How to Say "Ninety Nine" in French

quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

The English phrase ninety nine is expressed in French as quatre-vingt-dix-neuf.

quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is the number that comes after ninety-eight and before one hundred.

What does it mean word for word?

The number is literally composed of quatre (four), vingt (twenty), dix (ten) and neuf (nine).

In French, the number ninety-nine is constructed by adding the number nine to the base for ninety (quatre-vingt-dix).

The structure of quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is a linguistic fossil of a counting system used by ancient Celts who counted in groups of twenty.
While quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is standard in France, speakers in Switzerland and Belgium often use nonante-neuf, which follows a simpler decimal pattern.
In French, if you stop at eighty, you write quatre-vingts with an 's', but in quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, the 's' disappears because it is followed by another number.

Nous sommes les quatre-vingt-dix-neuf pour cent.
We are the ninety-nine percent.
This sentence shows how to use quatre-vingt-dix-neuf in the context of a percentage.
Tatoeba #9663603 by Rovo, translation #9664034 by shekitten
Tom est mort à l'âge de quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ans.
Tom died at the age of ninety-nine.
This example uses quatre-vingt-dix-neuf to state a person's age.
Tatoeba #5350957 by Aiji, translation #2961564 by meerkat
Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf me fait toujours rire.
Ninety-nine always makes me laugh.
This sentence illustrates using quatre-vingt-dix-neuf as a subject that causes laughter.
Tatoeba #391237 by Scott, translation #36531 by Eldad
Le numéro de téléphone était quatre-vingt-dix-neuf.
The phone number was ninety nine.
Le prix du billet était de quatre-vingt-dix-neuf euros.
The ticket price was ninety nine euros.
Cette année, mon grand-père a célébré son quatre-vingt-dix-neuvième anniversaire.
This year, my grandfather celebrated his ninety ninth birthday.
1 more sentence on Tatoeba

Nathan and Chloé are checking the price of a book.

Sources

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