Learn French: Il y a cinquante-quatre hôtels dans la ville.

In French, when you combine numbers to make a new number, you connect them with a hyphen. So, 50 (cinquante) and 4 (quatre) combine to make cinquante-quatre.

Why doesn't cinquante-quatre use the word et (and) like vingt-et-un (21) does?

The word et is only used when the second number is 1, such as 21 (vingt-et-un) or 51 (cinquante-et-un). For all other digits, like 4, you just drop the et and use a hyphen.

Since there are 54 hotels, shouldn't Il y a be in a plural form?

No, Il y a is a fixed expression that means both 'there is' and 'there are'. It never changes, even when you are talking about 54 things at once.

How do you pronounce the connection between quatre and hôtels?

The word hôtels starts with a silent H, so it is treated like it starts with a vowel. In everyday speech, the final 'e' sound in quatre is dropped, and the 'r' sound blends right into the 'o' of hôtels.