Salut !
Imagine this: a great opportunity comes your way: you have the chance of winning an all expenses paid scholarship to Paris for a year. Financed by the French embassy. All you have to do is leave your contact details, in French, including of course your phone number so they can call you back.
How do you say your phone number in French, like French people do?
And nope It’s NOT the same as in English.
Click to watch « How to say your phone number in French »:
Et toi ?
Have you ever felt like you said your phone number wrong in French?
Did you make yourself understood?
Share with us a funny story about giving (or writing down!) a phone number in French.
A+,
Géraldine
PS: Want to speak real French like it’s spoken in the streets? Join my course today!
One time I telephoned a guy somewhere in Berlin, but being from the U S, I speak mostly English. When his friend answered the phone, I tried my best to ask for my buddy in what little German I know. Then his pal said “Okay …” And I could hear him say to my chum “Hey, there’s some guy from France that wants to talk to you …” So funny. I didn’t realize my German has a French accent. 🙂
I am trying to complete a French Tax declaration for a pension I receive from working in France many years ago. I have added all details successfully into the online form however it simply won’t accept my UK mobile number in any format I attempt (French format included)
Can anybody help please
Bonjour,
You may be able to reach out directly to someone via one of these links: https://www.impots.gouv.fr/contacts
Merci,
Fabien
Comme Une Française Team
Bonjour Ollie,
704 : sept cent quatre
619 : six cent dix-neuf
0296 : zéro deux cent quatre-vingt-seize
Bien à toi,
Fabien
Comme Une Française Team
Bonjour,
This would be read as such:
quatre-vingt-neuf
zéro huit
trente-trois
quarante-cinq
quarante-quatre
Fabien
Comme Une Française Team
‘Ils ont eu la tête’ veut dire quelque chose comme ils sont vraiment fous?
Thanks for such a great video! You really made the learning process enjoyable.
Got the phone number in france
shhh u donkey
Nice. Really Informative
Do these rules only apply to phone numbers or to other large numbers as well? What about credit card numbers, for example?
23 35 47 53 60 60
vingt trois trente cinq quarante sept cinquante trois soixante soixante.
Merci beaucoup. Comment on dit le número d’address pour une ville? Par example notre maison en France est a Caunes Minervois 11160. Devions nous dire onze, cent soixonte? Ou cent onze, soixonte ? Ou un, un, un, six, zero? Ou…..?
Bonjour Mark,
C’est très simple.
On lit 11160 : onze cent soixante. Car 11 est le département et 160 le code qui représente ta ville. 🙂
Attention : pour les préfectures (les “capitales” des départements), qui ont pour code 000 on lit “mille”. Par exemple, pour Paris 75000 est lu “soixante-quinze mille” et Grenoble 38000 : trente-huit mille.
In France, we read the phone numbers usually 2 by 2 (so: by tens)
We don’t say one-two for 12, but twelve (douze).
12045265 will be read twelve-zero-four-fifty-two-sixty-five (12.0.4.52.65)
I like the French way of saying phone numbers. It follows a set pattern but in England there are so many different ways of saying the same number depending on personal preference. which can be very confusing. For instance 888590 could be said ‘treble eight five nine o’, ‘eight eight eight five nine zero’ or double eight eight five nine o’ and so on.
I love this. 🙂
So, how do you read out a number like an American one? All of ours have sets of three numbers, like 1 (310) 555-5555.
First, if you are giving a person in France your foreign number, you need to give them the correct international dialling code and any prefix numbers (like 1) that need to be added to your number – then give the whole series of numbers in pairs – if an odd number of digits the last should be a 3 digit number. So 00 1 (310) 555 5555 would be 00 13 10 55 55 555 – zéro zéro, treize, dix, cinquante-cinq, cinquante-cinq, cinq cent cinquante-cinq.
Bonjour, Geraldine,
Je suis brésilienne, j´ai 46 ans et j’ aime la France. J’ai rencontré ce merveilleux pays en 1998 et depuis lors, j´ai un rêve de vivre un jour, étudier et travailler en France. Partout dans le pays, depuis que je peux vivre avec françaises et parler la langue.
Mon téléphone en français est zèro, zèro, cinc, cinc, six, un, trois, trois, trois, deux, cinc, neuf, trois, deux. Bisous
Comment puis-je en compétition pour la bourse?
