Numbers over 100, ordinals and years

By the end of this lesson you'll be able to count into the thousands and millions, say years and dates of birth, read larger prices, and use words like "first" and "third".

Hundreds, thousands, millions

You can already count to a hundred, thanks to the lesson on numbers 21 to 100. The bigger numbers build on that.

Note that "a hundred" and "a thousand" need no un in French: cent euros, mille euros. Numbers are written with a space or a point between thousands, never a comma: 2 000 or 2.000.

Three spelling rules cover nearly everything.

Cent takes -s only when it's multiplied and ends the number. So deux cents and trois cents take -s, but deux cent trois doesn't, because another number follows. Cent on its own has no -s.

Vingt follows the same rule in eighty. You know this one already: quatre-vingts, but quatre-vingt-trois.

Mille never changes. It's deux mille, dix mille. Million, on the other hand, is a noun. It takes -s in the plural and needs de before another noun: un million d'euros (a million euros), deux millions de personnes (two million people).

Years

French says years as full numbers. Use en for "in".

For 2000 onward, there's only one way: deux mille dix-neuf. For the 1900s, mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-cinq is the more usual form, and dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-cinq also exists. The cent rule applies as usual, so 1900 itself is mille neuf cents.

For dates of birth, you say the day and month as you learned in the lesson on days, months and dates, then add the year. Je suis né and Je suis née are fixed phrases for now, and you'll see how they work in the lesson on the passé composé with être.

Ordinals: first, second, third

To make an ordinal, add -ième to the number. If the number ends in e, drop it first: quatre becomes quatrième, and onze becomes onzième.

Keep an eye on these:

• First is special: premier for a masculine noun, première for a feminine one. It has its own word, not a form of un.
• Cinq adds a u: cinquième.
• Neuf changes its f to v: neuvième.
• In larger numbers, 21st is vingt et unième, not vingt et premier. The same goes for 31st, 41st and so on.

There's a second word for "second": second or seconde. It exists and you'll see it, but deuxième is always a safe choice.

Ordinals go before the noun: la deuxième rue, le troisième jour. In writing, they're often shortened: 1er, 1re, 2e, 3e.

Floors use ordinals too, with one word for the level at the street.

Putting it together

• Tu es née quand ? (When were you born?)
• Je suis née le 12 juin 1998. Et toi ? (I was born on 12 June 1998. And you?)
• Moi, en deux mille un. (Me, in 2001.)
• Tu habites à quel étage ? (What floor do you live on?)
• Au deuxième. (On the second.)

Remember the prices you learned in the lesson on clothes, colours and prices: they work the same way above a hundred. 349 € is trois cent quarante-neuf euros.

What's next

Next, the lesson on time expressions for the past uses these years alongside words like hier and la semaine dernière, so you can say exactly when something happened.