Numbers in French

Numbers in French

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”.

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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


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