Numbers 0–100 + l'heure
French counts like English up to sixty, and then it goes off the rails. Seventy is soixante-dix (literally 'sixty-ten'), eighty is quatre-vingts ('four-twenties'), and ninety is quatre-vingt-dix ('four-twenty-ten'). It looks bizarre but it's regular — once you see the pattern, you can build any number. We'll also learn to ask Quelle heure est-il? and answer it.
0 to 20 — the building blocks
zéro, un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize, dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt. From 17 onward you literally write 'ten-seven', 'ten-eight', 'ten-nine'. un has a feminine form une when it counts a feminine noun: un livre but une table.
21 to 69 — the well-behaved range
Tens: vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), soixante (60). Add the units with a hyphen: vingt-deux, trente-trois, soixante-cinq. Special case for the '-1' numbers: insert et with no hyphen: vingt et un, trente et un, quarante et un, cinquante et un, soixante et un. (No accent on et, no hyphens around it.)
70, 80, 90 — the famous trick
French has no separate words for these. 70 = soixante-dix (60+10). 71 = soixante et onze (60 and 11), 72 = soixante-douze (60+12), 79 = soixante-dix-neuf (60+19). 80 = quatre-vingts (4×20) — note the s when it's exactly 80. 81 = quatre-vingt-un (no et, and the s drops), 82 = quatre-vingt-deux, 89 = quatre-vingt-neuf. 90 = quatre-vingt-dix (4×20+10), 91 = quatre-vingt-onze, 99 = quatre-vingt-dix-neuf. 100 = cent. Belgium and Switzerland use septante (70) and nonante (90), but France itself sticks with the long forms.
Asking and telling the time
Question: Quelle heure est-il? — literally 'what hour is it'. Answer: Il est + the hour + heure(s). Il est une heure (1:00 — note une, feminine), Il est deux heures (2:00), Il est dix heures (10:00). Add minutes after heures: Il est trois heures dix (3:10), trois heures vingt-cinq (3:25). Quarter past = et quart, half past = et demie, quarter to = moins le quart: trois heures et quart (3:15), trois heures et demie (3:30), quatre heures moins le quart (3:45). Special words: midi (12:00 noon — masculine, so midi et demi with no -e), minuit (12:00 midnight, masculine too).
Morning, afternoon, night
French uses du matin for AM, de l'après-midi for early-to-late afternoon (roughly 1pm–6pm), and du soir for evening. Il est huit heures du matin (8 AM), trois heures de l'après-midi (3 PM), neuf heures du soir (9 PM). For exact times like train schedules, French often uses the 24-hour clock: quatorze heures (14:00 = 2 PM), vingt heures (20:00 = 8 PM).
