17 in French
dix-sept
Spellings verified June 2026 · page updated 2 October 2026
The first transparent teen
“Seventeen in French” is dix-sept, the number 17. Hear it spoken below.
NUMERAL
17
FRENCH
dix-sept
IPA
/dis.sɛt/
Breakdown
Ordinal form
Ranking things rather than counting them: 17 becomes dix-septième, written 17e in figures.
MASCULINE
dix-septième
17e
FEMININE
dix-septième
17e (same word as the masculine)
French writes the abbreviation with a plain e, never ème: 17e. The Académie française allows two irregular pairs: premier and première abbreviate 1er and 1re, and second and seconde abbreviate 2d and 2de. Full rules on the ordinal numbers reference.
Counting around 17
Real sentence examples
“En France, on appelle le dix-sept pour joindre la police.”
“Il a dix-sept ans et passe le bac l'an prochain.”
“La chambre dix-sept est au deuxième étage.”
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Dix-sept is the first transparent teen: dix (ten) + sept (seven) with a hyphen. The x of dix is pronounced /s/ here (/dis.sɛt/), unlike the /z/ liaison in dix-huit and dix-neuf. In France, 17 is the police emergency number.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say seventeen (17) in French?
Seventeen in French is "dix-sept" (the number 17). It is built as 10 + 7 = 17.
How is dix-sept (17) pronounced in French?
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, "dix-sept" is transcribed /dis.sɛt/. Use the audio button on this page to hear the standard French pronunciation.
What is the ordinal form of 17 in French?
The ordinal for 17 is "dix-septième", abbreviated 17e. The form is the same in the masculine and the feminine.
How is 17 used in a French sentence?
A natural example is: "En France, on appelle le dix-sept pour joindre la police."
Related numbers
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