Un, deux… onze…? soixante-dix? quatre-vingt-dix-sept?! Counting in French can get confusing, but don’t worry, we’ve got you! Learn all the French numbers from 1 to 100, and beyond.

You tackled basic French words and you thought you were ready for French numbers. Come on, how hard can it be if “zero” is still zéro in French and the only difference is a small accent? Alas, “un, deux, trois” could only take you that far.

A week of study later: “Sept baguettes, s’il vous plait.”

You have now mastered the French numbers from one to ten and are now feeling confident as the boulanger hands you the baguettes that you politely requested. You didn’t even need that many, but you wanted to show off you could count up to seven. You meet up with some new friends and someone asks your age.

You clumsily answer “dix“, because that’s the biggest number you know of in French, and you suddenly realize the importance of numbers and wish you had paid more attention in French class, and possibly even in math class.

Don’t be fooled: French follows typical counting rules until you reach 70, where things get complicated and stay complicated until you make it to 100. This isn’t an analogy about getting old.

There’s no need to worry: with time and practice counting will soon become second nature.

Read on for the rules, tips and a cheat sheet for counting in French.

French Numbers 1-10

Let’s start with the numbers 1-10, which are relatively simple and used as building blocks for later on down the counting road.

1. one: un 
2. two: deux 
3. three: trois
4. four: quatre
5. five: cinq
6. six: six
7. seven: sept
8. eight: huit
9. nine: neuf 
10. ten: dix

Oh, and in case you missed it in the introduction, zero is zéro.

Easy as one, two, three!

Quick tip: un or une?

If you have ever listened to people chatting in French, you might have noticed that there are two words for “a/an”, as well as for “one”: un and une. These two different forms correspond to the two different genders for French nouns.

Un is masculine and une is feminine. The rule is quite simple: if the object is masculine, you use un and if it’s feminine, you use une. Figuring out what’s masculine and feminine is mostly impossible – you’ll have to memorize those by heart.

For example, one dog is un chien and one table is une table. When entering a restaurant, it is common to say une table pour deux, s’il vous plait to ask for a table for two.

French Numbers 11-20

Now onto the numbers 11-20, which are slightly irregular but can easily be memorized with a little effort.

• 11: onze
• 12: douze
• 13: treize
• 14: quatorze
• 15: quinze
• 16: seize
• 17: dix-sept
• 18: dix-huit
• 19: dix-neuf
• 20: vingt

French Numbers 1-100

French numbers are relatively regular from 20 to 69, as you can see in the chart below. It’s important to take note that in French number spelling, as of 1990, any number made up of two or more words requires dashes or hyphens. Also, only add et to the number one. For all the rest of the numbers until ten, you simply add the number and a hyphen.

For example: vingt-et-un is always spelled with hyphens.  

Once you hit seventy, French numbers take a wild turn. In French, the number seventy is soixante-dix, or “sixty ten” in English. As you count to eighty, you continue to add using the teens:  soixante-douze or “sixty twelve”, soixante-treize or “sixty thirteen”, etc. 

Perhaps worse, the irregular trend continues and eighty is literally translated as “four twenty”. Unlike seventy, as you count to ninety, you add numbers one to ten. So eighty-two, quatre-vingt-deux, is translated as “four twenty-two”. Following this trend means that ninety, quatre-vingt-dix, is translated as “four twenty ten”.

From 90 to 100, ninety-one, for example, is quatre-vingt-onze, or “four twenty eleven”. 

Confused? Don’t worry: we made a nice table for you!

