How to Count to Ten in French
Count from one to ten in French and say each number correctly, with the nasal vowels in un and cinq, the French r, and the endings that change before a noun.
You will end up able to say the numbers one to ten in French, on their own and inside short phrases such as a table for two or room nine. They are the numbers you need to order food, ask for a table, pay at a market, or give a hotel room number.
Three sounds need attention, because English does not use them the same way: the nasal vowels in "un" and "cinq", the French r in "trois" and "quatre", and the rounded vowels in "deux" and "neuf". Steps 1 to 3 take the numbers in three groups with a pronunciation for each. Step 4 drills the nasal vowels, and steps 5 and 6 put the numbers into a count and into phrases.
The spellings in brackets, such as (set) for "sept", are approximations in English letters. Check each one against a recording, and the tip in step 3 says where to find one.
Say un, deux, trois (one, two, three)
"Un" (uh, said through the nose) is a nasal vowel, which means air passes through your nose as well as your mouth while you say it. Round your lips slightly, and do not pronounce the "n". Step 4 has a test that tells you when you have it. "Deux" (duh) is a short "duh" said with your lips rounded and pushed forward, almost like you are about to whistle. The "x" is silent. "Trois" (trwah) keeps both the "t" and the French "r" before the "wah". Do not drop that r. "Twah" without it is "toi", which is a different French word meaning "you". The letters "oi" are pronounced "wah", as they are in "toi" and "moi", and the final "s" is silent. FAQ 2 below covers how to make the French r. Say the three together until you can do it without stopping between them.
Say quatre, cinq, six (four, five, six)
"Quatre" (katr) has the French r, which is made at the back of the throat and not with the tip of the tongue as in English. The final "e" is silent when the word ends a phrase, so the word stops on the "tr". If you cannot stop there yet, add only a faint "uh" (kah-truh) and keep it short. "Cinq" (sank) sounds like the English word "sank" with the vowel said through the nose. The "n" is not pronounced. It marks the vowel in front of it as nasal, and the "q" is a hard "k". "Six" (seess) sounds like "cease" in English. Pronounce the final consonant of both when you count or say the number by itself. Before a noun the endings change, and FAQ 1 below gives the rule.
Say sept, huit, neuf, dix (seven, eight, nine, ten)
"Sept" (set) sounds like the English word "set". The "p" is silent. "Huit" (weet) sounds close to "wheat". The first sound is not quite an English "w". It starts from the French "u" of "tu", which is made with the lips rounded and the tongue toward the front of the mouth, and slides straight into "eet". The "h" makes no sound, and the "t" is pronounced when you count. "Neuf" (nuhf) has a rounded vowel close to the one in "deux", said with the mouth a little more open. The "f" is pronounced, with two exceptions, and they are ones you will actually use. Larousse gives "neuf ans" and "neuf heures" a "v" sound, so they come out as "nuh-vahn" and "nuh-vur". Everything else keeps the f, including "neuf hommes". "Dix" (deess) sounds like "peace" with a "d" at the front. Like "six", it keeps its final "s" sound when you count and changes before a noun (FAQ 1 below).
Good to know: Record yourself saying all ten numbers and play it back next to a reference recording. Each Larousse dictionary entry, including the one linked in this step, has a speaker button beside the headword that plays the word aloud. Look up the other nine numbers there and compare them one at a time.
Practice the nasal vowels
French has four nasal vowels, and counting to ten uses them in two numbers, "un" and "cinq". The University of Texas at Austin's French phonetics lesson on nasal vowels explains how they work. Air passes through the nose as well as the mouth, and the "n" or "m" that follows in the spelling is not pronounced. English comes close in a word like "sing", but there the consonant is still pronounced. The same lesson notes that most speakers, especially Parisians and younger people, pronounce "un" with the nasal vowel that is spelled "in", which is the one in "cinq". So if you copy them, one vowel covers both numbers. The "uh" given in step 1 is the older, separate vowel for "un", and you can use whichever your recording uses. To make it, say the vowel and let air pass through your nose at the same time, as if you are about to hum, and stop before your tongue rises to make an "n". Then test it. Pinch your nose shut and say a plain "ah". Nothing changes, because no air was going through your nose to begin with. Now keep pinching and try the vowel in "cinq". It comes out muffled and different, because that one needs air flowing through your nose. When pinching your nose changes the sound, you are making a nasal vowel.
