French has the most famously eccentric counting system in modern Europe — and it's not nearly as bad as its reputation. Numbers 1 through 69 are perfectly logical. Then at 70 the language pulls a left turn, and at 80 it pulls another one. Once you understand why, the so-called weirdness becomes one of the most charming pieces of French to know. By the end of this page, you'll count from zero to a million with quiet confidence — including those legendary seventies, eighties, and nineties.
What you'll walk away with
- Hear every French number from a native Parisian voice
- Decode the famous soixante-dix (60+10), quatre-vingts (4×20), quatre-vingt-dix (4×20+10) system
- Walk away able to say any number — phone, price, age, year — in real conversation
The foundational ten — 0 to 10 in French
These eleven words are the building blocks for every French number you'll ever say. Tap any to hear it spoken. Spend a minute here — the rest of the article assumes you've heard each of them.
- 0 — zéro
- 1 — un
- 2 — deux
- 3 — trois
- 4 — quatre
- 5 — cinq
- 6 — six
- 7 — sept
- 8 — huit
- 9 — neuf
- 10 — dix
11 to 20 — where French shows its character
Some of these are unique words you'll need to memorize; others follow a pattern. Tap any to hear it. Pay attention to the rhythm — the teens often have a distinctive cadence in each language.
- 11 — onze
- 12 — douze
- 13 — treize
- 14 — quatorze
- 15 — quinze
- 16 — seize
- 17 — dix-sept
- 18 — dix-huit
- 19 — dix-neuf
- 20 — vingt
The tens — 20, 30, 40… up to 100
Once you know these, you can build every two-digit number using the combining rule below. Tap any to hear it.
- 20 — vingt
- 30 — trente
- 40 — quarante
- 50 — cinquante
- 60 — soixante
- 70 — soixante-dix (60+10)
- 80 — quatre-vingts (4×20)
- 90 — quatre-vingt-dix (4×20+10)
- 100 — cent
How to build French numbers (yes, including 97)
For 21, 31, 41, 51, 61 add "et un" between the tens and the unit: vingt et un, trente et un. For 22–29, 32–39, etc. use a hyphen: vingt-deux, trente-trois, cinquante-neuf. At 70 instead of a new word, French says soixante-dix (60+10), then soixante et onze (71), soixante-douze (72)... up to soixante-dix-neuf (79). At 80 it switches to quatre-vingts (literally "four-twenties"), then quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-deux. 90 is quatre-vingt-dix (4×20+10), and 97 — the famous one — is quatre-vingt-dix-sept ("four-twenty-seventeen"). It's not random; it's vigesimal arithmetic preserved from Old French.
Big numbers — 100, 1,000, and 1,000,000
These three words unlock everything from prices to populations to budgets. Tap any to hear it.
- 100 — cent
- 1000 — mille
- 1000000 — million
What French textbooks don't tell you about numbers
Six insights that turn the legendary 70s and 80s from baffling to elegant.
- The Belgian and Swiss have it easier. Belgian and Swiss French use septante (70), huitante/octante (80), nonante (90) — perfectly regular. Standard Metropolitan French clings to the older vigesimal forms because the Académie française says so.
- *Quatre-vingts gets an s alone, but loses it in compounds. Quatre-vingts (80) but quatre-vingt-un (81). Same with cents: deux cents (200) but deux cent un* (201).
- Et un at 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71 — but NOT 81 or 91. Vingt et un, soixante et onze, but quatre-vingt-un and quatre-vingt-onze. Think of it as a courtesy that disappears in the vigesimal section.
- French uses a comma for decimals and a space (or non-breaking thin space) for thousands. €1 234,56 — that's one thousand two hundred thirty-four euros, fifty-six cents.
- Phone numbers are read in pairs. 01 23 45 67 89 reads as zéro un, vingt-trois, quarante-cinq, soixante-sept, quatre-vingt-neuf. Two-digit chunks, all the way through.
- Years are read as full thousands or in two parts. 1985 can be mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-cinq OR dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-cinq. Both are correct; the second sounds more conversational.
Why French numbers are easier than they look
Most learners hear quatre-vingt-dix-sept once and assume French numbers are impossible. They're not — they're vigesimal. Once you see the underlying logic (count by twenties), the system stops feeling random and starts feeling clever. Spend twenty minutes here and you'll be ahead of most non-native speakers, including the ones who've been speaking French for years.
Ready to count in real conversations?
Numbers are everywhere — in prices, in addresses, in dates, in directions. Lingden teaches French through real sentences with native audio and IPA on every word, so the numbers you just learned become the words people actually use. Free forever for one language. No card required.