Ordinal numbers tell you the rank of something — first, second, third, twenty-seventh. In French, almost every ordinal is built by attaching the suffix -ième to the corresponding cardinal: trois → troisième, vingt → vingtième, cent → centième. The system is mechanical, with two important exceptions (premier and the deuxième/second pair) and three small spelling adjustments (cinquième, neuvième, dropping the final -e before -ième).
This page covers the formation rules, the agreement quirks, the abbreviation conventions, and the contexts where French uses cardinals where English would use ordinals — a small but persistent source of errors.
Formation: the -ième rule
The base rule is dead simple: take the cardinal, add -ième.
| Cardinal | Ordinal | English |
|---|---|---|
| deux | deuxième | second |
| trois | troisième | third |
| dix | dixième | tenth |
| vingt | vingtième | twentieth |
| cent | centième | hundredth |
| mille | millième | thousandth |
C'est la troisième fois que je te le dis.
That's the third time I'm telling you.
Le vingtième siècle a été marqué par deux guerres mondiales.
The twentieth century was marked by two world wars.
Three spelling tweaks
When the -ième suffix attaches to the cardinal, French applies three small adjustments:
Cardinals ending in a silent -e drop it before -ième: quatre → quatrième, onze → onzième, douze → douzième, trente → trentième, quarante → quarantième. You don't see quatreième anywhere.
Five gets a stealth u to keep the c sounding hard: cinq → cinquième. Without the u, French spelling rules would force the c to soften (since c before i = /s/). The u preserves the /k/ sound.
Nine changes f to v: neuf → neuvième. This reflects the same alternation you see in œuf → œufs (where f goes silent), or in feminine forms like vif → vive, neuf → neuve. Voiceless f becomes voiced v between vowels.
Au cinquième étage, vous trouverez le neuvième bureau à droite.
On the fifth floor, you'll find the ninth office on the right.
| Cardinal | Ordinal | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| quatre | quatrième | final -e dropped |
| cinq | cinquième | +u inserted |
| onze | onzième | final -e dropped |
| douze | douzième | final -e dropped |
| quinze | quinzième | final -e dropped |
| neuf | neuvième | f → v |
Premier and première: the lone irregular
Premier is the only French ordinal that doesn't follow the -ième rule. It is a separate word, related to Latin primus, and it is the only ordinal that agrees in gender for its base form.
| Form | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | premier | first |
| feminine singular | première | first |
| masculine plural | premiers | first |
| feminine plural | premières | first |
C'est mon premier voyage en France.
It's my first trip to France. (Masculine: voyage.)
C'est ma première visite à Paris.
It's my first visit to Paris. (Feminine: visite.)
Les premières neiges sont tombées hier.
The first snows fell yesterday. (Feminine plural: neiges.)
There's also a deeper agreement quirk: inside compound ordinals, the -un component triggers the same gender alternation. Vingt-et-unième is genderless, but premier/première re-appears whenever the unit digit is 1 and the construction is exactly "the first of a series":
C'est la vingt-et-unième fois.
It's the twenty-first time. (No gender alternation on 'unième'.)
Deuxième vs second: a real but subtle distinction
French has two words for "second": deuxième and second. Both are correct. Both are interchangeable in most everyday contexts. But there is a distinction prescriptive grammarians still teach, and it surfaces in formal writing.
The rule (when observed): use second when there are exactly two elements in the sequence; use deuxième when there are three or more.
| Context | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "Second World War" (there's a third? no.) | la Seconde Guerre mondiale | only two world wars |
| "Second floor" (in a five-story building) | le deuxième étage | more than two floors |
| "In the second place" (out of two) | en second lieu | two-element sequence (this is a fixed expression) |
| "For the second time" (of many) | pour la deuxième fois | more than two occurrences |
C'est ma deuxième année à l'université ; je suis en deuxième année.
It's my second year at university; I'm in second year. ('année' implies more than two — there's a third, fourth.)
Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la ville a été détruite.
During the Second World War, the city was destroyed. ('Second' because there are only two World Wars.)
