Lesson - Section 4 - Les nombres français

[garçoncanadien]

you are you are, I can see clearly that you are. Keep up the good work neoteny you will achieve this goal one day!

[SupaKrupa]

Down under we use commas...

A million = 1,000,000

So what do we do when there's a decimal involved?

[brad]

here is that audio numbers lesson from that book I posted on another thread:

http://moi-alizee.us/forums/attachme...2&d=1163287528

[garçoncanadien]

decimal:

in English 1.273 would be written 1,273 in French.

[SupaKrupa]

So they switched commas and dots around rofl. Thanks

Edit: Sorry... not "they", but you know what I mean.

Double Edit: Wttfff!!!! Didn't see this decimal thing on the front page -.-

[guldebrett]

A few years ago I bought an French-English /English-French talking dictionary to help me to pronounce the words. It only cost me about $15 but I don't know if they make it anymore. If anybody is interested send me a private message. NERO is very handy for such circumstances.

In the past I've bought a number of these types of dictionaries but this particular one was the only one worth a dang.

[aFrenchie]

Originally Posted by Cooney

To prevent this, people will use a dot to make it continuous, thus keeping it on one line?

That's what I meant. Some French may do that. I for one prefer to use no separator at all if I want to be sure that a split won't happen in a text, for example: 123456 (instead of 123 456)

Would folks look at me strangely on the streets of Paris if I used "nonante-sept" instead of "quatre-vingt dix-sept?"

They'll think that you're a Belgian or, because of your American accent, that you learnt French in Belgium. And they'll surely smile about it because it's always funny for a French to hear those numbers in the Belgian way . It's never said that way by a French!

Originally Posted by Cooney

I'm sure I would have been horribly confused had I run across un billion and not realized it is a thousand times bigger in French than in English :-)

That's quite confusing indeed!

[HibyPrime]

I have a somewhat related question...

If you wanted to say (vocally) a number with a decimal in english, you would say: "fifty point two". What's the equivalent in french?

well, spanish treats that the same way as english does, point = punto so 5.1 = cinco punto uno.

I can't say with any certainty but if there is a direct translation for the word "point" it is probably used the same way as english and spanish.

[aFrenchie]

Originally Posted by HibyPrime

I have a somewhat related question...

If you wanted to say (vocally) a number with a decimal in english, you would say: "fifty point two". What's the equivalent in french?

It's said like it's written: "virgule" ("comma"). 50,2: "cinquante virgule deux"