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French Language Lessons: Counting to 100

Steve Cohen

Once you can say and recognize numbers in French up to 20, covered in the previous lesson, you are ready to continue with numbers up to 100. Follow these steps, using the provided tables:

• Learn the numbers from 20 to 30.
• Learn the multiples of 10 from 20 on: 10, 20, 30 etc. up to 90.
• Practice combining the various multiples of 10 with the single-digit endings to form numbers from 20 to 99 using the twenties as the example.
• Review the numbers from 1 to 20 as a refresher.
• Get ready to go further by learning the word for 100.

You can listen to the lesson.

Notes on Pronunciation

French words tend to be accented lightly on the last syllable or the last syllable of a group of words. In rare instances for emphasis or where this is not the case, an accented syllable will be indicated by ALL CAPS. Liaisons are indicated by red, italicized initial consonants (e.g. "Puis-je vous aider?" pronounced as "pwee-zhuh voo zeh-day"). See Guide to Transliteration for more information.

Numbers from 20 to 30

Multiples of 10 up to 100

* Note: Cent means "one hundred"; you don’t add "one" before it as in English. This is also the word for a hundredth of a euro (a "euro cent"); for example, cinq euro et trente cents (English transliteration: sak uh-ROH ay traht sah) means five euro and thirty (euro) cents, which you may see written as €5,30 (commas and decimal points have the opposite meaning in European notation to the American usage).

Numbers from 70 to 79 and 90 to 99

For numbers in the thirties through the sixties and numbers in the eighties, form compound numbers as for the numbers from 21 to 29 (see above list). Use the root form of the "times 10" number joined by a hyphen to a single digit number to form combinations like thirty-five (trent-cinq), fifty-seven (cinquante-sept), sixty-one (soixante et un), etc. The "one" entry in each of these groups is written as the "times ten" number followed by "et un" (e.g. quarante et un). Note that quatre-vingts (with a final "s", as in "four twenties") is used for 80, but quatre-vingt without the "s" is used to form the compound numbers from 81 onwards.

Compound numbers in the seventies and nineties are formed differently. For these groups, join either soixante (60) or quatre-vingt (80) with a hyphen to the number from 11 through 19 (see Counting to 20) which produces the correct total. Some examples: the French for seventy-two is soixante-douze ("sixty-twelve"), for ninety-seven, quatre-vingt-dix-sept ("eighty-seventeen"), etc.

Note: In some French speaking areas outside of France, including parts of Belgium and Switzerland, you may hear the words septante and nonante used in place of soixante-dix and quatre-vingt(s) as the base for numbers in the 70-79 and 90-99 ranges. These forms are used in the same way as other "tens" groupings; for example, you may hear septante et un instead of soixante-onze or nonante-cinq instead of quatre-vingt-quinze. You may also hear the words huitante and octante in place of quatre-vingt(s) for 80. You will always be understood if you use the "standard" forms described in this lesson.

Numbers from 70 to 79

Numbers from 90 to 99

You have now covered the numbers in French up to 100!

You learned the numbers from 1 to 20 in the previous lesson. To practice forming combined numbers between 21 and 99, use the two tables below. Pick one entry from each column and combine them into a single hyphenated word except for the "et un" endings which are added after the "times ten" word with no hyphens.

Twenties to eighties, excluding seventies

Seventies and nineties

Examples

Here are a few examples to get you started. Practice with these, then make up more of your own.

Listen

You can hear this lesson being spoken.

Download MP3 soundtrack: fr_counts100_ex.mp3 (0.5mb)
Click on the link to play the sound file (it takes a few minutes to download). Right click to download the file to save on your computer.

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