Brush up on your French
Start your practice here and then continue to the source.
Simple Greetings
| English | French | Responses | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello | Bonjour | ||
| Hi | Salut | ||
| Good evening | Bonsoir | ||
| How are you? | Ça va ? | Ça va | Fine |
| (formal, plural) | Comment ça va ? | Ça va bien | I'm doing well |
| Comment allez-vous ? | Ça va mal | Not well | |
| Pas mal | Not bad | ||
| Comme ci, comme ça | So-so | ||
| Je vais bien | I'm fine | ||
| How are you? | |||
| (familiar, singular) | Ça va ? | Ça va | Fine |
| Comment ça va ? | Ça va bien | I'm doing well | |
| Comment vas-tu ? | Ça va mal | Not well | |
| Ça roule ? | Pas mal | Not bad | |
| Ça bouge ? | Comme ci, comme ça | So-so | |
| Je vais bien | I'm fine | ||
| What's new? | Quoi de neuf ? | Rien de nouveau | Nothing's new |
| Pas grand-chose | Not much | ||
| Good-bye | Au revoir | ||
| Bye | Salut | ||
| See you soon | À bientôt | ||
| À tout à l'heure | |||
| Until next time | À la prochaine | ||
| See you tomorrow | À demain | ||
| Good night | Bonne nuit | ||
| Farewell | Adieu | ||
French by the numbers: 1, 2, 3…
| 0 zéro | 20 vingt | 80 quatre-vingts |
| 1 un | 21 vingt et un | 81 quatre-vingt-un |
| 2 deux | 22 vingt-deux | 82 quatre-vingt-deux |
| 3 trois | 23 vingt-trois | |
| 4 quatre | 90 quatre-vingt-dix | |
| 5 cinq | 30 trente | 91 quatre-vingt-onze |
| 6 six | 31 trente et un | |
| 7 sept | 32 trente-deux | 100 cent |
| 8 huit | ||
| 9 neuf | 40 quarante | 200 deux cents |
| 10 dix | 41 quarante et un | 201 deux cent un |
| 11 onze | ||
| 12 douze | 50 cinquante | 1,000 mille |
| 13 treize | ||
| 14 quatorze | 60 soixante | 2,000 deux mille |
| 15 quinze | ||
| 16 seize | ||
| 70 soixante-dix | 1,000,000 un million | |
| 17 dix-sept | 71 soixante et onze | 2,000,000 deux millions |
| 18 dix-huit | 72 soixante-douze | |
| 19 dix-neuf | 73 soixante-treize | |
| 74 soixante-quatorze | a billion un milliard |
The French numbers 0 through 19 are easy enough, right?
For 20 through 69, counting is almost just like in English: the tens word (vingt, trente, quarante, etc.) followed by the ones word (un, deux, trois). The only difference is that for 21, 31, etc., the word et is introduced between the tens word and one: vingt-et-un, trente-et-un, quarante-et-un, etc. 70 to 79 is trickier. In French, 70 is soixante-dix, literally "sixty-ten." 71 is soixante et onze (sixty and eleven), 72 is soixante-douze (sixty-twelve), and so on, up to 79.
80 is quatre-vingts, literally four-twenties (think "four-score"). 81 is quatre-vingt-un (four-twenty-one), 82 is quatre-vingt-deux (four-twenty-two), and so on, all the way up to ninety. 90 is quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten), 91 is quatre-vingt-onze (four-twenty-eleven), etc.
100 to 999 work just like in English, except that when you have cent at the end of the number, it takes an s, but when cent is followed by another number, the s is dropped. Also, note that you cannot pause after the word cent.
- 200 = deux cents
- 500 = cinq cents
- 350 = trois cent cinquante
- 872 = huit cent soixante-douze
1,000+ are similar to English, except that the separator is a period or space, rather than a comma. When reciting a number, you can pause to take a breath at the separator (after mille, million, or milliard). Note that mille never takes an s.
- 5.000 or 5 000 = cinq mille
- 2.500 or 2 500 = deux mille cinq cents
- 10.498 or 10 498 = dix mille quatre cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit
- 2.700.102 or 2 750 102 = deux millions sept cent mille cent deux
Pronunciation note: The numbers cinq, six, huit, and dix drop the final sound when followed by a word beginning with a consonant (cent, mille, million, milliard, francs). For example, 8 is normally pronounced [weet], but 800 is pronounced [wee sa(n)].