The reality: most native speakers ignore this rule completely. Deuxième has fully colonized everyday usage. Second survives in fixed expressions (Seconde Guerre mondiale, de seconde main — "second-hand", en second lieu — "secondly"), in formal/literary writing, and in some institutional names (la seconde is the class corresponding to roughly grade 10 in the French school system).
Agreement: second takes a feminine seconde. Deuxième is invariable for gender.
Voici ma seconde proposition.
Here is my second proposal. (Formal; only two proposals being considered.)
Voici ma deuxième proposition.
Here is my second proposal. (Neutral; works whether there are two or more.)
Compound ordinals: only the last element takes -ième
For numbers above twenty, the ordinal is built by adding -ième only to the last digit-word. The earlier components stay as they are.
| Cardinal | Ordinal |
|---|---|
| vingt-et-un | vingt-et-unième |
| vingt-deux | vingt-deuxième |
| trente-trois | trente-troisième |
| quatre-vingts | quatre-vingtième |
| quatre-vingt-un | quatre-vingt-unième |
| quatre-vingt-dix | quatre-vingt-dixième |
| cent | centième |
| cent-un | cent-unième |
| deux-cents | deux-centième |
Elle a terminé vingt-troisième sur cent participants.
She finished twenty-third out of a hundred participants.
Aujourd'hui, c'est le quatre-vingt-dixième anniversaire de mon arrière-grand-mère.
Today is my great-grandmother's ninetieth birthday.
Note how quatre-vingts loses its -s when it becomes the ordinal — quatre-vingtième, not quatre-vingtsième. The -s only appears on the cardinal when it's the last element of the number; once -ième attaches, the -s is no longer at the end.
Agreement in plural
All ordinals take -s in the plural — even though most of them are invariable for gender, they vary for number.
Les trois premiers chapitres sont les plus difficiles.
The first three chapters are the hardest. (Premier agrees in both gender and number.)
Les deuxièmes classes sont moins chères que les premières.
Second-class seats are cheaper than first-class. (Both ordinals take -s.)
This pluralization is mechanical and rarely causes errors. The trickier agreement is on premier/première, which agrees in gender too.
Abbreviations: 1er, 1re, 2e — never 2nd
French has a specific set of abbreviations for ordinals that do not match the English pattern. Forget 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. French uses:
| Form | Abbreviation | Use |
|---|---|---|
| premier | 1er | masculine first |
| première | 1re (or 1ère in informal writing) | feminine first |
| premiers | 1ers | masculine plural first |
| premières | 1res | feminine plural first |
| second | 2d | masculine second |
| seconde | 2de | feminine second |
| deuxième | 2e (or 2e) | second (general) |
| troisième | 3e | third |
| any -ième | Ne (e.g. 25e) | any other ordinal |
Au 21e siècle, tout va plus vite.
In the 21st century, everything moves faster.
Elle est arrivée 1re aux championnats régionaux.
She came in 1st at the regional championships. (Feminine 'première'.)
The form 1ère is widely seen in informal writing (text messages, hand-written notes), but the official typographic convention — and what you'll find in academic and government documents — is 1re. Treat 1ère as acceptable but slightly informal.
When French uses cardinals where English uses ordinals
This is the small trap that catches advanced learners: there are several contexts where English uses ordinals and French uses cardinals.
1. Dates after the 1st of the month
The first of the month is le premier — the only ordinal date. Every other date in French uses a cardinal.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le premier janvier | January 1st |
| le deux janvier | January 2nd |
| le trois janvier | January 3rd |
| le quinze août | August 15th |
| le vingt-cinq décembre | December 25th |
Mon anniversaire est le quinze juin.
My birthday is June 15th.
On part le premier juillet et on revient le vingt.
We leave on July 1st and come back on the 20th.
2. Monarchs and popes — premier but cardinal after
The first monarch with a given name takes premier, but subsequent ones are named with cardinals:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| François Ier | Francis I |
| Louis XIV | Louis XIV (read 'Louis quatorze', cardinal) |
| Henri IV | Henry IV (read 'Henri quatre') |
| Charles V | Charles V (read 'Charles cinq') |
| Élisabeth II | Elizabeth II (read 'Élisabeth deux') |
Louis XIV a régné pendant soixante-douze ans.
