Spelling: do we write “three-hundred-thirty” or “three-hundred-thirty” ?

The use of "cent" in the French language is subtle. How, for example, is 330 written in letters? We will (re)explain the rule to you so that you never make a mistake!

Spelling numbers in letters is one of the major difficulties of the French language. Among the uncertainties that arise regularly is that concerning the use of the word “cent”, which can trouble me. me the most seasoned. The writing of numbers follows a precise structure, a logical arrangement of units, tens and hundreds. And on the use of hundreds, we must ask ourselves the question of the plural mark.

Let's take stock of this rule. We write one hundred, then two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, etc. So far, it's very simple: one hundred agrees in number. But it gets complicated when you add tens to hundreds. The case of "430" is a good example since it poses a recurring problem. From this example, we will then know how to write correctly, all the other numbers having the same structure, it is up to you to write them correctly. say hundreds which integrate tens.

The correct answer is “four hundred and thirty” : add an "s" &agrav; cent is an error in this case. Why ? It's simple, when "one hundred" is followed by a numeral adjective, it is always written in the singular. We thus write "nine hundred" or "three hundred",  but "three hundred and thirty".

But this explanation would be incomplete without this clarification: when we use hundreds of “thousands, &quot ;million" or "billions", we are in another scenario. These words are nouns, not numeral adjectives, which means they must agree. We therefore write "three hundred million" or "three hundred billion".

Note also that the spelling rule used there for hundreds is exactly the same with tens! We write “eighty” this way, but we write “eighty-four”. And we write  "eighty million", since "million" is a noun. You have retained ?

The French language reserves surprises and let's be frank, difficulties only arise by understanding the nuances of the rules that apply. Sometimes with special cases and even exceptions! When writing hundreds and dozens, understand once and for all the errors & ;agrave; Avoiding is really practical: everyone who uses checks to pay, in particular, knows this very well.