#	French	English
1	un	one
2	deux	two
3	trois	three
4	quatre	four
5	cinq	five
6	six	six
7	sept	seven
8	huit	eight
9	neuf	nine
10	dix	ten
11	onze	eleven
12	douze	twelve
13	treize	thirteen
14	quatorze	fourteen
15	quinze	fifteen
16	seize	sixteen
17	dix-sept	seventeen
18	dix-huit	eighteen
19	dix-neuf	nineteen
20	vingt	twenty
21	vingt-et-un	twenty-one
22	vingt-deux	twenty-two
23	vingt-trois	twenty-three
24	vingt-quatre	twenty-four
25	vingt-cinq	twenty-five
26	vingt-six	twenty-six
27	vingt-sept	twenty-seven
28	vingt-huit	twenty-eight
29	vingt-neuf	twenty-nine
30	trente	thirty
31	trente-et-un	thirty-one
32	trente-deux	thirty-two
33	trente-trois	thirty-three
34	trente-quatre	thirty-four
35	trente-cinq	thirty-five
36	trente-six	thirty-six
37	trente-sept	thirty-seven
38	trente-huit	thirty-eight
39	trente-neuf	thirty-nine
40	quarante	forty
41	quarante-et-un	forty-one
42	quarante-deux	forty-two
43	quarante-trois	forty-three
44	quarante-quatre	forty-four
45	quarante-cinq	forty-five
46	quarante-six	forty-six
47	quarante-sept	forty-seven
48	quarante-huit	forty-eight
49	quarante-neuf	forty-nine
50	cinquante	fifty
51	cinquante-et-un	fifty-one
52	cinquante-deux	fifty-two
53	cinquante-trois	fifty-three
54	cinquante-quatre	fifty-four
55	cinquante-cinq	fifty-five
56	cinquante-six	fifty-six
57	cinquante-sept	fifty-seven
58	cinquante-huit	fifty-eight
59	cinquante-neuf	fifty-nine
60	soixante	sixty
61	soixante-et-un	sixty-one
62	soixante-deux	sixty-two
63	soixante-trois	sixty-three
64	soixante-quatre	sixty-four
65	soixante-cinq	sixty-five
66	soixante-six	sixty-six
67	soixante-sept	sixty-seven
68	soixante-huit	sixty-eight
69	soixante-neuf	sixty-nine
70	soixante-dix	seventy
71	soixante-et-onze	seventy-one
72	soixante-douze	seventy-two
73	soixante-treize	seventy-three
74	soixante-quatorze	seventy-four
75	soixante-quinze	seventy-five
76	soixante-seize	seventy-six
77	soixante-dix-sept	seventy-seven
78	soixante-dix-huit	seventy-eight
79	soixante-dix-neuf	seventy-nine
80	quatre-vingts	eighty
81	quatre-vingt-un	eighty-one
82	quatre-vingt-deux	eighty-two
83	quatre-vingt-trois	eighty-three
84	quatre-vingt-quatre	eighty-four
85	quatre-vingt-cinq	eighty-five
86	quatre-vingt-six	eighty-six
87	quatre-vingt-sept	eighty-seven
88	quatre-vingt-huit	eighty-eight
89	quatre-vingt-neuf	eighty-nine
90	quatre-vingt-dix	ninety
91	quatre-vingt-onze	ninety-one
92	quatre-vingt-douze	ninety-two
93	quatre-vingt-treize	ninety-three
94	quatre-vingt-quatorze	ninety-four
95	quatre-vingt-quinze	ninety-five
96	quatre-vingt-seize	ninety-six
97	quatre-vingt-dix-sept	ninety-seven
98	quatre-vingt-dix-huit	ninety-eight
99	quatre-vingt-dix-neuf	ninety-nine
100	cent	one hundred

Now you know your numbers up to 60 (and beyond!), you can tell the time. We know you’re wearing a watch.

80: quatre-vingt or quatre-vingts?

To make things more difficult, they are both correct in their own context.

• 80 on its own is spelled quatre-vingts.
• 81, 82… to 99 is always spelled quatre-vingt-…
• 80 when followed by any other word is spelled quatre-vingts.
  • 180 000 : cent quatre-vingts mille
  • 80 000 000 : quatre-vingts millions
• It is only spelled quatre-vingt when used as a substitute to an ordinal number (80th):
  • Ouvrez votre livre à la page quatre-vingt. – Open your book at page eighty.
  • Le numéro quatre-vingt s’il vous plaît. – Number eighty, please.

