million
/mi.ljɔ̃/masculine
The French word for million is million.
million is a masculine cardinal number. When writing decimal numbers in French, such as 1.5 million, use a comma instead of a decimal point, written as 1,5 million.
Meaning: cardinal number (num)
How does it change in a sentence?
When using the number to indicate a quantity of something, you must follow million with the preposition de before the noun. The word million takes an s in its plural form, millions, when referring to multiple millions.
How do you pronounce it?
The pronunciation is /mi.ljɔ̃/. It has 2 syllables.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often forget to include the preposition de after the word. You should never say un million livres. Instead, you must say un million de livres.
Did you know?
- French uses the word milliard for a billion, which is a different scale than the 'billion' used in traditional British English. A 'billion' in traditional UK English was once a million million, whereas a milliard is a thousand million.
- The word million comes from the Italian word milione, which literally means 'a large thousand'.
- Unlike most cardinal numbers in French, such as deux or trois, million is grammatically treated as a noun rather than a pure adjective. This is why it requires the preposition de before the noun it modifies.
Examples in context
- Je l'ai vu un million de fois.I've seen it a million times.This sentence shows how to use million to express a large number of occurrences.Tatoeba #6885109 by GB3, translation #65835 by CK
- Je connais un million de blagues.I know a million jokes.This sentence shows how to use million to quantify jokes.Tatoeba #10933007 by JeanM, translation #3726953 by CM
- J'ai un million de choses à faire.I've got a million things to do.This sentence shows how to use million to quantify things to do.Tatoeba #11326923 by lbdx, translation #2359607 by CK
- un million d'eurosOne million euros
- un million de piassesOne million dollars
- deux millions d'eurosTwo million euros
- deux millions de dollarsTwo million dollars
- un million deux cent milleOne million two hundred thousand
- 132 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Hugo and Emma are discussing the budget for a new project.
- EmmaLe projet coûte un million d'euros.The project costs one million euros.
- HugoC'est un million de plus que prévu.That is one million more than expected.
- EmmaNous devons trouver ce million.We have to find this million.
- HugoJe vais préparer un nouveau budget.I will prepare a new budget.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “million” translations and entries million, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries million, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
