I am contemplating adding a French section to
http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/Number_in_Words
I would appreciate it if members of Forum whose
mother tongue is French can verify or correct
the following description:
The name in French of a non-negative integer
is formed on groups of 3 digits, starting from
the right. Each group is suffixed with the name
of the unit, and a group of three 0-digits
is omitted (unless all groups are all 0-digits,
in which case the name is "zéro").
French units (10^3*k) are the same as English
units with "mille" replacing "thousand",
"milliard" replacing "billion", and "décillion"
replacing "decillion". (Will I be laughed
at if I use "billion" instead of "milliard"?)
There are a few idiomatic rules:
a. 71 is "soixante et onze" but 72 is
"soixante-douze", 73 is "soixante-treis", etc.
(Will I be laughed at if I say "soixante-onze"?)
b. 10,000 is "dix-millièmes" even though
9,000 is "neuf mille" and 11,000 is "onze mille".
(Will I be laughed at if I say "dix mille"?)
c. Numbers between 100 and 199 omit the
leading "un". Thus 175 is "cent soixante-quinze"
but 275 is "deux cents soixante-quinze".
d. Likewise, numbers between 1000 and 1999 omit
the leading "un".
e. After "million", "milliard" ("billion"), or
"trillion", there is a "de" before the trailing
words. Thus, 1,004,224,000 is "un milliard de
quatre millions de deux cents vingt-quatre mille".
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