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Ordinal and Cardinal French Numbers
Cardinal numbers like six and nine reflect a quantity such as two cats or nine rabbits – translated in French as ‘Deux chats’ and ‘Neuf lapins’. When learning to count you will see many similarities with words used in the English language such as ‘cani’ & ‘canine’. Numbers expressed as the sixth or the ninth are referred to as Ordinal numbers and translate as ‘Sixième’ for 6th and Neuvième for 9th.
In respect of the Ordinal, positioning numbers, they are expressed in a different format to English ordinal numbers. French ordinal numbers are expressed with a hyphen such as ‘Vingt-cinquième’, in the same format as for English ordinal numbers. There are distinctive words that are used for the first 10 ordinal numbers, and the remainder are formed from the cardinal number by adding “ième.”
French Number Examples
One of the most important dates in France is 14th of July, which is Bastille day, the festival of the French revolution translated as 14 juillet or ‘Fête nationale’ (Bastille day). Another example is 19 juin: Fête des Pères (Fathers’ day).
| Asking the time! “What time is it?” translates as “Quelle heure est-il?” |
| “It is seven o’clock.” translates as “Il est sept heures.” |
| Asking “When?” or “What time?” translates as “Quelle heure.” |
| At eight o’clock in the evening translates as “Alle Huit di sera.” |
| 1st day of the month: Ordinal number “Premier” abbreviated as 1º which means 1st |
| “Aujourd’hui est le premier janvier” translates as “Today is January first.” |
| Telephone numbers in France have the Country Code: 33 and the International Call Prefix: 00 |
| Mobile phone numbers in France can begin with 06 or 07such as +33 6 in international format. |
| Telephone 17 for Police/Police Nationale (Gendarmerie) and 18 for the fire service |
French Numbers 1-10
| French Vocabulary for Numbers | |
| Zero | zéro |
| One | un |
| Two | deux |
| Three | trois |
| Four | quatre |
| Five | cinq |
| Six | six |
| Seven | sept |
| Eight | huit |
| Nine | neuf |
| Ten | dix |
French Numbers 1-20 Pronunciation
French Numbers beginning at twenty and
French Numbers 1-100
It’s actually pretty straight forward when it comes to learning how to use the French number system. Pronouncing French numbers on the other hands get a little bit tricky. French numbers 1 to 19 should be your primary focus when you begin. French numbers after gain a prefix added to the base number.
To illustrate what I mean, here are French numbers 1 to 100.
