How to count in French
Enter a number and get it written in full in French.
Language overview
French (français) is an indo-european language belonging to the romance group. Official language in 29 countries, including France, Belgium (with Dutch and German), Switzerland (with German, Italian and Romansh) and Canada (with English), it is spoken by about 80 million native speakers.
French numbering rules
- Digits and numbers from zero to sixteen are specific words, namely zéro [0], un (une in its feminine form) [1], deux [2], trois [3], quatre [4], cinq [5], six [6], sept [7], huit [8], neuf [9], dix [10], onze [11], douze [12], treize [13], quatorze [14], quinze [15], seize [16]. Seventeen to nineteen are regular numbers, i.e. named after the word for ten followed by a hyphen and the unit (dix-sept [10+7], dix-huit [10+8], dix-neuf [10+9].
- The tens are specific words too from ten to sixty, namely dix [10], vingt [20], trente [30], quarante [40], cinquante [50] and soixante [60].
- From sixty-one to ninety-nine, the base 20 is used (this vigesimal system seems to be an inheritance from Celtic languages), hence soixante-dix [60+10], soixante-dix-neuf [60+10+9], quatre-vingts [4*20], quatre-vingt-dix [4*20+10].
- Tens and units are joined with a hyphen (e.g.: quarante-six [46]), unless the unit is a one. In that case, the word et (and) is inserted between tens and units (e.g.: quarante et un [41]).
- Vingt (twenty) and cent (hundred) are set to the plural form when multiplied by a number greater than one while ending the number (e.g.: mille deux cents [1,200], but deux cent quarante-six [246]), or when they are directly before the big scale names as million, milliard (billion, 109)… (e.g.: six cents millions [600,000,000]).
- French language uses the long scale for big numbers where every new word greater than a million is one million times bigger than the previous term. Thus, un milliard is 109 (the US billion), and un billion (1012) worths a thousand US billions.
Books
Schaum’s Outline of French Grammar, 5ed
by Mary Crocker, editors McGraw-Hill (2008)
[
Amazon.com]
A Comprehensive French Grammar
by Glanville Price, editors Wiley-Blackwell (2007)
[
Amazon.com]
French Grammar: A Complete Reference Guide
by Daniel Calvez, editors McGraw-Hill (2004)
[
Amazon.com]

Le petit Grevisse
by Maurice Grevisse, editors Duculot Louvain (2009)
[
Fnac.com,
Amazon.com]

Nouvelle grammaire française
by Maurice Grevisse, André Goosse, editors Duculot Louvain (1994)
[
Fnac.com,
Amazon.com]
Numbers list
| 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 – dix-sept 18 – dix-huit | 19 – dix-neuf 20 – vingt 30 – trente 40 – quarante 50 – cinquante 60 – soixante 70 – soixante-dix 80 – quatre-vingts 90 – quatre-vingt-dix | 100 – cent 1,000 – mille one million – un million one billion – un milliard one trillion – un billion |
Romance languages
Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, Eonavian, French, French (Belgium), French (Switzerland), Friulian, Galician, Italian, Ladin, Latin, Lombard (Milanese), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romansh, Sardinian, Spanish, Spanish (Puerto Rico), and Venetian.
Other supported languages
Supported languages by families
As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the following select box, or from the full list of supported languages.