Put them together and count smoothly
Count from one to ten in a steady rhythm: un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. Practice in groups of three first (un-deux-trois, quatre-cinq-six, sept-huit-neuf, then dix). Once each group comes out without a pause, link them together. Hold your lips and jaw still through each vowel. The University of Texas lessons point out that a French vowel is never followed by a glide the way English vowels are, so the sound stays the same from start to finish. Do not rush it. Count along while walking, waiting in line, or doing any repetitive task, and run through the full count ten times in each practice session. Move on to step 6 when you can reach ten without stopping to recall a number.
Use them in common phrases
Put the numbers into phrases you will use: "une table pour deux" (a table for two), "trois croissants, s'il vous plaît" (three croissants, please), "chambre neuf" (room nine), "cinq euros" (five euros). "Un" becomes "une" before a feminine noun, which is why it is "une table". In "cinq euros" the "q" is pronounced and runs straight into "euros", because that word starts with a vowel. Before a noun that starts with a consonant, some of the numbers lose their final sound, and FAQ 1 below lists which.
If a number does not sound right, find the sound that is off. For "un" or "cinq", repeat the pinch test in step 4. For "trois" or "quatre", work on the r with FAQ 2 below, and never drop it from "trois". For "cinq", "six", "huit", "neuf", or "dix" in front of a noun, check FAQ 1 below. Then play the Larousse recording from step 3 and compare it with your own. Next, learn eleven to twenty, which FAQ 3 below lists. After vingt, the tens (trente, quarante, cinquante, and soixante) are the only new words up to sixty. Everything in between is built from parts you already have, which is why quarante-deux is "forty-two". For first phrases in two more languages, see our guides on how to say hi in Spanish and how to say thank you in Japanese.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Five of them do: cinq, six, huit, neuf, and dix. Said alone or at the end of a sentence, each one keeps its final consonant (sank, seess, weet, nuhf, deess). Before a noun that starts with a consonant, Larousse's pronunciation notes say the "x" of six and dix is silent, so "six personnes" sounds like "see pair-son". Its entries for cinq and huit give the same rule for the "q" and the "t", with "cinq camarades" and "huit mots" as the examples. Neuf keeps its "f" there. Before a noun that starts with a vowel or a silent h, the "x" of six and dix becomes a "z" sound (six amis sounds like "seez-ah-mee"), the "q" of cinq and the "t" of huit are pronounced, and neuf changes to a "v" in the two phrases from step 3. The linking "z" before a vowel is called liaison. None of this applies when you count from one to ten, because each number is said by itself.
No. The French r is not rolled with the tip of the tongue the way a Spanish or Italian r is. The University of Texas at Austin's lesson on the French r describes it as a fricative, produced when air rubs against the back of the throat, and compares the result to a light clearing of the throat. To make it, the lesson says to place the tip of your tongue behind your lower teeth and produce the friction with the back of your tongue. Practice it in "trois" and "quatre", the two numbers up to ten that contain it. If the sound will not come yet, use a soft English r for now, and do not leave the r out. Step 1 shows what dropping it does to "trois".
Eleven through sixteen have unique forms: onze (11), douze (12), treize (13), quatorze (14), quinze (15), seize (16). Seventeen to nineteen are combinations: dix-sept (17, literally ten-seven), dix-huit (18), and dix-neuf (19). Then comes vingt (20), and each ten up to 60 has a word of its own. In France the pattern changes at 70, where "soixante-dix" (sixty-ten) means 70, and 99 is "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf" (four-twenty-ten-nine). FAQ 4 below covers the countries that say 70, 80, and 90 differently.
Most numbers are the same everywhere, but 70, 80, and 90 vary. In France, 70 is "soixante-dix" (sixty-ten) and 90 is "quatre-vingt-dix" (four-twenty-ten). Belgium and Switzerland both use "septante" (70) and "nonante" (90). Eighty is where those two part company, and France's language academy records that the old form "octante" was replaced by "quatre-vingts", and in Switzerland by "huitante". Belgium says "quatre-vingts", the same as France. The words for one through ten are the same in all three countries.
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