 | Ninety seven | Quatre vingt dix-sept |
And there you have it, the rules of french numbers and no more confusion.
You can practice by yourself as well, using flashcards for example to remember the numbers, or you can make a song , play with it like you want until you become an expert, and you no longer have to worry about getting the wrong number when speaking .
However, if you are still confused, you can register at Albert learning and learn French online with our trainers.
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