This article explains how to write numbers in French in comparison with writing numbers in American English. Whether you’ll need to write down the date and time for an appointment or you’ll need to write a check, mastering numbers in French is useful for day-to-day life.
Write numbers with a decimal point
French use a comma instead of a point as a decimal separator.
La valeur approchée de Pi est 3,14.
The value of Pi is approximately 3.14.
Big numbers notation in French
French use non-breaking spaces instead of a comma to separate thousands in big numbers. Here are a few examples.
20 000
20,000
1 230 000
1,230,000
3 230,56
3,230.56
Big number names
The following table lists the correspondence between French and American big number names and notations. Notice how the word billion means two different numbers in French and American English.
| French | American |
|---|---|
| 1 000 mille | 1,000 one thousand |
| 1 000 000 un million | 1,000,000 one million |
| 1 000 000 000 un milliard | 1,000,000,000 one billion |
| 1 000 000 000 000 un billion | 1,000,000,000,000 one trillion |
| 1 000 000 000 000 000 un billiard | 1,000,000,000,000,000 one quadrillion |
Writing dates in French
In France, unlike in the United States, dates are written in the order day-month-year.
Within a sentence, only the month is written with letters. Notice that there is no comma before the year element in French.
Elle est née le 2 mai 2010. no comma
She was born on May 2, 2010.
Ordinals are exclusively used for the first day of the month in a date.
C’est la fête du Muguet le 1er mai.
We celebrate lilies of the valley on May 1.
J’ai un rendez-vous chez le docteur le 2 avril.
I have a doctor’s appointment on April 2.
When filling out a form, use an hyphen as the separator to write the date instead of a forward slash.
24–12–2023
12/24/2023
Historical dates are an exception to the rule as the month starts with a capital and words are separated with hyphens.
La rue du 14-Juillet-1945.
The 14th of July street.
Writing time in French
Time notation with a colon is usually only used on timetables in train stations or airports in France.
For everyday notation, you can use the abbreviations h (hour), min (minute) and s (second) preceded with a space. Don’t mix abbreviations with full words when writing time in French.
Mon train arrive lundi à 13 h 21 min.
Mon train arrive lundi à 13 heures 21 minutes.
My train arrives Monday at 01:21 PM.
Instead of using the am-pm notation, French use a 24-hour notation.
| French | American |
|---|---|
| 0 h – minuit | 12 AM – midnight |
| 1 h – une heure (du matin) | 1 AM |
| 2 h – deux heures (du matin) | 2 AM |
| 3 h – trois heures (du matin) | 3 AM |
| 4 h – quatre heures (du matin) | 4 AM |
| 5 h – cinq heures (du matin) | 5 AM |
| 6 h – six heures (du matin) | 6 AM |
| 7 h – sept heures (du matin) | 7 AM |
| 8 h – huit heures (du matin) | 8 AM |
| 9 h – neuf heures (du matin) | 9 AM |
| 10 h – dix heures (du matin) | 10 AM |
| 11 h – onze heures (du matin) | 11 AM |
| 12 h – midi | 12 PM – noon |
| 13 h – treize heures | 1 PM |
| 14 h – quatorze heures | 2 PM |
| 15 h – quinze heures | 3 PM |
| 16 h – seize heures | 4 PM |
| 17 h – dix-sept heures | 5 PM |
| 18 h – dix-huit heures | 6 PM |
| 19 h – dix-neuf heures | 7 PM |
| 20 h – vingt heures | 8 PM |
| 21 h – vingt et une heures | 9 PM |
| 22 h – vingt-deux heures | 10 PM |
| 23 h – vingt-trois heures | 11 PM |
Watch out
Some French speakers use am in text messages as an abbreviation for après-midi, which means pm. As French say, “cherchez l’erreur” (go figure!)
How to write prices in French?
When writing prices in French, the currency symbol comes after the number and it is preceded by a nonbreaking space.
10 € or 10 EUR or 10 euros
€10
Une baguette coûte 1,10 €.
The price of a baguette is €1.10.
If you don’t have a French keyboard, read How to type French symbols on a qwerty keyboard to write the euro symbol.
How to write phone numbers in French?
Unlike in the United States, phones numbers are grouped by pairs of numbers in French.
Appelle moi au 07 33 44 55 55.
Give me a call at 818-444-5555.
If you plan on using your cell phone in France, read Can you use a U.S. cell phone in France.
Hand writing French numbers
It might come as a surprise but some numbers are not hand-written in the exact same way in French and in American English.
United States
France
Write numbers in words in French
Zero to ten numbers in French
- zéro (0)
- un (1)
- deux (2)
- trois (3)
- quatre (4)
- cinq (5)
- six (6)
- sept (7)
- huit (8)
- neuf (9)
Multiples of ten
- dix (10)
- vingt (20)
- trente (30)
- quarante (40)
- cinquante (50)
- soixante (60)
- soixante-dix (70)
- quatre-vingts (80)
- quatre-vingt-dix (90)
Multiple-word numbers
Use hyphens to separate words inside numbers.
