Last updated on December 19th, 2023 at 07:43 am
Numbers are very useful to count, but not only for that! You need to know French numbers for many every day life situations.
Here are some examples :
How to write down a phone number in French
06.07.45.22.40
zéro-six / zéro-sept / quarante-cinq / vingt-deux / quarante
It’s not difficult to give your phone number. You just need to say each ones two by two. if it’s below 10, don’t forget to say “zéro” to start with.
In France, mobile phone numbers start with 06 (“zéro six”) or 07 (“zéro sept”). Landline numbers, depending on the region start with 01 (“zéro un”) / 02 (“zéro deux”) / 03 (“zéro trois”) / 04 (“zéro quatre”)/ 05 (“zéro cinq”).
Enfin, l’indicatif pour la France est 0033.
How to give your address in French
Here also, it’s not complicated at all. You can say for example:
Nous habitons au 42 (quarante-deux) de la rue des fleurs
For the zip code, you can hear French people saying:
68600 : soixante-huit six cent
but you can also say it the regular way: soixante-huit mille six cent
Say the time in French
To say the time in French, you need to knoz in particular:
le quart (1/4) et le demi (1/2).
If it’s 1:15pm, you could say:
il est une heure un quart.
At 1:45pm:
il est deux heures moins le quart.
At 13h30:
il est une heure et demi.
French Numbers in Everyday Life Situations
At the café or the restaurant
-Un demi : a 25 cl bier
-Un quatre-quart : it’s a delicious cake made of a quarter of flour, a quarter of sugar, a quarter of butter and 3 eggs.
At the bakery
In Paris, a chocolate croissant (petit pain au chocolat) costs about 1€10.
You will be asked to pay “un euro dix” or simply “un dix”.
Ordinal Numbers
Eddy Merckx is a Belgian hero: he wore the yellow shirt (le maillot jaune) 96 times at the Tour de France. What does it mean? He came first at this competition.
Whoever is first (premier) is definitely happy! But it’s not too bad to arrive second (deuxième) or third (troisième).
Numbers in French Expressions
It’s very common for French people to use paraboles and mataphores. There are plenty of them. Here are just a few examples:
Se plier en quatre: it means you give your best you can to succeed.
Avoir le moral à zéro : it means that you are not happy, almost depressed.
Un “tiens” vaut mieux que deux “tu l’auras” : it’s better to do a deal even though it’s not the best, than trying a better one and take the risk to lose everything.
Ne pas y aller par quatre chemin : Be direct
Mettre les bouchées doubles : You make all the efforts you can (and even more) to achieve what you want.
Se mettre sur son trente-et-un : you wear your best clothes
French numbers are a very popular topic. If you also want to practice your numbers in French and many other topics, learn more about our online French learning classes and make sure to register for a free trial lesson to discuss your specific objectives and needs with one of our teachers.
