500 in French
cinq cents
Spellings verified June 2026 · page updated 2 October 2026
Five hundred with plural cents
“Five hundred in French” is cinq cents, the number 500. Hear it spoken below.
NUMERAL
500
FRENCH
cinq cents
IPA
/sɛ̃k.sɑ̃/
Breakdown
Ordinal form
Ranking things rather than counting them: 500 becomes cinq centième, written 500e in figures.
MASCULINE
cinq centième
500e
FEMININE
cinq centième
500e (same word as the masculine)
French writes the abbreviation with a plain e, never ème: 500e. 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 500
499
quatre cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
500
cinq cents
501
cinq cent un
Real sentence examples
“Le billet de cinq cents euros n'est plus en circulation.”
“Cinq cents personnes ont signé la pétition.”
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Cinq cents follows the plural-s rule (same as deux cents). The European Central Bank withdrew the 500-euro note from circulation in 2019, so the practical context for this number has changed.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say five hundred (500) in French?
Five hundred in French is "cinq cents" (the number 500). It is built as 5 x 100 = 500.
How is cinq cents (500) pronounced in French?
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, "cinq cents" is transcribed /sɛ̃k.sɑ̃/. Use the audio button on this page to hear the standard French pronunciation.
What is the ordinal form of 500 in French?
The ordinal for 500 is "cinq centième", abbreviated 500e. The form is the same in the masculine and the feminine.
How is 500 used in a French sentence?
A natural example is: "Le billet de cinq cents euros n'est plus en circulation."
Related numbers
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