Numbers | Les chiffres

Please note:

Tens and units are joined with a hyphen:
17 = dix-sept, 48 = quarante-huit

If the unit is a 1, then the word ‘et’ is placed in between tens and units:
21 = vingt et un, 61 = soixante et un

In French, numbers and numerals do not agree in gender. The only exception is the number one (1). The masculine form of the number one is un and the feminine form is une.

• Trente et un garçons et trente et une filles participent à l’évènement.| Thirty-one boys and thirty- one girls are participating in the event.

In French, numbers and numerals do not agree in number and are invariable. The only exceptions are the numbers 20 (vingt) and 100 (cent).

Vingt et cent

The numbers 20 (vingt) and 100 (cent) agree in number and take an S in the plural when they are:

• • multiplied and they are not followed by any other number
    • Cette revue a quatre-vingts pages. | This magazine has eighty pages.
    • Huit cents athlètes participeront aux jeux. | Eight hundred athletes will participate in the games.

• followed by millier, million, milliard (quantifiers | noms de quantité)
  • Il y a près de quatre-vingts millions d’habitants dans ce continent. | There are nearly eighty million people that live in this continent.
  • Les projets de développement coûteront environ deux cents milliards de dollars. | The development projects will cost around two hundred billions dollars.

The numbers 20 (vingt) and 100 (cent) are invariable and do not take an s in the plural when they are:

• • used alone
    • Il y a vingt étudiants dans cette classe. |There are twenty students in this class.
    • Les cent poissons nagent dans l’aquarium. |A hundred fish swim in the aquarium.

• • followed by other numbers
    • À quatre-vingt-douze ans, il s’exerce encore tous les matins. | At ninety-two, he still exercises every morning.
    • Ce livre a deux cent dix pages. | This book has two hundred and ten pages.

• • followed by the numerical adjective mille
    • Il y avait vingt mille spectateurs au concert. | There were twenty thousand spectators at the concert.
    • L’entreprise a embauché près de quatre cent mille employés. | The company has hired nearly four hundred thousand employees.

• used as an ordinal value, to mark the order or the rank (first, second, third)
  • À la page quatre-vingt, il y a l’image du personnage principal. |On page eighty, there is the picture of the main character.
  • En l’an mille cinq cent trente-quatre, Jacques Cartier découvre le fleuve Saint-Laurent. | In 1534, Jacques Cartier discovers the St. Lawrence River.

Mille

The numeral adjective 1000 (mille) is always invariable and does not take an s in the plural.

• • Nous avons payé notre voiture onze mille dollars. | We paid eleven thousand dollars for our car.
  • Mille mercis! | Many thanks!

The noun mille agrees in number and takes an S in the plural when it denotes a measure of distance.

• • Le guépard peut courir jusqu’à 68 milles à l’heure. | The cheetah can run up to 68 miles per hour.

Millier, million and millard

Millier, million and millard are nouns. They agree in number and take an S in the plural.

• • Il y a près de 65 millions d’années, les dinosaures ont disparu. | Dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago.
  • Des dizaines de milliers de personnes se sont rassemblées pour célébrer l’anniversaire. | Tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate the anniversary.