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Twenty to sixty-nine

Up to sixty-nine, French counts much like English. First the tens:

Number French
20 vingt
30 trente
40 quarante
50 cinquante
60 soixante

Then add the unit with a hyphen: vingt-deux (22), trente-cinq (35), quarante-huit (48), soixante-neuf (69).

The one exception is the 1: it joins with et — vingt et un (21), trente et un (31), cinquante et un (51), soixante et un (61). Since a spelling reform in 1990 you may also see hyphens everywhere (vingt-et-un); both spellings are accepted.

Pronunciation: vingt on its own is just “van”, but from 21 to 29 the t is sounded: vingt-deux — “vant-deu”. In soixante, the x sounds like an s: “swa-sant”.