Dictionary / Seventy
How to Say "Seventy" in French
Soixante-dix
/swa.sɑ̃t.dis/
Literally: Sixty-ten
Soixante
sixty
dix
ten
Good to know
Soixante-dix is standard in France. Septante is standard in Belgium and Switzerland and is not a regionalism you need to avoid. It is simply what those countries say.
Correct
Soixante-dix
What people say wrong
Septante (in France)
correct in Belgium and Switzerland, not used in France
The mistake to avoid. French runs out of its own number words at sixty-nine. Seventy is sixty-ten, eighty is four-twenties, ninety is four-twenties-ten, and ninety-seven is four-twenties-seventeen, quatre-vingt-dix-sept. Learners assume they have misheard, then assume they have misunderstood the arithmetic, and the real answer is that the system genuinely switches base partway through for historical reasons. Belgium and Switzerland kept the sensible septante and nonante, which is worth knowing before you take a phone number down in Geneva.
In context
Elle a soixante-quinze ans.
She's seventy-five.
Ça fait quatre-vingt-dix-sept euros.
That comes to ninety-seven euros.
En Belgique on dit septante et nonante.
In Belgium they say septante and nonante.