Grammaire 2: personal information (numbers beyond 100)
Structure : Les dates
When you travel to a French part of the world, you will need to provide information about your identity to authorities in customs (e.g., date of birth, nationality, address, etc.). When you meet new people, you may want to give them your phone number or email. Or you will perhaps fill out a questionnaire for a doctor’s visit or some other activity. In this section, we will look at ways to provide personal info, or des renseignements personnels.
(a) To talk about the date, we always give the day before the name of the month. Simply use the structure below:
| C’est | le | premier, [numéro 2-31] | [mois] | [année] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C’est | le | premier | octobre | 2024 |
| C’est | le | 2 | octobre | 2024 |
| C’est | le | 3 (etc.) | octobre | 2024 |
Quelle est la date aujourd’hui? C’est le 20 (vingt) octobre deux-mille-vingt-quatre. (What is today’s date? It is October 20th 2024.)
(b) To ask about someone’s birthday or birthdate (or to say yours), follow these set expressions:
Mon anniversaire est le treize septembre. My birthday is September 13.
Je suis né(e) en 2004. I was born in 2004. *use né if the subject is masculine and née, if feminine.
(c) To express age, use avoir + number + ans.
Quel âge as-tu/Quel âge avez-vous? J’ai (21) ans. (How old are you (informal/formal)? I am 21 years old)
(d) Numbers are important for les numéros de téléphone, les adresses, les codes postaux (postal codes), and les années (years). In Europe, a phone number comes in groups of two or three numbers whether written or spoken (i.e. 01 23 45 67 89). Postal codes are also numerical. Codes for Paris go from 75001 to 75020, the final 2 digits correspond to the arrondissements (neighbourhoods/districts) which are known by their numbers. So let’s look at the numbers beyond 100.
Numéros 100+
| Chiffres | Nombres | Chiffres | Nombres | Chiffres | Nombres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | cent | 400 | quatre cents | 1 000 | mille |
| 101 | cent un | 500 | cinq cents | 10 000 | dix mille |
| 102 | cent deux | 600 | six cents | 100 000 | cent mille |
| 103 | cent trois | 700 | sept cents | 1 000 000 | un million (de) |
| 200 | deux cents | 800 | huit cents | 2 000 000 | deux millions (de) |
| 300 | trois cents | 900 | neuf cents | 1 000 000 000 | un milliard (de) |
| 2 000 000 000 | deux milliards (de) |
- The -s of cents is eliminated when followed by another number.
- Mille never takes an -s.
- We use en when we say “in what year” something happened: Il est né en 1987. (He was born in 1987)
- We always (always!) use le when it is a specific date: Il est né le 14 juillet 1987 (He was born on July 14 1987)
