French Numbers 1-100: Ultimate Guide to Counting in French (With Audio)

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A French teacher in her twenties, based in the South of France, where palm trees and beaches are part of her daily life.

French Numbers 1-100

French Numbers 1-10

First of all, let’s start with the basics. Counting from 1 to 10 in French is quite easy. The numbers are all independent. You just need to memorize them.

0 Zéro
1 Un
2 Deux
3 Trois
4 Quatre
5 Cinq
6 Six
7 Sept
8 Huit
9 Neuf
10 Dix

Numbers Song In French, Let’s hear how to read 1-10 in French!

French Numbers 11-20

11-onze 12-douze 13 – treize 14 – quatorze 15 – quinze

16 – seize 17 – dix-sept 18 – dix-huit 19 – dix-neuf 20 – vingt

When you are counting from 10 to 20 in French, you can now see two types of numbers: independent and composed numbers.

As you might have noticed, from 17 to 19 (dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf) we have the first glance of composed numbers: ten-seven, ten-eight and ten-nine.

Vingt is an independent number.

French Numbers: When to use the Hyphens –

Are you wondering if there’s an easy way to memorize the use of hyphens in numbers?

Well, it really depends on how obsessed you are with spelling French numbers out.

If you are not obsessed, the simple rule is to add hyphens between words in composed numbers. (This rule was mentioned in “Reforms of French Orthography“.)

French Numbers 20-69

Counting 20-69 is easy.

The rules:

- Firstly: 20/30/40/50/60 are independent numbers.
- Secondly: 21/31/41/51/61 share the same rule: “vingt/trente/quarante/cinquante/soixante” plus “et un”
- Everything else: “vingt/trente/quarante/cinquante/soixante” plus “-un/deux/trois/…/neuf”

20	vingt	30	trente	40	quarante	50	cinquante	60	soixante
21	vingt et un	31	trente et un	41	quarante et un	51	cinquante et un	61	soixante et un
22	vingt-deux	32	trente-deux	42	quarante-deux	52	cinquante-deux	62	soixante-deux
23	vingt-trois	33	trente-trois	43	quarante-trois	53	cinquante-trois	63	soixante-trois
24	vingt-quatre	34	trente-quatre	44	quarante-quatre	54	cinquante-quatre	64	soixante-quatre
25	vingt-cinq	35	trente-cinq	45	quarante-cinq	55	cinquante-cinq	65	soixante-cinq
26	vingt-six	36	trente-six	46	quarante-six	56	cinquante-six	66	soixante-six
27	vingt-sept	37	trente-sept	47	quarante-sept	57	cinquante-sept	67	soixante-sept
28	vingt-huit	38	trente-huit	48	quarante-huit	58	cinquante-huit	68	soixante-huit
29	vingt-neuf	39	trente-neuf	49	quarante-neuf	59	cinquante-neuf	69	soixante-neuf

How about 70?

Well, once you reach 70, the pattern changes. Let’s take a closer look in the next section.

French Numbers 70-80

Super easy addition based on “soixante (60)” is involved.

70	Soixante-dix	sixty-ten
71	Soixante-et-onze	sixty-and-eleven
72	Soixante-douze	sixty-twelve
73	Soixante-treize	sixty-thirteen
74	Soixante-quatorze	sixty-fourteen
75	Soixante-quinze	sixty-fifteen
76	Soixante-seize	sixty-sixteen
77	Soixante-dix-sept	sixty-ten-seven
78	Soixante-dix-huit	sixty-ten-eight
79	Soixante-dix-neuf	sixty-ten-nine
80	Quatre-vingts	four-twenties

French Numbers 81-100

Now, similar to counting from 61-79, counting from 81 to 99 in French is done by adding 1-19 to 80.

Numbers	FR	EN (literal)
80	Quatre-vingts	four-twenties
81	Quatre-vingt-un	four-twenty-one (no "et"!)
82	Quatre-vingt-deux	four-twenty-two
83	Quatre-vingt-trois	four-twenty-three
84	Quatre-vingt-quatre	four-twenty-four
85	Quatre-vingt-cinq	four-twenty-five
86	Quatre-vingt-six	four-twenty-six
87	Quatre-vingt-sept	four-twenty-seven
88	Quatre-vingt-huit	four-twenty-eight
89	Quatre-vingt-neuf	four-twenty-nine
90	Quatre-vingt-dix	four-twenty-ten
91	Quatre-vingt-onze	four-twenty-eleven
92	Quatre-vingt-douze	four-twenty-twelve
93	Quatre-vingt-treize	four-twenty-thirteen
94	Quatre-vingt-quatorze	four-twenty-fourteen
95	Quatre-vingt-quinze	four-twenty-fifteen
96	Quatre-vingt-seize	four-twenty-sixteen
97	Quatre-vingt-dix-sept	four-twenty-ten-seven
98	Quatre-vingt-dix-huit	four-twenty-ten-eight
99	Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf	four-twenty-ten-nine
100	Cent	one hundred

Notice that “quatre-vingt-un” does not add an extra “et” before “un”? Yep, it’s an exception.

Regarding the “s” at the end of “quatre-vingts”, it only applies when “quatre-vingts” is not followed by any other numeral: quatre-vingts for 80, quatre-vingt-trois for 83.

