Oveview of French Numbers

We use numbers to count and indicate how many nouns are being described. The main challenges in writing numbers involve the forms, the use of hyphens and where and where not to add -s.

Let's first consider the words French uses for cardinal numbers:

• * for 80, write quatre-vingts (with an "s"); for numbers from 81 to 89, the word vingt does not have an "s", e.g.: 82 = quatre-vingt-deux
• * in a sentence, write numbers lower than 10 with letters, , e.g.: un, deux ... huit, neuf, 10.
• * when writing larger digits, use a period wiout a space, e.g.: 1.000.000 or simply a space, for example 1 000 000
• Since the new spelling reform (1990), larger numbers can be joined by hyphens, e.g.: quatre-millards-deux-millions-cent-dix
• use de after un million or un milliard if a noun follows, e.g.: un million de personnes.
• traditionally, numbers involving ... et un are written without a hyphen, e.g.: vingt et un. However, since the spelling reform of 1990, writing these with a hyphen is also acceptable (e.g.: vingt-et-un).

Ordinal numbers

 Ordinal numbers allow us to establish an order or rank, e.g.: "first", "second", "third" (premier, deuxième, troisième). The main ordinals in French are:

 As illustrated above, the main process for forming an ordinal is to add -ième to a number. The main exception is premier/première. Note also that for neuvième the "f" changes to a "v".

Abbreviated Ordinal Numbers

It is common in French to abbreviate ordinal numbers. For example,

• premier > 1er
• première > 1re
• deuxième > 2e
• troisième > 3e
• vingtième > 20e

As we can see above, all abbreviations other than 1er and 1re are simply formed by adding "e" to the number.

• in dates, don't use an ordinal other than premier, e.g.: le 2 septembre and NOT le 2e septembre (unless you are referring to a succession of Septembers!)

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