Louis XIV reigned for seventy-two years. (Read 'Louis quatorze' — cardinal.)
This is the opposite of English, where every monarch number is an ordinal (Louis the Fourteenth, Elizabeth the Second). French uses cardinals for everyone except the first.
3. Volumes, acts, chapters
Books are divided by cardinal numbers in French: tome deux, chapitre cinq, acte trois. English mixes ordinal and cardinal: "Chapter Five" (cardinal in numbered chapter titles), but "Tom Sawyer's third adventure" (ordinal in description).
Lisez le chapitre cinq pour demain.
Read Chapter 5 for tomorrow. (Read 'chapitre cinq', cardinal.)
Acte deux, scène trois.
Act 2, Scene 3.
Source-language comparison
For English speakers, the main differences are:
- Only premier agrees in gender. English ordinals don't change at all; French ordinals are invariable except for premier/première and second/seconde.
- The -ième suffix is regular and very predictable, with only three small adjustments (drop -e, add u in cinquième, change f to v in neuvième). English has first, second, third, fifth, ninth, twelfth — many more irregularities than French.
- The abbreviations are completely different: 1er, 1re, 2e, 3e. Never 1st, 2nd, 3rd in French text.
- Dates use cardinals after the 1st: le 2 janvier, not le 2e janvier. English uses ordinals throughout (January 2nd).
- Monarchs use cardinals from II onward: Louis XIV is read Louis quatorze. English reads Louis the Fourteenth (an ordinal).
- Deuxième and second are both correct, with a prescriptive rule about two-vs-more-than-two that most speakers ignore.
Common Mistakes
❌ C'est ma premier voiture.
Incorrect — 'voiture' is feminine, so 'premier' takes its feminine form.
✅ C'est ma première voiture.
It's my first car.
❌ Le 2nd janvier, on a fait la fête.
Two errors: (1) French uses 2e or 2d for 'second', not 2nd; (2) dates after the 1st use cardinals, not ordinals — so '2 janvier', not '2e janvier'.
✅ Le 2 janvier, on a fait la fête.
On January 2nd, we had a party.
❌ Cinqième étage.
Incorrect — French adds a 'u' to keep the c hard: cinquième.
✅ Cinquième étage.
Fifth floor.
❌ J'habite au neufième étage.
Incorrect — the f becomes v: neuvième.
✅ J'habite au neuvième étage.
I live on the ninth floor.
❌ Louis quatorzième a construit Versailles.
Incorrect — monarchs from II onward take cardinals, not ordinals. Read 'Louis quatorze'.
✅ Louis XIV a construit Versailles. (Louis quatorze)
Louis XIV built Versailles.
❌ C'est la première fois et la deuxieme fois.
Missing accent: 'deuxième' needs the grave on the -è-.
✅ C'est la première fois et la deuxième fois.
It's the first time and the second time.
Key takeaways
- Most ordinals = cardinal + -ième: trois → troisième, vingt → vingtième.
- Drop final -e before -ième: quatre → quatrième, trente → trentième.
- Three spelling adjustments: cinquième (+u), neuvième (f→v), and the drop-the-e rule.
- Premier/première is the only ordinal with gender agreement in its base form; second/seconde the only other ordinal with gender.
- Deuxième is the default for "second"; second survives in fixed expressions and prescriptive "two-only" contexts.
- Compound ordinals add -ième only to the last digit-word: vingt-troisième, quatre-vingt-unième.
- Abbreviations: 1er, 1re, 2e, 3e. Never 1st, 2nd, 3rd in French.
- Cardinals, not ordinals, are used for: dates after the 1st, monarchs after the first, chapters/volumes/acts.
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Start learning French→Related Topics
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- La Réforme Orthographique de 1990C1 — The 1990 spelling reform: optional circumflex on i and u, simplified compounds, regularized plurals, and a handful of rewritten words — all officially correct alongside their traditional forms.