How to count in French

Enter a number and read it spelled out 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 [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 ten and the digit (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 (eg. quarante-six [46]), unless the unit is a one. In that case, the word et (and) is inserted between tens and units (eg. 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 (eg. 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)… (eg. 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

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

Other supported languages

Supported languages by families
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