Numbers 0 to 69: counting in French

From zéro to dix-neuf: the first twenty numbers

Here are the numbers from zero to ten. Most are one short syllable, and the final letters play tricks: deux and trois end in a silent letter, sept hides its p (say “set”), and cinq, huit, neuf sound their last consonant. Six and dix are said “sees” and “dees” on their own, but before a noun the s changes: it is silent before a consonant (six livres = “see livres”) and it turns into z before a vowel (six ans = “see-zan”, dix euros = “dee-zeuro”). Un is the same word as the article “a”: un stylo is both “a pen” and “one pen”, and before a feminine noun it becomes une: une chaise.

Il y a six chaises, deux tables et un stylo dans la salle.There are six chairs, two tables and one pen in the room.

From eleven to sixteen each number is a word of its own: onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize. Then the pattern changes: seventeen, eighteen and nineteen are simply ten plus the unit, written with a hyphen – dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf. Listen to the join: in dix-sept the x and the s of sept merge into a single s (“dee-set”), in dix-huit it becomes z (“dee-zwit”), and in dix-neuf it is z again (“deez-neuf”). One oddity to know: onze refuses the liaison and the elision – you say le onze, not l’onze, and il est onze heures with a tiny pause.

Vingt, trente, quarante, cinquante, soixante: the tens

The tens up to sixty are vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), soixante (60). To build the numbers in between, put the unit after the ten with a hyphen: vingt-deux, trente-cinq, quarante-huit, soixante-neuf. The number one is the exception: it is joined with et and no hyphen – vingt et un, trente et un, soixante et un – and it agrees with a feminine noun: vingt et une chaises. Pronunciation: alone, vingt ends in the nasal vowel (“van”), but in vingt-deux, vingt-trois and the rest the t comes back (“vant-deux”); in vingt et un it links to the et (“van-tay-un”).

Il y a vingt-quatre étudiants et trente et une chaises dans la classe.There are twenty-four students and thirty-one chairs in the classroom.

C’est combien ? Asking the price in euros

To ask the price of something, point at it and say C’est combien ? – “how much is it?”. At the till, when several things are added up, the question is Ça fait combien ? – “how much does it come to?” – and the answer starts the same way: Ça fait douze euros. For a single item you can also answer C’est dix euros. The currency is l’euro, a masculine noun that takes -s in the plural, and the liaison makes it sound like one word with the number: deux euros “deu-zeuro”, dix euros “dee-zeuro”, vingt euros “van-teuro”. Combien de + noun without an article asks “how many”: Tu as combien de frères ? – the noun stays bare after de, exactly as after pas de.

– Le livre, c’est combien ? – C’est neuf euros, madame.– How much is the book? – It’s nine euros, madam.