mille
/mil/masculine
The French word for thousand is mille.
mille is the cardinal number used to denote the number 1000. If you wish to refer to a noun meaning 'about a thousand' or 'approximately one thousand', you can use the noun phrase un millier.
Meaning: cardinal number 1000 (num)
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Quebec, Canada, the expression mille piasses is used to mean one thousand dollars.
How does it change in a sentence?
The word mille is invariable, meaning it does not change its form and does not take an 's' when used in the plural.
How do you pronounce it?
/mil/
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly add an 's' to mille when expressing plural thousands. However, it must remain mille in French.
Did you know?
- The colloquial Quebec expression mille piasses uses a slang term for dollars, derived from the word 'piastre', an old Spanish colonial coin.
- The word mille is a homonym for the French word for 'mile', the unit of distance. Context is the only way to tell if someone is discussing a quantity or a length.
- The term mille is an ancestor to the English word 'millennium' and the prefix 'milli-' used in measurements like 'millimeter'.
Examples in context
- J'ai fait ça mille fois.I've done this a thousand times.This example shows how to use mille to express doing something a thousand times.Tatoeba #6067114 by Aiji, translation #2359474 by CK
- Vous sont dus mille yens.A thousand yen is owed to you.This example demonstrates using mille to denote a specific amount of currency.Tatoeba #1230406 by U2FS, translation #17573 by The_Shrike
- Je te le donne en mille !You have a one-in-a-thousand chance of guessing it!This example uses the idiom involving mille to express a one-in-a-thousand chance.Tatoeba #1234019 by sacredceltic, translation #12651085 by urro
- Le coût du projet est de mille euros.The cost of the project is one thousand euros.
- Le rapport contient mille unités.The report contains one thousand units.
- Nous avons imprimé mille exemplaires de notre nouveau livre.We printed one thousand copies of our new book.
- Je me suis reposé pendant mille heures.I rested for one thousand hours.
- Il y avait un millier de personnes à la fête.There were about a thousand people at the party.
- 150 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Manon and Gabriel are discussing the price of a used car.
- ManonEst-ce que cette voiture coûte mille euros ?Does this car cost a thousand euros?
- GabrielNon, elle coûte plus de mille euros.No, it costs more than a thousand euros.
- ManonC'est un peu cher pour moi.It is a bit expensive for me.
- GabrielJe peux faire un prix pour toi.I can give you a good price.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “thousand” translations and entries mille, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries mille, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
