Numbers and Counting: 100 and up

Les nombres et le calcul

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Learn the big French numbers: hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and trillions.

100 to 999

 French vs English

• There is no article or number in front of cent when it means one hundred – don’t say un cent.
• 200 and up require an s at the end of cent.

For "hundred and something" numbers, just say the number of hundreds and then state the rest of the number – there’s no "and" equivalent in the French number.

 When cents is followed by another number, it loses the s: deux cents but deux cent un, including in years.

 Listening practice: 100-999

1,000 to 999,999

 À noter

• Again, there’s no article or number in front of mille when it means one thousand – don’t say un mille.
• Mille is invariable – it doesn’t become milles (but see approximate numbers)
• English uses a comma separator, while French uses a period or a space

 Listening practice

• Thousands
• Years
  

1,000,000 and up

 À noter

• Million, milliard, and billion take on an s when plural
• The preposition de is required between the number and any noun
• Watch out for the faux amis: a billion = un milliard, a trillion = un billion

  Proper pronunciation

Remember that the consonants at the end of cinq, six, huit, and dix are not pronounced when followed by a word that begins with a consonant, such as when saying cinq mille or dix millions. There’s more info about this in Numbers 0-59.

When reciting a long number, you can pause to take a breath at any separator (after mille, million, milliard, or billion)

 French lesson plan

• French numbers printable (Worksheet, 4th-12th grade)

 More French numbers

• 0 to 59 | 60 to 99
• Approximate numbers
• Fractions
• Number practice
• Ordinal numbers
• PwLF super list of number lessons
   
  Using numbers

• Dates
• Telling time
• Years

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