French Numbers: Complete List and Examples

French numbers appear in basic conversations all the time: saying your age, asking for a price, giving a phone number, or reading an address. Start with the most common numbers, then learn how they combine into longer numbers.

Zero to ten

These are the numbers you will use first in everyday situations.

• Zéro – Zero
• Un – One
• Deux – Two
• Trois – Three
• Quatre – Four
• Cinq – Five
• Six – Six
• Sept – Seven
• Huit – Eight
• Neuf – Nine
• Dix – Ten

Examples:

• J’ai besoin d’un café, s’il vous plaît. (I need one coffee, please.)
• Nous avons huit minutes avant le cours. (We have eight minutes before class.)

Eleven to twenty

From eleven to twenty, several forms change a lot, so it is best to learn them as a group.

• Onze – Eleven
• Douze – Twelve
• Treize – Thirteen
• Quatorze – Fourteen
• Quinze – Fifteen
• Seize – Sixteen
• Dix-sept – Seventeen
• Dix-huit – Eighteen
• Dix-neuf – Nineteen
• Vingt – Twenty

Examples:

• Ma sœur a douze ans. (My sister is twelve years old.)
• Il y a dix-huit personnes dans le groupe. (There are eighteen people in the group.)

Tens and large numbers

These words help you talk about prices, years, pages, addresses, and quantities. For bigger numbers, combine mille, million, and milliard with other numbers.

• Trente – Thirty
• Quarante – Forty
• Cinquante – Fifty
• Soixante – Sixty
• Soixante-dix – Seventy
• Quatre-vingts – Eighty
• Quatre-vingt-dix – Ninety
• Cent – Hundred
• Deux cents – Two hundred
• Cinq cents – Five hundred
• Mille – Thousand
• Deux mille – Two thousand
• Cinq mille – Five thousand
• Dix mille – Ten thousand
• Cent mille – One hundred thousand
• Un million – One million
• Un milliard – One billion

Examples:

• La veste coûte cinquante dollars. (The jacket costs fifty dollars.)
• La limite de vitesse est de soixante-dix miles par heure. (The speed limit is seventy miles per hour.)
• La ville a dix mille habitants. (The city has ten thousand people.)

How to build longer numbers

To build longer numbers in French, think in blocks. Say the hundred or thousand first, then add the tens and ones.

From 21 to 99, French uses a few patterns. For 21, 31, 41, 51, and 61, use et un. Many other numbers use hyphens.

• Vingt et un – Twenty-one
• Trente-cinq – Thirty-five
• Quarante-huit – Forty-eight
• Soixante-douze – Seventy-two
• Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf – Ninety-nine

With cent, say the hundreds first and then the rest of the number.

• Cent – One hundred
• Cent deux – One hundred two
• Deux cent quinze – Two hundred fifteen
• Trois cent cinquante – Three hundred fifty

With mille, say the thousands first and then the rest of the number.

• Mille – One thousand
• Mille trois cents – One thousand three hundred
• Deux mille quarante-huit – Two thousand forty-eight
• Cinq mille six cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf – Five thousand six hundred ninety-nine

Note: Quatre-vingts has an s when it means exactly 80. It loses the s when another number follows: quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-dix.

Examples:

• Mon numéro de casier est vingt et un. (My locker number is twenty-one.)
• La recette demande trente-cinq grammes de sucre. (The recipe needs thirty-five grams of sugar.)
• Le colis pèse cent deux livres. (The package weighs one hundred two pounds.)
• Le numéro du billet est deux mille quarante-huit. (The ticket number is two thousand forty-eight.)

Numbers in real situations

You do not always say numbers alone. They often go with a word that tells you what you are counting: an age, a price, an amount, a room, or a bus.

• Numéro de téléphone – Phone number
• Âge – Age
• Prix – Price
• Numéro de chambre – Room number
• Numéro de bus – Bus number
• Numéro de page – Page number
• Année – Year
• Heure – Time

Examples:

• J’ai vingt ans. (I am twenty years old.)
• Ça coûte cinq dollars. (It costs five dollars.)
• J’ai besoin de deux pommes. (I need two apples.)
• La chambre huit est à gauche. (Room eight is on the left.)

Common mistakes

Confusing seize and soixante

Seize means sixteen, but soixante means sixty. The difference matters in ages, times, and quantities.

• Seize – Sixteen
• Soixante – Sixty

Forgetting et in vingt et un

For 21, French uses et: vingt et un. Do not say vingt-un for this number.

• Vingt et un – Twenty-one
• Trente et un – Thirty-one

Using the s in quatre-vingts incorrectly

Exactly 80 is quatre-vingts. If you add another number, the s disappears.

• Quatre-vingts – Eighty
• Quatre-vingt-un – Eighty-one

When you learn a new number, use it with something concrete: an age, a time, a price, or a page. That way, you learn both the word and the real context where it appears.