French Vocabulary Lesson: Quantities, Weights, and Measures

As you learn French, you will want to learn how to describe things in terms of quantity. From basic weights and measures to adverbs describing how many or how much, by the end of this vocabulary lesson, you will have a good understanding of quantifying things.

This lesson is for an intermediate level student as some of it discusses concepts like conjugating verbs and the adverbs used to define quantities. However, with a little study and practice, any student of French can follow the lesson.

Quantities, Weights, and Measures (Les Quantités, les Poids et les Mesures)

To begin the lesson, let's look at easy French words that describe simple quantities, weights, and measurements. 

can, box, tin	une boîte de
bottle	une bouteille de
box	un carton de
tablespoon	une cuillère à soupe de
teaspoon	une cuillère à thé de
gram	un gramme
kilogram	un kilogramme de un kilo de
liter	un litre de
pound	une livre de
mile	un mille
foot	un pied
jar, cup	un pot de
inch	un pouce
cup	une tasse de
glass	un verre de

Adverbs of Quantity (Adverbes de quantité)

French adverbs of quantity explain how many or how much.

Adverbs of quantity (except très - very) are often followed by de + noun. When this happens, the noun usually does not have an article in front of it; i.e., de stands alone, with no definite article.*

• There are a lot of problems. - Il y a beaucoup de problèmes.
• I have fewer students than Thierry. - J'ai moins d'étudiants que Thierry.

*This does not apply to the starred adverbs below, which are always followed by the definite article.

Exception: When the noun after de refers to specific people or things, the definite article is used and contracts with de just as the partitive article would. Compare the following sentences to the above examples to see what is meant by 'specific'.

• A lot of the problems are serious. - Beaucoup des problèmes sont graves.
  - We are referring to specific problems, not problems in general.
• Few of Thierry's students are here. - Peu des étudiants de Thierry sont ici.
  - This is a specific group of students, not students in general.

To further your understanding of the adverbs used with quantities, read: Du, De La, Des… Expressing Unspecified Quantities In French.

• Verb conjugations may be singular or plural, depending on the number of the noun that follows.
• Approximate numbers (see below) like une douzaine, une centaine follow the same rules.

quite, fairly, enough	assez (de)
as much, as many	autant (de)
a lot, many	beaucoup (de)
quite a few	bien de*
how many, much	combien (de)
more	davantage
more	encore de*
around, approximately	environ
the majority of	la majorité de*
the minority of	la minorité de*
less, fewer	moins (de)
a number of	un nombre de
quite a few	pas mal de
few, little, not very	(un) peu (de)
most	la plupart de*
more	plus (de)
a lot of	une quantité de
only	seulement
so	si
so much, so many	tant (de)
so	tellement
very	très
too much, too many	trop (de)

Approximate Numbers (Nombres approximatifs)

When you want to make an estimate or take a guess, you can use approximate numbers. Most approximate French numbers are formed with the cardinal number, minus the final e (if there is one), plus the suffix -aine.

about eight [days] (about a week)	une huitaine
about ten (note that x in dix changes to z)	une dizaine
a dozen	une douzaine
about fifteen [days] (about two weeks)	une quinzaine
about twenty	une vingtaine
about thirty	une trentaine
about forty	une quarantaine
about fifty	une cinquantaine
about sixty	une soixantaine
about a hundred	une centaine
about a thousand	un millier

Approximate numbers are treated grammatically as expressions of quantity. Like all expressions of quantity, approximate numbers must be joined to the noun they modify with de. 

• about 10 students - une dizaine d'étudiants 
• about 40 books - une quarantaine de livres
• hundreds of cars - des centaines de voitures 
• thousands of documents - des milliers de documents

Note that in English, it's typical to talk about "dozens" of something, whereas in French it's more natural to say dizaines rather than the literal equivalent douzaines:

• dozens of ideas - des dizaines d'idées