French question regarding dates

Started by dueSicilie, July 14, 2020, 08:37:24 AM

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dueSicilie

When one pronounces years in French, do you say seventeen-fifty eight for 1758 as in English or do you read out one thousand seven hundred and fiftyeight

Or another way entirely?

Sorry I was in French AP and can read decently well, but it has been over a decade since French class.

Jayne

I learned French in the 1900s and the date always began with dix-neuf-cent.  So, applied to your question, 1758 would be dix-sept-cent-cinquante-huit (seventeen hundred fifty-eight).

But when I looked it up to confirm, I saw that it is also considered correct to say mille-sept-cent-cinquante-huit (one thousand seven hundred fifty-eight). If writing out the date, this is the format to use.  The first way is only for oral communication.

Here is the article I found:
QuoteHow to Pronounce the Years
Years are usually pronounced like any other big number, as follows:

2019             Deux-mille-dix-neuf
But then, there's a special case for all the years from 1100 to 1999.

These dates can be pronounced in two ways, depending on whether you're counting the thousands or the hundreds.

Here's an example with the year 1910:

The "thousands" way: Mille-neuf-cent-dix.
This literally means "one-thousand" (mille) "nine-hundred" (neuf-cent) "ten" (dix).
The "hundreds" way: Dix-neuf-cent-dix.
This one literally means "nineteen hundred ten." Instead of counting one-thousand and then nine-hundred, you're counting "nineteen-hundred."
Both forms are correct and equally accepted, but you should use the "hundreds" way only in oral communication. You always write years the "thousands" way. If you want to be safe, I recommend to always use the "thousands way," but it's good to know that some weird people count differently.

More examples of these two ways:

Date             Thousands way             Hundreds way
1408             Mille-quatre-cent-huit             Quatorze-cent-huit
1760             Mille-sept-cent-soixante             Dix-sept-cent-soixante
1911             Mille-neuf-cent-onze             Dix-neuf-cent-onze
https://www.frenchpod101.com/blog/2019/12/20/dates-in-french/#4
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dueSicilie