Ordinal Numbers in French

In Brief

French ordinal numbers show position in a sequence: premier/première means “first,” and most later ordinals are made by adding -ième to a cardinal number: deux → deuxième, trois → troisième. Watch the spelling changes in cinquième and neuvième. Ordinals normally go before the noun and take a plural -s when needed.

Overview

Cardinal numbers tell you how many: un, deux, trois (“one, two, three”). Ordinal numbers tell you which position something occupies: premier, deuxième, troisième (“first, second, third”). You need them for floors, chapters, races, attempts, centuries, and many other everyday sequences.

This is an A1 topic because the main pattern is regular and useful from the beginning. The word premier is the form to learn first because it changes for gender and number. Gender means the grammatical class of a noun—masculine or feminine in French. Most other ordinal forms look the same with masculine and feminine nouns, although they still add -s in the plural.

English speakers will find the basic idea familiar, but French does not have separate endings such as -st, -nd, -rd, and -th. Instead, nearly every ordinal after “first” uses the single ending -ième. French also uses cardinal numbers in a few places where English often uses ordinals, especially calendar dates and names of rulers.

How It Works

The beginner rule

Start with the cardinal number and add -ième.

Cardinal number	Change	Ordinal number	Meaning
deux	add -ième	deuxième	second
trois	add -ième	troisième	third
six	add -ième	sixième	sixth
sept	add -ième	septième	seventh
huit	add -ième	huitième	eighth
dix	add -ième	dixième	tenth

If the cardinal ends in a silent -e, remove that e before adding -ième:

Cardinal number	Ordinal number	Meaning
quatre	quatrième	fourth
onze	onzième	eleventh
trente	trentième	thirtieth
mille	millième	thousandth

The three essential special forms

“First” does not follow the -ième pattern. It is premier with a masculine singular noun and première with a feminine singular noun.

Gender and number	Form	Example
masculine singular	premier	le premier jour — the first day
feminine singular	première	la première fois — the first time
masculine plural	premiers	les premiers jours — the first days
feminine plural	premières	les premières semaines — the first weeks

Two later forms have spelling changes:

• cinq → cinquième: add u after q.
• neuf → neuvième: change f to v.

These changes preserve the expected pronunciation. It is worth memorizing premier/première, cinquième, and neuvième as complete forms.

Agreement with the noun

An ordinal is usually an adjective—a word that describes a noun. Like other French adjectives, it agrees with the noun in number. Add -s when the noun is plural:

• le deuxième chapitre → les deuxièmes chapitres
• la troisième rue → les troisièmes rues
• le premier cours → les premiers cours

Only premier has a visibly different feminine form: première. Forms such as deuxième and troisième are identical in masculine and feminine:

• le deuxième étage
• la deuxième question

Ordinal numbers generally come before the noun: la troisième rue, mon premier emploi, les deuxièmes places. This position is important because many ordinary French adjectives come after their noun.

Compound ordinal numbers

With a compound number, make only the final number ordinal:

Cardinal number	Ordinal number	Meaning
vingt et un	vingt et unième	twenty-first
trente-deux	trente-deuxième	thirty-second
cent trois	cent troisième	one hundred and third
quatre-vingts	quatre-vingtième	eightieth

Notice that the final -s of quatre-vingts disappears in quatre-vingtième. Modern spelling also permits consistent hyphens throughout number compounds, such as vingt-et-unième. You may therefore meet both traditional and reformed spellings.

Deuxième and second/seconde

French has two common words for “second”:

• deuxième works in any sequence of two or more items.
• second (feminine seconde) is traditionally preferred when there are only two items.

For example, la seconde moitié is “the second half,” because there are two halves. In everyday French, however, deuxième is extremely common even when only two things are involved. Do not infer from second that there cannot be a third unless the context clearly makes that contrast important.

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
C’est la première fois que je viens ici.	This is the first time I’ve come here.	Feminine singular: fois is feminine.
Nous habitons au deuxième étage.	We live on the second floor.	Same form for either gender.
Tournez à la troisième rue à gauche.	Turn at the third street on the left.	Ordinal before the noun.
Les premiers jours sont difficiles.	The first days are difficult.	Masculine plural agreement.
Elle a gagné la première place.	She won first place.	Première agrees with place.
C’est ma quatrième tentative.	It’s my fourth attempt.	Final e of quatre is removed.
Il a terminé cinquième de la course.	He finished fifth in the race.	The noun position is understood.
Nous sommes au neuvième chapitre.	We are on the ninth chapter.	Neuf changes to neuv-.
Prenez la vingt et unième sortie.	Take the twenty-first exit.	Only the final element becomes ordinal.
Le bureau est au quatre-vingtième étage.	The office is on the eightieth floor.	No s in quatre-vingtième.
Le premier mai est un jour férié en France.	May first is a public holiday in France.	Only the first day uses an ordinal in dates.
La réunion est le deux mai.	The meeting is on May second.	French uses a cardinal after the first day.
Nous vivons au vingt et unième siècle.	We live in the twenty-first century.	Centuries use ordinals.
Elle relit le texte une deuxième fois.	She is reading the text a second time.	Une deuxième fois means another occurrence.

