Roman Numerals

Roman numerals in French
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Chiffres romains

Roman numerals are used far more often in French than in English, as both cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers.* They are commonly used to express all of the following:

Arrondissements

le IIe arrondissement   2nd district
le XVIIIe arrondissement   18th district

Book terminology

introduction p. vi   introduction, page 6
volume III   volume 3
appendice V   appendix 5
titre xi   title 11

Divisions of plays

Acte I   Act 1
Scène II   Scene 2

Events and assemblies

les jeux de la XXIXe Olympiade   Games of the 29th Olympiad
IIIe Sommet de l’APF   Third summit of the APF

Governments

la Ve République   the 5th Republic
la XXe dynastie   the 20th dynasty

Music and poetry: verses and stanzas

couplet II   verse 2
strophe V   stanza 5

Proper names

Pope John Paul II   Pope John Paul II
Louis XIV   Louis the 14th

Time periods

XVIe siècle   16th century
trimestre II   second quarter
IIIe millénaire   third millenium

Years

Especially in official documents and on monuments

établi MMIX   established 2009
© MMXVII   © 2017

 * I’m not saying you can’t ever use Roman numerals like this in English, but they are far less common than in French, especially for ordinal numbers. Terms like Xe siècle will virtually always be translated as “10th century.”

 More French numbers

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French Roman numerals

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1 Response

  1. Boisvert 22 February 2017 / 12:52

    Le plus grand chiffre romain est : MMMCMXCIX = 3999
    On ne peut pas utiliser plus de 3 lettres : MMM = 3000
    Et il n’existe pas de lettre pour écrire le nombre 4000 !
    Denis

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