Les grands nombres: 100 à 10 000
Numbers from 100 to 10,000: cent/cents agreement, mille (invariable), prices in euros and centimes, years, and phone numbers read in pairs.
LES GRANDS NOMBRES: 100 à 10 000
CENT: exactly 100 is 'cent' (no article, no -s): cent euros (one hundred euros). Multiplied (200, 300...): CENT takes an -S: deux cents euros (two hundred euros), trois cents personnes (three hundred people). BUT if another number follows cent, the -S disappears: deux cent trois euros (two hundred and three euros) (cent is no longer the LAST word, so no -s). Compare: «deux cents» (ends on cent → -s) vs «deux cent trois» (cent is followed by trois → no -s).
MILLE: always invariable, NEVER takes an -s, no matter the number in front: mille euros (one thousand euros), deux mille euros (two thousand euros), dix mille habitants (ten thousand inhabitants). Common mistake: writing 'deux milles' — mille never changes, unlike cent.
COMBINING CENT AND MILLE: deux mille cent (two thousand one hundred), deux mille cinq cents (two thousand five hundred) (cents takes -s here: it's the last word and nothing follows it).
PRICES (euros and centimes): say euros first, then centimes, no 'and': dix-huit euros cinquante (eighteen euros fifty) (18,50 €). Just centimes alone: cinquante centimes (fifty cents). Asking the price: Ça coûte combien ? (How much does that cost?) or C'est combien ? (How much is it?). Answering: Ça coûte... (It costs...) or simply C'est... (It's...).
YEARS: two common patterns. Years before 2000 are usually read as two 'hundreds': dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix (nineteen ninety) (1990) — literally 'nineteen hundred ninety', NOT 'one thousand nine hundred ninety' (that form also exists and is common too, just more formal/written). Years from 2000 on are read as 'deux mille + rest': deux mille vingt-quatre (two thousand twenty-four) (2024). Say a birth year with 'né(e) en': Je suis né(e) en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze (I was born in 1995) (mille neuf cent... is the more formal/written alternative to dix-neuf cent..., both correct and both common in speech).
PHONE NUMBERS: French phone numbers are read in PAIRS of two digits, not one by one: 06 12 34 56 78 is read «zéro six, douze, trente-quatre, cinquante-six, soixante-dix-huit», not «zéro-six-un-deux...». This is the single most common phone-number mistake for learners — always group by two.
Common mistake: 'deux cent' for 200 alone: needs the -s when nothing follows: 'deux cents'.
Common mistake: 'mille euros' written as 'milles euros': mille NEVER takes -s.
- Ce sac coûte deux cents euros. — This bag costs two hundred euros.
- L'hôtel coûte quatre-vingt-dix-neuf euros cinquante la nuit. — The hotel costs ninety-nine euros fifty a night.
- Cette ville a dix mille habitants. — This town has ten thousand inhabitants.
- Je suis né en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-douze. — I was born in 1992.
- Mon numéro, c'est le zéro six, quinze, vingt-deux, trente et un, quarante-sept. — My number is 06 15 22 31 47.