Paul finit dixième.

Finit is the 3rd person singular present tense of finir.

• finir = to finish
• il/elle/on finit = he/she/one finishes

So grammatically, Paul finit dixième is in the present indicative.

In many real-life situations, if you are talking about a completed race or competition, French often prefers Paul a fini dixième. But finit is still the correct present-tense form.

Because finit is a conjugated verb, while fini is usually the past participle or an adjective.

• Paul finit dixième = Paul finishes tenth
• Paul a fini dixième = Paul finished / has finished tenth

A tricky point: finit and fini are pronounced the same in standard French, but they are not the same grammatically.

Because dixième is an ordinal number: tenth.

• dix = ten
• dixième = tenth

When you talk about someone’s position in a ranking, French uses the ordinal, just like English:

• Paul finit dixième = Paul finishes tenth

You would not use dix here, because that would be a number, not a rank.

After verbs like finir when talking about race or competition results, French often uses the rank directly, without an article.

So:

• Paul finit dixième = natural
• Paul finit le dixième = not correct for this meaning

This works a lot like English Paul finished tenth, where tenth also appears without the.

If you want a longer version, French can also say:

• Paul finit en dixième position

That means the same thing, but it is more explicit.

Dixième is an ordinal adjective, but here it is used after the verb to describe Paul’s final position.

So it is not directly placed before a noun like in:

• la dixième place

Instead, it works more like a complement of result after finir:

• Paul finit dixième

This is a very common pattern with rankings:

• Elle finit première
• Ils finissent troisièmes
• Paul finit dixième

Yes, in this kind of sentence the ordinal matches the person in sense, but dixième has the same form in masculine and feminine.

So you get:

• Paul finit dixième
• Marie finit dixième

Both are correct, and dixième does not change spelling.

That said, some ordinals do change, especially:

• premier → première

For example:

• Paul finit premier
• Marie finit première

A simple approximation is:

pohl fee-NEE dee-ZYEM

More closely:

• Paul = /pɔl/
• finit = /fini/
• dixième = /di.zjɛm/

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• The final -t in finit is silent.
• finit and fini sound the same.
• In dixième, the x is pronounced like z.

Not exactly.

• Paul est dixième = Paul is tenth / Paul is in tenth place
• Paul finit dixième = Paul finishes tenth / Paul ends up in tenth place

So:

• est describes a current position
• finit describes the final result

For example, during a race you might say:

• Paul est dixième

After the race result, you might say:

• Paul finit dixième
• or more commonly in past narration, Paul a fini dixième

Yes. That is perfectly correct.

• Paul finit dixième
• Paul finit en dixième position

Both mean the same thing. The shorter version is very common, especially in sports or competition results. The longer version is a bit more explicit and may feel slightly more formal or explanatory.

So learners should recognize both patterns.