Learn French Numbers: Count From 1 To 100 And Beyond

You’re in Paris and want to order 53 baguettes when suddenly you realize you don’t know how to say “53.” What a horrible faux pas! You’ll have to order only trois, because that’s the only one of the French numbers you remember. Yes, that’s probably not something that’ll actually happen, but numbers do come up a lot in regular life. You’ll definitely want to learn the numbers up to at least a hundred before you make your trip to a French-speaking country.

Having a few French numbers at your fingertips (at least the French numbers 1-20) is a quick and easy start on your French grammar journey. Then, when you learn to count in French from 1 to 100, you’re ready to swap telephone numbers with friends or know how much you’re spending on holiday souvenirs. As with many French grammar rules, the French numbers 1 – 100 can appear a little tricky. Some even involve some math! But, with a little perseverance and the support of Babbel’s French grammar online you’ll soon be confidently using the French numbers.

We could just list all of the French numbers 1 to 100, but that wouldn’t explain the logic behind it. So instead, we’ll start with the French numbers from 1 to 20, and then show you how to put the pieces together with the tens place. Then, we include a guide to the French ordinal numbers. Throughout, you can check out the French pronunciation of numbers with audio from native French speakers.

Learn To Count: French Numbers 1-20 (With Pronunciation)

Why count to twenty instead of ten? Well, like many languages, the teens in the French counting system work differently. In English, for example, “eleven” would technically make more sense if it was called “ten-one” to mirror “twenty-one.” With French numbers, a similar thing happens.

zero — zéro
one — un
two — deux
three — trois
four — quatre
five — cinq
six — six
seven — sept
eight — huit
nine — neuf
ten — dix
eleven — onze
twelve — douze
thirteen — treize
fourteen — quatorze
fifteen — quinze
sixteen — seize
seventeen — dix-sept
eighteen — dix-huit
nineteen — dix-neuf
twenty — vingt

The Rest Of The 10s Up To 100 In French

Once you get past twenty, there are more predictable rules. Check out this list of the tens places (with their French numbers pronunciation guide) and learn how to put it together further down.

thirty — trente
forty — quarante
fifty — cinquante
sixty — soixante
seventy — soixante-dix
eighty — quatre-vingt
ninety — quatre-vingt-dix
one hundred — cent

Putting Together French Numbers 1-100 And Beyond

French numbers can be a little tricky for English speakers. From 20 to 69, it progresses pretty normally. The number 32 is trente-deux, which is similar to the English fifty-seven. There is one exception before 69 which is that when there’s a “one,” or an un, you can attach it as et un or -et-un. Because of that, twenty-one is vingt et un or vingt-et-un.

Once you get into the 70s, it’s a little trickier. Seventy is soixante-dix, which literally translates as “sixty-ten.” Then it continues to soixante-onze “sixty-eleven” all the way up to 80. Then it transforms once again, because 80 is quatre-vingt, or “four-twenties.” Then it continues with quatre-vingt-un (81), quatre-vingt-deux (82) and on and on. Then 90 rounds it out as quatre-vingt-dix, or “four-twenty-ten.” Like the 70s, these quatre-vingts go through the teens like quatre-vingt-onze (“four-twenty-eleven”, or 71) until finally you reach 100, cent.

Once you reach 100, or cent, counting in the hundreds in French is quite straightforward. To say 200, 300, 400, and so on, simply put the number in front of cent: deux cents (200), trois cents (300), quatre cents (400), etc. Notice that cent takes an “s” (becoming cents) when it’s a round hundred with nothing after it, but loses the “s” if followed by another number: deux cent un (201), trois cent cinquante (350). To form numbers in between, just continue as before: cent vingt-cinq (125), deux cent soixante-dix-huit (278). This pattern works all the way up to 999 (neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf).

When you get to 1,000, the word is mille, and the pattern remains simple. To say 2,000, 3,000, and so on, just put the number before mille: deux mille (2,000), trois mille (3,000), quatre mille (4,000), etc. Unlike cent, mille never takes an “s” in the plural. Combine as needed for bigger numbers: mille deux cent trente (1,230), quatre mille huit cent soixante-dix (4,870). With mille, you can keep building numbers all the way up until you’re ready for un million (1,000,000), un milliard (1,000,000,000) and so on!

This can sound like a lot of rules, but there’s method to the madness. It’ll take some getting used to — and you’ll probably need to practice how to pronounce them quite a bit — but soon French numbers will be as easy as un, deux, trois.

A List Of Basic French Ordinal Numbers