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Vous estimez une cinquantaine de participants.

Vous estimez une cinquantaine de participants.
You estimate about fifty participants.
From Lesson 229:Approximative numbers (-aine)·French

Questions & Answers about Vous estimez une cinquantaine de participants.

Why use une cinquantaine instead of just saying cinquante?
Adding the suffix -aine to a number turns it into an approximation. While cinquante participants means exactly fifty, une cinquantaine means about fifty or around fifty.
Are words ending in -aine like cinquantaine always feminine?
Yes! When you add -aine to a number to make an approximation, it becomes a feminine noun. That is why we use une here, regardless of the gender of the participants.
How do you spell the transition from cinquante to cinquantaine?
For numbers ending in a vowel like cinquante, you must drop the final -e before adding the -aine suffix.
Why is it de participants and not des participants since it is a plural group?
Because une cinquantaine acts as a noun of quantity, similar to un groupe or un litre. In French, expressions of quantity are followed by the simple preposition de (or d'), which means you do not combine it with the plural article les to make des.

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