What Are Some of the Larger Numbers in French?
In this lesson we learn expressions for telling the time.
Watch the video as many times as you need, until you feel you can give the French translations as we go!
Now we can see what we’ve learned. Look at the English and see if you can provide the French for these words:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Notes on Usage
What Are the Numbers From 61 to 69 in French?
Here are all the numbers from sixty to sixty-nine:
| sixty-one | soixante-et-un |
| sixty-two | soixante-deux |
| sixty-three | soixante-trois |
| sixty-four | soixante-quatre |
| sixty-five | soixante-cinq |
| sixty-six | soixante-six |
| sixty-seven | soixante-sept |
| sixty-eight | soixante-huit |
| sixty-nine | soixante-neuf |
What Are the Numbers From 70 to 79 in French?
From seventy onwards, counting in French becomes a bit more interesting. Traditionally, the number would have been septante and then the subsequent numbers would have been formed in the same way as the previous examples that we have just seen – and, indeed, you may hear such numbers using septante in Belgium or French-speaking Switzerland.
However, in France, it became customary from around the eighteenth century onwards to refer to seventy as soixante-dix – ‘sixty-ten!’
After that, we have ‘sixty-eleven,’ ‘sixty-twelve’ and so on. Note that you still need the linking word et for seventy-one, as highlighted in the table below.
| seventy | soixante-dix |
| seventy-one | soixante-et-onze |
| seventy-two | soixante-douze |
| seventy-three | soixante-treize |
| seventy-four | soixante-quatorze |
| seventy-five | soixante-quinze |
| seventy-six | soixante-seize |
| seventy-seven | soixante-dix-sept |
| seventy-eight | soixante-dix-huit |
| seventy-nine | soixante-dix-neuf |
What Are the Numbers From 80 to 89 in French?
When we reach eighty, we use the base quatre-vingt to continue counting. This is the equivalent of ‘four twenties.’ Historically, counting in batches of twenty was common – this used to be referred to as a ‘score’ in English and you may be familiar with the archaic English phrase ‘four-score.’
There are a couple of pitfalls to avoid in the numbers from 80 to 89 in French. For example, note that 80 adds an ‘-s’ to the end to make quatre-vingts, but the numbers after that do not, they revert back to quatre-vingt.
Also, there is no linking word et for eighty-one.
The numbers from 80 to 89 therefore run as follows, with the aspects to watch out for highlighted:
| eighty | quatre-vingts |
| eighty-one | quatre-vingt-un |
| eighty-two | quatre-vingt-deux |
| eighty-three | quatre-vingt-trois |
| eighty-four | quatre-vingt-quatre |
| eighty-five | quatre-vingt-cinq |
| eighty-six | quatre-vingt-six |
| eighty-seven | quatre-vingt-sept |
| eighty-eight | quatre-vingt-huit |
| eighty-nine | quatre-vingt-neuf |
What Are the Numbers From 90 to 99 in French?
Just as we saw for the numbers in the seventies, all based off of sixty, similarly the numbers from 90 to 99 use the base for eighty and then add ten, eleven, twelve and so on. So ninety is literally ‘four-twenties-ten,’ ninety-one is ‘four-twenties-eleven’ and so on, up to to ninety-nine.
Note that the linking word et is not used for ninety-one.
Again, you may occasionally hear an alternative word, in this case nonante, used in French-speaking areas outside France.
| ninety | quatre-vingt-dix |
| ninety-one | quatre-vingt-onze |
| ninety-two | quatre-vingt-douze |
| ninety-three | quatre-vingt-treize |
| ninety-four | quatre-vingt-quatorze |
| ninety-five | quatre-vingt-quinze |
| ninety-six | quatre-vingt-seize |
| ninety-seven | quatre-vingt-dix-sept |
| ninety-eight | quatre-vingt-dix-huit |
| ninety-nine | quatre-vingt-dix-neuf |
How To Count in the Hundreds in French
In English, we say ‘one hundred,’ followed by ‘one hundred and one,’ and so on. You do not need to say ‘one’ or ‘and’ in the French equivalents. One hundred is simply cent and one hundred and one is cent un.
| one hundred | cent |
| one hundred and one | cent un |
| one hundred and two | cent deux |
| one hundred and fifty | cent cinquante |
| one hundred and fifty one | cent cinquante-et-un |
| two hundred | deux cents |
| two hundred and one | deux cent un |
| two hundred and fifty | deux cent cinquante |
| two hundred and fifty-one | deux cent cinquante-et-un |
| five hundred | cinq cents |
How To Count in the Thousands and Millions in French
The French for ‘one thousand’ or ‘a thousand’ is simply mille. It is invariable, so it never changes its form.
‘One million,’ on the other hand, must be preceded with un and followed by de. It will take an ‘-s’ in the plural, as highlighted:
| one thousand | mille |
| one thousand and one | mille un |
| one thousand and two | mille deux |
| one thousand one hundred and fifty | mille cent cinquante |
| one thousand one hundred and fifty one | mille cent cinquante-et-un |
| two thousand | deux mille |
| ten thousand | dix mille |
| one hundred thousand | cent mille |
| one million people | un million de gens |
| two million people | deux millions de gens |
The best way to learn the conventions for writing numbers in French is to practise recognizing them and writing them as much as possible. Try our quizzes to help commit the numbers and rules governing their spellings to memory.
