Language/French/Grammar/Plurals-in-cardinal-numbers
The numbers quatre-vingts and deux cents, trois cents, quatre cents, etc., take a plural -s in the written language when they are used in isolation or phrase final position:
- J'en ai vu quatre-vingts
7 saw eighty
- La capacité de la salle est de huit cents
The room can hold eight hundred
and when they precede non-numeral nouns:
- trois cents visiteurs
three hundred visitors
- quatre-vingts candidats
eighty applicants
However, when these numbers precede other numerals, there is generally no plural -s:
- quatre-vingt-deux
- quatre-vingt-trois
- deux cent deux
- deux cent trois
- trois cent mille
unless those numerals are millions or milliards:
- deux cents millions d'habitants
two hundred million inhabitants
- cinq cents milliards d’euros
five hundred billion francs
mille never takes a plural -s:
- mille personnes
a thousand people
- dix mille gagnants
ten thousand winners
- deux mille vingt lecteurs
two thousand and twenty readers
After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Déterminants & Indefinite article.
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