Common Mistakes

Using un(ième) for “first”

• Wrong: la unième fois
• Right: la première fois
• Why: Standard French uses the irregular form premier/première for “first.” Unième appears only inside compounds such as vingt et unième.

Forgetting the feminine form of premier

• Wrong: la premier question
• Right: la première question
• Why: Question is feminine, so premier becomes première.

Giving every ordinal a feminine ending

• Wrong: la deuxièmee question
• Right: la deuxième question
• Why: Deuxième already ends in -e and has the same spelling with masculine and feminine nouns. Only premier/première shows a special gender contrast in the basic ordinal series.

Misspelling cinquième or neuvième

• Wrong: cinqième, neufième
• Right: cinquième, neuvième
• Why: Cinq adds u; neuf changes f to v.

Copying English date patterns

• Wrong: le deuxième mai
• Right: le deux mai
• Why: French normally uses a cardinal number for the day of the month. The exception is the first: le premier mai.

Keeping the plural s in “eightieth”

• Wrong: quatre-vingtsième
• Right: quatre-vingtième
• Why: The plural marker in cardinal quatre-vingts disappears when another element or an ordinal ending follows.

Usage Notes

Floors do not always map neatly between French and English

In France, the street-level floor is le rez-de-chaussée. Above it comes le premier étage, then le deuxième étage. In American English, those are usually the second and third floors; British English normally counts in the same way as French. When translating an address or directions, think about the building level rather than replacing the ordinal word mechanically.

Dates, centuries, and numbered labels

For dates, say le premier juin but le deux juin, le trois juin, and so on. Centuries do use ordinals: le dix-neuvième siècle and le vingt et unième siècle.

French often uses a cardinal after a noun for numbered labels: chapitre trois, page vingt, ligne cinq, Louis XIV (read Louis quatorze). This functions like English “chapter three.” An ordinal remains natural when you are emphasizing position: le troisième chapitre means “the third chapter.”

Standard abbreviations

The recommended abbreviations are:

Full form	Standard abbreviation
premier	1er
première	1re
premiers	1ers
premières	1res
deuxième	2e
deuxièmes	2es

Forms such as 2ème and 3ième are common in informal writing, but 2e and 3e are the standard concise forms. The superscript letters often seen in typography—1ᵉʳ, 1ʳᵉ, 2ᵉ—represent the same abbreviations.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these points at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

Ordinal numbers can stand alone when the noun is understood. In Il est arrivé troisième, “he finished third,” troisième expresses rank without a following noun. If it replaces a person within a previously identified group, it can also appear with an article: la première est facile, la deuxième est difficile (“the first one is easy; the second is difficult”).

With rulers and popes, French normally reads Roman numerals as cardinal numbers: Louis XIV is Louis quatorze and Jean-Paul II is Jean-Paul deux. A major exception is the first ruler of a name: François Ier is read François premier.

Ordinal forms also serve as fraction denominators from fifth onward: un cinquième (“one fifth”), trois dixièmes (“three tenths”). The denominator takes plural -s when the numerator is greater than one. The most frequent smaller fractions have special words: un demi (“a half”), un tiers (“a third”), and un quart (“a quarter”).

Finally, énième means “nth” or, informally, “yet another”: pour la énième fois means “for the umpteenth time.” It is useful to recognize, but it belongs to more advanced and expressive French rather than the basic counting system.

Practice Tips

1. Build from cardinals. Write the numbers one to ten, then convert them into ordinals. Circle the four forms needing special attention: premier/première, quatrième, cinquième, and neuvième.
2. Pair each form with a real noun. Say mon premier jour, ma première semaine, le deuxième chapitre, and les troisièmes places. This makes agreement and word position automatic.
3. Practice useful sequences. Describe the floors of a building, the stages of a recipe, or your ranking in an imaginary race. Then contrast dates aloud: le premier juillet, le deux juillet, le trois juillet.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Cardinal Numbers — provides the number forms from which most French ordinals are built.