Bonjour Géraldine, j’ai toujours eu du mal à donner des numéros composés comme “98” par exemple, alors je dictais chiffre après chiffre pour éviter des malentendus. Il faudra ne plus céder à la facilité et apprendre à prononcer son “zéro six” par cœur. 🙂
This is my horror! I have been practising numbers since I can always remember, but no over 50 are a drama fot me:) well… I hv to put it into practise more and more.. 🙂
Even after living here for 10 years, I still dread those big scary numbers! When they say something like “quatre-vingt dix-huit” it takes me a minute to think “ok, quatre-vingt, dix-huit (80.18)?” or “quatre-vingt dix-huit (98)?”. It’s all in the intonation and the pausing so you really have to listen closely! Otherwise I have found it funny that I’m so used to saying my own phone number in French that when an English-speaking friend asks for it, I have to first say it to myself in French to make sure I get the numbers right! Maybe I’ve been in France too long 🙂
Oh man, this makes me sad. I’ve only lived in France for three years, and I still have a little trouble with those big numbers. I was hoping it would eventually go away!
How do I get financed by the french embassy?!?! 🙂 🙂
😉
😉
Je suis hollandais et je vis en France depuis 20 ans. Il y a quelques années j’ai déposé la voiture chez un garagiste pour la faire réparer. Le garagiste me demande un numéro de téléphone. Je lui répond : zéro-six, zéro-trois, huit cent vingt quatre, cinq cent trente et un. Il me dit : “Ce n’est pas un numéro de téléphone ça!” Je réfléchis, et lui dis : “Si c’est bien ça”. Il insiste : “Ce n’est pas possible monsieur”. J’hésite un instant et je lui dis “Et le zéro-six, zéro-trois, quatre-vingt deux, quarante cinq, trente et un, ça vous va?”… Il me répond : “Voilà, ça c’est un numéro de téléphone!”…
Ça me fait le même effet, Marcel. 🙂
J’ai du mal à mémoriser un numéro qui n’est pas donné en paires. Comme ton garagiste ! ahahah.
Bonjour Géraldine,
Merci pour cela; On a toujours peur d’accrocher le télephone! Encore j’ai des difficultés et il faut bien écouter quand quelq’un nous laisse un message . Je dois le faire plusieurs fois si c’est trop rapide! je le note toujours sur un papier et je le verifie comme ça.
Bonne journée!
I have waited in longer than necessary for a delivery when I could not distinguish from the speedy voice mail message whether the parcel would arrive at 10, 12 or 2pm. Any tips on how to distinguish between them in rapidly spoken french please?
Bonjour Marina,
I can only recommend… practice. 🙂
Mon numéro est 07 80 15 76 73 2 mais est un nombre britannique afin de composer de France, vous devez composer le 00 44 78 01 57 67 32 – comment dites-vous 00? Vous pouvez également composer + 44 78 01 57 67 32 – voulez-vous dire simplement, plus quarante-quatre, soixante dix huit, zéro un, cinquante sept, soixante-sept, trente-deux?
We say “zéro zéro”.
OK – merci. N’utilisez-vous pas le + au lieu de zéro à zéro?
What if your phone number has a odd number of digits?
Bonjour Jonathan,
French phone numbers never have an odd number of digits.
But if your number is a foreign one, try to give it like this : 0044 45 67 89 534 (as not to leave one number “alone”)
So do you say cinq cents trente-quatre at the end?
We have odd numbers in the UK – BUT – you have to give the international access number and dialling code as well as your phone number so that a french phone can dial you and this always means dropping the leading zero of your phone number – then it will have an even number of digits …. I don’t know if american numbers are the same though.
Home and cell phone numbers in the US have 10 digits. We usually give them in two groupings of 3 and one grouping of 4 (or two groups of two), for example 123-456-7890. Some people like to say the last four digits as seventy eight ninety instead of seven eight nine zero.
Merci Hannah.
Hello Jonathan,
Different countries group numbers differently, my experience with some Belgians and Swiss people giving their phone numbers (I work in a hotel) is….
0032 411 12 34 56 zero zero trente-deux quatre cent onze douze trente-quatre cinquante-six:
0041 76 123 45 67 zero zero quarante et un soixante-six cent vingt trois quarante-cinq soixante-sept
00 is the code in Europe (and various other parts of the world) before your country code. In the US, this code is 011.
I hope this provides some insight into how Francophones* outside France are giving their numbers.
* The Flemish speakers in Belgium aren’t so fluent in giving numbers so I sometimes get digits read out to me which is fine for me, but that’s another matter…!! Try your best 🙂
I made a mistake in the Swiss number, 76 is Soixante-seize for those Swiss people well versed in numbers, and Septante-six for those Swiss people who have forgotten that they are talking to someone working in France 😛