Now you have mastered top 100 French numbers. Let’s review it through the video: French Lesson 1-100

If you want to do more exercises with numbers-related expressions, or even other French expressions that will come in handy, check out the LingoDeer app (Android/iOS) for the free Travel Phrasebook course!

Fun Facts About Numbers in French

In French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland, people don’t say “soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix”.

They will instead follow the usual pattern as from 20 to 60 and use :

Septante for 70 instead of Soixante-dix.
Octante or Huitante for 80 instead of Quatre-vingts (only in Switzerland).
Nonante for 90 instead of Quatre-vingt-dix.

This would be more logical if you take a step back and look at how 40, 50 and 60 are written. But French will always be French and if there are no complications in the language… it’s not real French!

French Numbers: What happens After 100?

Afterwards, let’s move on to the hundreds. It’s very similar to the English way of counting hundreds. Take a look at this table:

Hundreds (centaines)	FR
100	Cent
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

If you would like to read composed numbers out loud, let me show you how to do it:

Let’s take 152 as an example: cent-cinquante-deux. There are no particular tricks here, just assembling the numbers together. Hundreds + tens and units.

Now let’s do the same thing with 368 : trois-cent-soixante-huit. Have you noticed something? Yes. The “s” of “trois-cents” has disappeared. This rule is the same as the “s” of “quatre-vingts“: if it’s above 100 and not followed by any other numeral, the “s” stays (deux-cents, trois-cents…).

Before you go ahead and read the next paragraph, try to train yourself and figure out how to spell these numbers now:

145 – 324 – 294 – 569 – 812 – 900

Answer:

Cent-quarante-cinq / Trois-cent-vingt-quatre / Deux-cent-quatre-vingt-quatorze / Cinq-cent-soixante-neuf / Huit-cent-douze / Neuf-cents.

French Numbers: Above Thousands

Thousands in French. Surprisingly, reading thousands in French is not the hardest part of the numbers chapter!

Thousands (milliers)	FR
1000	Mille
2000	Deux-mille
3000	Trois-mille
4000	Quatre-mille
5000	Cinq-mille
6000	Six-mille
7000	Sept-mille
8000	Huit-mille
9000	Neuf-mille
10 000	Dix-mille
100 000	Cent-mille
500 000	Cinq-cent-mille

In the case of thousands, “mille” stays the same, regardless if it’s followed by another numeral or none.

Above thousands come millions and billions:

million (EN) = million (FR)

billion (EN) = milliard (FR)

Reading Years in French

Reading years in French is simple, it only requires a little bit of training with numbers. The trick is to decompose the year into thousands + hundreds + tens and units:

1952 = mille-neuf-cent-cinquante-deux (1000 / 900 / 52)
1879 = mille-huit-cent-soixante-dix-neuf (1000 / 800 / 79)

Now, your turn! Train yourself how to read these numbers (or years) out loud:

2014 – 1789 – 1515 – 1981 – 1993 – 2003

Answers:

Deux-mille-quatorze / Mille-sept-cent-quatre-vingt-neuf / Mille-cinq-cent-quinze / Mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-un / Mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-treize / Deux-mille-trois.

Mathematics in French

Add, Subtract, Multiply and Divide in French

Reading mathematics is something that you might also have to master if you really want to know how to count in French. Here’s how you do it:

FR	EN	Example
Addition __ plus ___	Add	Un plus deux
Soustraction __ moins __	Subtract	Deux moins un
Multiplication __ fois __ __ multiplié par __	Multiply	Trois fois cinq Trois multiplié par cinq
Division __ divisé par __	Divide	Dix divisé par deux
Est égal à __	Equals	Un plus deux est égal à trois

Fractions in French

How do you read fractions in French? This first table will show you how to read some fixed expressions:

Usual Fractions	FR
1/2	Un demi
1/3	Un tiers
1/4	Un quart
1/5	Un cinquième
1/10	Un dixième
1/20	Un vingtième

Regarding other types of fractions, you will have to use this pattern:

(number) sur (number)

Let me show you an example: 5/20 = cinq sur vingt. Easy, right?

And what if you would like to read a number such as x.y? (0.5 , 2.9 … )

Regarding decimal separators (the period between numbers) in French, we don’t use the period. In fact, we will use a comma (“,“) to separate decimals : 0,5 – 2,9 … If you would like to pronounce them out loud, just add “virgule” (comma) in between.

0,5 = zéro virgule cinq / 2,9 = deux virgule neuf.

Percentages in French

To read percentages in French, it’s even easier. You only will need to add “pourcent(s)” (or “pour cent”) at the end of your number.

15% = quinze pourcents / pour cent.

Note that “pourcent” will change and agree with the number (if there is more than 1%, then “pourcent” will be written with an “s”). “Pour cent”, on the other side, will always be invariable. In other words, “pourcent” is “per-hundred”, a noun, and “pour cent” is the noun phrase “per one hundred”.

How to Read Phone Numbers in French

Finally, let’s take a look at our last part of how to count in French… phone numbers! This may not be exactly counting, as I would say, but it’s part of daily life.

Note that most French telephone numbers are written this way :

0x xx xx xx xx (Example: 04 . 98 . 10 . 20 . 32)

So we read them by pairs (zéro quatre , quatre-vingt-dix-huit, dix, vingt, trente-deux).

However, you may stumble upon different numbers using different formats (such as 3 by 3 instead of pairs), you may read them using “hundreds” :

851 – 121 (huit-cent-cinquante-et-un / cent-vingt-et-un)