70/80/90 in Switzerland and Belgium

In other French-speaking countries such as Switzerland and Belgium, an easier system is used:

#	French (France / Canada)	French (Switzerland / Belgium)
70	soixante-dix	septante
71	soixante-et-onze	septante-et-un
72	soixante-douze	septante-deux
80	quatre-vingts	octante (Belgium, Switzerland, Congo) huitante (some parts of Switzerland)
81	quatre-vingt-un	octante-et-un
84	quatre-vingt-quatre	octante-quatre
90	quatre-vingt-dix	nonante
91	quatre-vingt-onze	nonante-et-un
99	quatre-vingt-dix-neuf	nonante-neuf

In the region of Québec, Canada, they will use the same soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix. French speakers tend to understand each other whichever is used, it shouldn’t be a cause for concern!

3 tips to help you count French numbers

Over time, counting will become easier and more fluid with practice. Until then, here are three tips to help you learn faster.

1. Tip #1: Start by learning numbers 1-16, as they are the building blocks on which the other numbers are based. Since these numbers are irregular, the best thing to do is to make flashcards and memorize them.
2. Tip #2: Learn the multiples of ten: vingt, trente, quarante, cinquante and soixante. These are all regular numbers that only require memorization. 
3. Tip #3: Learn 70-100 by heart. Once they are committed to memory, they will begin to feel more natural. With time and a little memorization, you will soon master counting in French!

French ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers are used all the time in French and come in handy particularly when talking about which Parisian arrondissement (district) you live in.

#	Ordinal (English)	Ordinal (French)
1	First	premier/première
2	Second	deuxième/second/seconde
3	Third	troisième
4	Fourth	quatrième
5	Fifth	cinquième
6	Sixth	sixième
7	Seventh	septième
8	Eighth	huitième
9	Ninth	neuvième
10	Tenth	dixième
11	Eleventh	onzième
12	Twelfth	douzième
13	Thirteenth	treizième
14	Fourteenth	quatorzième
15	Fifteenth	quinzième
16	Sixteenth	seizième
17	Seventeenth	dix-septième
18	Eighteenth	dix-huitième
19	Nineteenth	dix-neuvième
20	Twentieth	vingtième
21	Twenty-first	vingt-et-unième
22	Twenty-second	vingt-deuxième (careful: no vingt-second!)
30	Thirtieth	trentième
70	Seventieth	soixante-dixième
91	Ninety-first	quatre-vingt-onzième
100	Hundredth	centième

French numbers to 1000

Thankfully, counting to 1000 is much easier than counting to 100!

Simply add the rest of the number to cent or the other hundreds. For example, 126 is cent vingt-six and 182 is cent quatre-vingt-deux. Simple, right?

To get to 1000, we just follow the same system with the roots of other hundreds.

• 200: deux cents
• 300: trois cents
• 400: quatre cents
• 500: cinq cents
• 600: six cents
• 700: sept cents
• 800: huit cents
• 900: neuf cents
• 1000: mille

The spelling is tricky: first, only numbers under 100 contain hyphens.

Second, you’ll notice cent ends with an “s”. The rule is that cent only keeps the “s” at the end when the number is a round hundred.

Examples:

• 100 – cent
• 118 – cent dix–huit
• 200 – deux cents
• 224 – deux cent vingt–quatre
• 900 – neuf cents
• 971 – neuf cent soixante–et–onze

French numbers to 1 billion or 1 trillion

Even if you aren’t counting to 1 trillion every day, if you ever want to, all you need to know are three new words: 

• Un million: 1,000,000 (a million)
• Un milliard: 1,000,000,000 (a billion)
• Un billion: 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion)

Be careful with milliard and billion. These are false friends and can easily trick you – beware!

Don’t forget that in French, a milliard means billion (not million) and a billion means trillion (not billion).

Make it count with Frantastique

How’s that? Easy as 1-2-3, right?

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