French numbers are not very difficult to learn: they follow a similar pattern to naming numbers in English. However, there are a few little quirks to French numbering that you should be aware of.
- 21, 31, 41, etc: numbers like these that end in 1 (excluding 81, probably because it’s so many words already) are said with an et-un at the end, not just un. All the other numbers are just like how we say them in English, such as vingt-trois (twenty-three) not “vingt-et-trois” (twenty-and-three).
- 70: Poor seventy doesn’t get its own word in traditional French (though other French-speaking nations use the word “septante“); instead, it’s called, literally, sixty-ten. From 71–79, the numbers follow this same pattern: soixante-onze for 71, soixante-douze for 72, etc.
- 80–99: Again, the numbers 80 and 90 both don’t get their own words in French. 80, quatre-vingts, is literally “four-twenties” and 90, quatre-vingt-dix, is “four-twenties-ten.” (Other French-speaking nations may use “huitante” for 80 and “nonante” for 90.)
- Be careful with the numbers for “billion” and “trillion” in French. For American English, where one billion is 1,000,000,000 and one trillion is 1,000,000,000,000, these need to be thought of in reverse: one “billion” is un milliard, and one “trillion” is un billion. (In UK English this is switched around, so the French words make sense if you speak British English.)
| 0 | zéro | 22 | vingt-deux |
| 1 | un | 23 | vingt-trois |
| 2 | deux | 24 | vingt-quatre |
| 3 | trois | 25 | vingt-cinq |
| 4 | quatre | 26 | vingt-six |
| 5 | cinq | 27 | vingt-sept |
| 6 | six | 28 | vingt-huit |
| 7 | sept | 29 | vingt-neuf |
| 8 | huit | 30 | trente |
| 9 | neuf | 40 | quarante |
| 10 | dix | 50 | cinquante |
| 11 | onze | 60 | soixante |
| 12 | douze | 70 | soixante-dix |
| 13 | treize | 80 | quatre-vingts |
| 14 | quatorze | 90 | quatre-vingt-dix |
| 15 | quinze | 95 | quatre-vingt-quinze |
| 16 | seize | 100 | cent |
| 17 | dix-sept | 200 | deux cents |
| 18 | dix-huit | 1 000 | mille |
| 19 | dix-neuf | 1 000 000 | un million |
| 20 | vingt | 1 000 000 000 | un milliard |
| 21 | vingt et un | 1 000 000 000 000 | un billion |
Next Steps
Once you’ve got the basic numbers down, there’s quite a bit more to explore: ordinal numbers, fractions, and how to talk about math operations in French all have their own vocabulary and structures. Our more in-depth post on French numbers and math vocabulary covers all of that. Numbers also come up constantly when discussing dates and time, so our lesson on talking about time in French is a natural next step. If you want to drill numbers through daily practice rather than passive review, Mondly‘s short daily sessions include number-based exercises that build recall speed — useful for the 70s and 80s in particular, which take real repetition to make automatic.
