French numbers
Un, deux, trois…
French numbers can be a bit tricky. Just when you think you’ve got the pattern figured out, the rules suddenly change and you’re left thinking, “wait, what?”
So let’s start off gently. Even if you’ve only been studying French half-heartedly until now, you’ve probably stumbled across a few of the numbers from zero to ten, so these fellas shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
(Make sure you listen to the audio. Often the pronunciation is a bit different from what you’d expect!)
Numbers 1 – 9
If these numbers are new to you, spend a bit of time memorizing them. You’ll need them to grapple with the numbers that follow!
Numbers 10 – 19
The numbers from 11 – 16 are like the evil twins of the numbers 1 – 6. You know, evil twins with a zzzz sound at the end.
Once we hit 17, though, we start to get into a regular pattern. It’s just like saying “ten-seven”, “ten-eight”, “ten-nine”.
Numbers 20 – 29
And then once we hit twenty it’s all plain sailing. All you need to remember is the word for twenty (vingt), and then just add a smaller number on the end.
The only thing to pay attention to is the number 21 (vingt et un) in which the “one” is attached like “twenty and one” as opposed to 22 (vingt-deux), 23 (vingt-trois) and so forth.