- dix-sept (17)
- dix-huit (18)
- dix-neuf (19)
- vingt-deux (22)
- vingt-trois (23)
- trente-deux (32)
In numbers under one hundred containing the word “et” (and), the hyphen is omitted. This is the list of numbers where the hyphen is replaced with “et”.
- vingt et un (21)
- trente et un (31)
- quarante et un (41)
- cinquante et un (51)
- soixante et un (61)
- soixante et onze (71)
French ordinal numbers
In French, most ordinal numbers are easily constructed by adding the ième suffix to the number. The three exceptions are the numbers one, five and nine.
| French | American |
|---|---|
| premier, première no ième suffix | first |
| deuxième | second |
| troisième | third |
| quatrième | fourth |
| cinquième extra u | fifth |
| sixième | sixth |
| septième | seventh |
| huitième | eighth |
| neuvième f replaced with v | ninth |
| dixième | tenth |
French use superscripts for ordinal number abbreviations. Superscript characters are smaller letters or numbers written slightly above the line of text.
| French | American |
|---|---|
| 1er – masc. singular 1re – fem. singular 1ers – masc. plural 1res – fem. plural | 1st |
| 2e or 2d – masc. singular 2e or 2de – fem. singular 2es or 2ds – masc. plural 2es or 2des – fem. plural | 2d |
| 3e – singular 3es – plural | 3rd |
| 4e – singular 4es – plural | 4th |
| 5e – singular 5es – plural | 5th |
| 6e – singular 6es – plural | 6th |
| 7e – singular 7es – plural | 7th |
| 8e – singular 8es – plural | 8th |
| 9e – singular 9es– plural | 9th |
| 10e – singular 10es – plural | 10th |
Plural form for numbers in french
If you live in France, you’ll probably have to write checks at some point. Learn how to write numbers in words on a check in French.
The word “mille” (thousand) doesn’t take an “s” at the plural form.
- quatre-mille-vingt-trois (4,023)
- deux-mille (2,000)
The words “cent” (hundred) and “vingt” (twenty) take an “s” at the plural form only when they are multiplied and they are the last word of the number.
- 400 in French: quatre-cents last word, multiplied
- 3,100 in French: trois-mille-cent last word, not multiplied
- 1,20 in French: mille-vingt last word, not multiplied
- 6,420 in French: six-mille-quatre-cent-vingt last word, not multiplied
- 2,080 in French: deux-mille-quatre-vingts last word, multiplied
- 230 in French: deux-cent-trente not last word, multiplied
- 5,382 in French: cinq-mille-trois-cent-quatre-vingt-deux not last word, multiplied
French approximate numbers
Compared to Americans, French have quite a few names for approximate numbers.
| French | American |
|---|---|
| une paire | pair, couple |
| une huitaine | approximately 8 |
| une dizaine | approximately 10 |
| une douzaine | dozen |
| une demi-douzaine | half a dozen |
| une quinzaine | approximately 15 |
| une vingtaine | approximately 20 |
| une trentaine | approximately 30 |
| une quarantaine | approximately 40 |
| une cinquantaine | approximately 50 |
| une soixantaine | approximately 60 |
| une centaine | approximately 100 |
| un millier | approximately 1,000 |
People in France use approximate numbers on a daily basis and this is especially true when buying fresh produce at a French farmer’s market.
Pouvez-vous me donner une demi-douzaine d’œufs s’il vous plait ?
Could you give me six eggs please?
The approximate word for eight “huitaine” is usually used in place of the expression “in a week”.
On se revoit dans une huitaine de jours.
Let’s meet in a week.
French expressions with numbers
Enjoy the following common French expressions to practice your French numbers in a fun way.
Se mettre sur son trente et un
meaning: to dress up
literal translation: to put oneself on his 31
Il s’est mis sur son trente et un pour sortir ce soir.
He dressed up to go out tonight.
English expression: to clean up nice
Faire les quatre cents coups
meaning: to misbehave
literal translation: to score 400 strikes
Il a fait les quatre cents coups quand it était jeune.
He was up to no good in his youth.
English expression: to be up to no good
Faire d’une pierre deux coups
meaning: to achieve two things at once
literal translation: to use one stone to strike two
Je peux passer te voir demain comme je fais mes courses dans le quartier, comme ça je fais d’une pierre deux coups.
I can stop by tomorrow since I’m doing some shopping in the area, I’ll kill two birds with one stone.
English expression: to kill two birds with one stone
I hope you learned one thing or two about writing numbers in French. If you’re interested in learning measurement units used in France, read French measurements.
Great article — very clear and helpful! I especially liked the section about writing big numbers and dates in French.
This is so helpful! It’s great to have everything in one place.
Thank you Anne!