Septante, huitante, nonante: les nombres en Belgique et en Suisse

Hexagonal French has the most awkward numbering system in the Romance languages: soixante-dix (sixty-ten = 70), quatre-vingts (four-twenties = 80), quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten = 90). Belgian and Swiss French rejected this system long ago and use clean Latin-derived forms instead — septante, octante/huitante, nonante. This page covers when and where each form is used, why the divide exists, and what a learner of français de France should know so they aren't blindsided when a Belgian colleague says septante-cinq over the phone.

The basic split

Three numbers are at issue: 70, 80, and 90. Quebec, the Maghreb, most of Africa, and the rest of the wider francophonie use the Hexagonal forms. Belgium uses two of the three reformed forms (septante and nonante) but keeps quatre-vingts. Switzerland generally uses all three reformed forms (septante, huitante, nonante), though usage varies by canton and quatre-vingts still appears in some places. The table below maps it cleanly.

Notice the asymmetry: Belgium uses septante and nonante but keeps quatre-vingts for 80. Switzerland is the only place where you may still hear all three reformed forms together — and even then, huitante is restricted to certain cantons. If you are in Geneva, you will hear quatre-vingts; if you are in Lausanne, you may hear huitante. The form octante, sometimes mentioned in older textbooks, is essentially extinct today — it survived briefly in southern France and parts of Switzerland but has been displaced everywhere by either huitante or quatre-vingts.

How to count from 70 to 99 in Belgium

The reformed system is a learner's dream because it works exactly like the rest of the number system. Septante (70), septante et un (71 — note the et, just like vingt et un), septante-deux, ..., septante-neuf. Then quatre-vingts (80) — Belgium keeps the Hexagonal quatre-vingts here. Then nonante (90), nonante et un (91), nonante-deux, ..., nonante-neuf.

That last pair is worth dwelling on. In France, 71 is soixante et onze (sixty-and-eleven), 81 is quatre-vingt-un (four-twenty-one — no et), 91 is quatre-vingt-onze (four-twenty-eleven — no et). The et appears only in the round numbers ending in -1: vingt et un (21), trente et un (31), quarante et un (41), cinquante et un (51), soixante et onze (71). It does NOT appear in 81 or 91 in France. In Belgium and Switzerland, the system is regular: septante et un (71), quatre-vingt-un (81), nonante et un (91 — yes et returns).

How to count from 70 to 99 in Switzerland

Swiss French generally aligns with Belgian: septante and nonante are standard. The complication is huitante for 80, used in the cantons of Vaud, Valais, and Fribourg. Geneva, the Jura, and Neuchâtel use quatre-vingts like France. So whether you hear huitante depends entirely on the canton.

The Swiss telephone number system traditionally relies on septante and nonante in regions where they are standard, which makes phone numbers significantly easier for foreign learners — a phone number ending ...septante-deux nonante-cinq (72 95) is much faster to parse than ...soixante-douze quatre-vingt-quinze.

Why the Hexagonal forms exist at all

The vigesimal forms quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix are remnants of an older Gallic counting system based on twenties. Old French used such forms more freely: medieval texts attest six-vingts (120), sept-vingts (140), and even quinze-vingts (300, surviving as the name of a famous Parisian hospital, l'hôpital des Quinze-Vingts). Most of these have disappeared, but quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix hung on.

Septante and nonante are the older, Latin-rooted forms (septuaginta > septante; nonaginta > nonante) — exactly the etymology you would expect, parallel to Italian settanta and novanta, Spanish setenta and noventa, Portuguese setenta and noventa. France gradually replaced them with the vigesimal forms over the late medieval and early modern period; the periphery (Belgium, Switzerland) kept the older Latin-style forms. The Académie française declared septante and nonante "out of use" in the seventeenth century, but the Belgians and Swiss never got the memo.

In 1990, the Conseil supérieur de la langue française recommended that France itself should consider returning to septante, octante, and nonante in education to make mathematics easier for children. The recommendation went nowhere. French school children continue to learn quatre-vingt-dix in second grade.

What about Quebec?

Quebec, despite being a peripheral francophone region, uses the Hexagonal forms — soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix — exactly like France. Quebec's vocabulary diverged from France in many ways (see the Quebec vs France vocabulary page), but on numbers, it stuck with the metropole.

The reason is partly historical accident. Quebec was settled in the seventeenth century, when France had already begun to standardize on quatre-vingt-dix, and the colony absorbed that norm. Belgium and Switzerland, by contrast, were never colonies of France — their French traditions developed in parallel and retained the older forms.

Reading the financial press

Belgian and Swiss publications routinely use septante and nonante in stock tables, weather forecasts, and statistical reports. Foreign learners who confine themselves to Le Monde and Le Figaro may go years without ever reading septante in print, then encounter it in Le Soir or Le Temps and feel briefly disoriented.

This is also why a great deal of European Union internal documentation, drafted in Brussels, freely mixes septante/nonante with soixante-dix/quatre-vingt-dix depending on the writer's origin. The forms are equally official in EU francophone communications.

Pedagogical implication for English speakers

If you teach French to anglophones using Hexagonal materials, mention the reformed forms once early on — even if only for recognition. A learner who has practiced soixante-dix for two years and then encounters septante on a Belgian phone call may experience genuine confusion: it sounds like a totally different word, even though the meaning is identical. A two-minute aside ("Belgians and most Swiss say septante; it means seventy") inoculates against this confusion permanently.

A common exercise: have learners listen to weather forecasts from Belgian or Swiss radio (RTBF, RTS) and write down the temperatures. The numbers themselves are simple, but the unfamiliar word forms force learners to listen carefully, which builds robust comprehension.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

The Belgian and Swiss number systems are not deviant — they preserve older Romance forms that France itself abandoned in favor of vigesimal numerals. Belgium uses septante (70) and nonante (90) but keeps quatre-vingts (80). Switzerland uses septante and nonante universally; huitante (80) is alive in Vaud, Valais, and Fribourg but not in Geneva. Quebec, despite its other divergences from France, uses Hexagonal numbers. For learners of French, the safe production target is the Hexagonal system, but recognition of septante and nonante is essential for travel, work, and media consumption anywhere in the wider francophonie.