French Quantity Words

la quantité

Expressing qualities can be quite tricky in French. The following table offers a complete list of quantity words and expressions. We’ve included some example sentences below the table.

ADVERBS
a lot of	beaucoup de
a lot of	pas mal de
a minimum of	un maximum de
a minimum of	un minimum de
about	environ
almost, nearly	presque
approximately	à peu près
as much as	autant de
enough	suffisant de
enough	assez de
few	peu de
how much (many)	combien de
less	moins de
majority of	la majorité de
more	plus de
so much, so many	tant de
too much	trop de

ADJECTIVES
triple	triple
little	petit, petite
half	demi, demie
full	plein, pleine
entire	entier, entière
empty	vide
each	chaque
double	double
big	gros, grosse

APPROXIMATE AMOUNTS
a fistful of	une poignée de
a mouthful of	une bouchée de
a part of	une part de, une partie de
a piece of	un morceau de
a piece of	une pièce de
a portion of	une portion de
a quantity of	une quantié de
several, many	plusieurs

CONATINERS
a can / box of	une boîte de
un bol de	a bolw of
un verre de	a glass of
une assiette de	a plate of
une tasse de	a cup of

MEASURMENTS
a pound of	une livre de
a liter of	un litre de
a kilogram of	un kilo de

how to form quantity sentences

To express quantities, most of the above expressions use the following grammatical structure: Quantity word + de + noun. The definite article (le, la, les) is not included. Here are examples:

Il a beaucoup de voitures. He has a lot of cars.
Nous avons peu de temps. We have time.
Ils ont assez d’argent. They have enough money.
Je prends un morceau de pain. I take a piece of bread.
J’ai une dizaine d’amis en France. I have about ten friends in France.
J’achète un kilo de pommes. I’m buying one kilo of apples.

When dealing with specific numbers there’s no need to use -de. For example:

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J’achète trois bananes. I buy three bananas.
Nous avons trois heures. We have three hours.
Ils ont un kilo de pommes de terre. They have one kilo of potatoes.

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David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language enthusiast. His head is swimming with words and sounds as he speaks over six languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private online lessons. When procrastinating working on his site, FrenchLearner.com, David enjoys his time skiing and hiking in Teton Valley, Idaho.

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