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Vos amis ont seize ou dix-sept clients ?

Vos amis ont seize ou dix-sept clients ?
Do your friends have sixteen or seventeen clients?
From Lesson 28:Numbers 1 to 20·French

Questions & Answers about Vos amis ont seize ou dix-sept clients ?

Why is 16 a single word (seize) but 17 is two words (dix-sept)?
In French, the numbers 11 through 16 have their own unique names (onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize). Starting at 17, they are built by doing a little math: 10 + 7 is dix-sept, 10 + 8 is dix-huit, and 10 + 9 is dix-neuf.
How do you pronounce dix-sept? Are any letters silent?
The p in sept is completely silent, so you pronounce it like the English word "set". For the x in dix, it sounds like an "s" here. So the whole number sounds like "dee-set".
I always mix up ont and sont. How can I remember which one this is?
Ont means "have" (from the verb avoir), while sont means "are" (from the verb être). Since the friends have clients in this sentence, we use ont.
Why isn't there a word for "Do" at the beginning of the sentence?
In everyday spoken French, you don't need a helper word like "do" or "does" to ask a question. You can just use the normal statement word order—Vos amis ont (Your friends have)—and make your voice go up at the end of the sentence to show it is a question.
Why is it vos amis instead of votre amis?
Both mean "your," but votre is used before a singular noun, while vos is used before a plural noun. Since amis (friends) is plural, you must use vos. When speaking, remember to connect the "s" in vos to the "a" in amis with a buzzing "z" sound!

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