Numbers 1 to 100 in French: why 80 is 4 × 20
The numbers 1 to 100 in French are regular up to 69. Then 70 is soixante-dix, "sixty-ten"; 80 is quatre-vingts, "four twenties"; and 90 is quatre-vingt-dix, "four-twenty-ten". So 97 is quatre-vingt-dix-sept: four twenties, ten, seven. Below are all the numbers from 1 to 100, the handful of rules that produce them, and which ones French films actually say.
French numbers 1 to 100
| French | French | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | un | 51 | cinquante et un |
| 2 | deux | 52 | cinquante-deux |
| 3 | trois | 53 | cinquante-trois |
| 4 | quatre | 54 | cinquante-quatre |
| 5 | cinq | 55 | cinquante-cinq |
| 6 | six | 56 | cinquante-six |
| 7 | sept | 57 | cinquante-sept |
| 8 | huit | 58 | cinquante-huit |
| 9 | neuf | 59 | cinquante-neuf |
| 10 | dix | 60 | soixante |
| 11 | onze | 61 | soixante et un |
| 12 | douze | 62 | soixante-deux |
| 13 | treize | 63 | soixante-trois |
| 14 | quatorze | 64 | soixante-quatre |
| 15 | quinze | 65 | soixante-cinq |
| 16 | seize | 66 | soixante-six |
| 17 | dix-sept | 67 | soixante-sept |
| 18 | dix-huit | 68 | soixante-huit |
| 19 | dix-neuf | 69 | soixante-neuf |
| 20 | vingt | 70 | soixante-dix |
| 21 | vingt et un | 71 | soixante et onze |
| 22 | vingt-deux | 72 | soixante-douze |
| 23 | vingt-trois | 73 | soixante-treize |
| 24 | vingt-quatre | 74 | soixante-quatorze |
| 25 | vingt-cinq | 75 | soixante-quinze |
| 26 | vingt-six | 76 | soixante-seize |
| 27 | vingt-sept | 77 | soixante-dix-sept |
| 28 | vingt-huit | 78 | soixante-dix-huit |
| 29 | vingt-neuf | 79 | soixante-dix-neuf |
| 30 | trente | 80 | quatre-vingts |
| 31 | trente et un | 81 | quatre-vingt-un |
| 32 | trente-deux | 82 | quatre-vingt-deux |
| 33 | trente-trois | 83 | quatre-vingt-trois |
| 34 | trente-quatre | 84 | quatre-vingt-quatre |
| 35 | trente-cinq | 85 | quatre-vingt-cinq |
| 36 | trente-six | 86 | quatre-vingt-six |
| 37 | trente-sept | 87 | quatre-vingt-sept |
| 38 | trente-huit | 88 | quatre-vingt-huit |
| 39 | trente-neuf | 89 | quatre-vingt-neuf |
| 40 | quarante | 90 | quatre-vingt-dix |
| 41 | quarante et un | 91 | quatre-vingt-onze |
| 42 | quarante-deux | 92 | quatre-vingt-douze |
| 43 | quarante-trois | 93 | quatre-vingt-treize |
| 44 | quarante-quatre | 94 | quatre-vingt-quatorze |
| 45 | quarante-cinq | 95 | quatre-vingt-quinze |
| 46 | quarante-six | 96 | quatre-vingt-seize |
| 47 | quarante-sept | 97 | quatre-vingt-dix-sept |
| 48 | quarante-huit | 98 | quatre-vingt-dix-huit |
| 49 | quarante-neuf | 99 | quatre-vingt-dix-neuf |
| 50 | cinquante | 100 | cent |
The rules, in order
1 to 16 are single words and have to be learned: un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize.
17, 18 and 19 are "ten-seven", "ten-eight", "ten-nine": dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf.
The tens up to 60 are single words: vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), soixante (60).
Units are joined with a hyphen: vingt-deux (22), trente-cinq (35).
A number ending in 1 takes et, "and", with no hyphen: vingt et un (21), trente et un (31), up to soixante et un (61).
70, 80 and 90
This is the part that makes French numbers famous.
- 70 to 79 are sixty plus 10 to 19. 70 is soixante-dix, 71 is soixante et onze ("sixty and eleven"), 72 is soixante-douze, and so on to soixante-dix-neuf (79).
- 80 is four twenties: quatre-vingts, with an s. The s drops as soon as another number follows: quatre-vingt-un (81), quatre-vingt-deux (82). Note that 81 has no et.
- 90 to 99 are four twenties plus 10 to 19. 90 is quatre-vingt-dix, 91 is quatre-vingt-onze, and 97 is quatre-vingt-dix-sept: 4 × 20 + 10 + 7.
Counting in twenties is very old in France, and a few traces of it survive in English too, as in "four score and seven". French kept it only for these three tens.
Not all French speakers do this. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 is septante and 90 is nonante, and parts of Switzerland say huitante for 80. Those forms are perfectly regular, and a French person will understand them. If you are learning French for France, Quebec or most of Africa, you need soixante-dix and quatre-vingts.
Pronunciation traps
- Six, huit, dix lose their final consonant before a word that starts with a consonant: six livres is "see leevr". On their own, six and dix end in an s sound: "sees", "dees".
- Vingt is said "van" (a nasal vowel, no g or t), but the t is heard in 21 to 29: vingt-deux is "vant-duh".
- Cinq keeps its q: "sank".
- Neuf before ans and heures is said with a v: neuf heures, "nuh-vur".
Which numbers do French films say most?
Counted in French film and television subtitles, per million words:
| Number | Word | Per million words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | un | 13704.3 |
| 2 | deux | 1220.1 |
| 3 | trois | 416.8 |
| 4 | quatre | 162.5 |
| 5 | cinq | 170.0 |
| 6 | six | 130.1 |
| 7 | sept | 67.5 |
| 8 | huit | 60.2 |
| 9 | neuf | 91.1 |
| 10 | dix | 107.3 |
Un is far ahead, but its count is mostly the article "a", so it cannot be compared with the rest. Among the others the order is close to the counting order, with two exceptions that turn up in every language we counted: five is said more than four, and ten more than seven and eight. Round, easy numbers get used for approximations, "five minutes", "ten years", and that lifts them. Neuf looks high for a nine because the same word is also "new".
The big numbers are almost never written out in subtitles. Soixante-dix appears 0.8 times per million words and quatre-vingt-dix 0.4: subtitlers write 70 and 90 as digits. You will hear them far more than you will read them, which is one more reason to learn them by ear.
How to learn them
- Learn 1 to 16 and the tens to 60 by heart. That is 21 words.
- Practise 70 to 99 as sums, out loud: 4 × 20 + 13 is quatre-vingt-treize.
- Practise phone numbers. French speakers read them in pairs, so every number from 00 to 99 comes up.
The numbers are in the most common French words, and the French course, Verbavia (our own course), teaches them with recordings, free on the web. For the other everyday set, see the days of the week in French. The other languages' numbers each have one quirk of their own: Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese.
Sources
- The table of 1 to 100 is generated by rule by
scripts/frequency_reference.py, which checks itself against a list of the forms most often got wrong before it writes anything. - The counts are from OpenSubtitles 2018 (Lison, P. & Tiedemann, J., 2016, aclanthology.org) through Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords lists, content licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com, and are printed from the script's output rather than typed.
- Wikipedia: Vigesimal, on counting in twenties in French and septante, huitante and nonante in Belgium and Switzerland.