French Roman Numerals

French Roman Numerals - Chiffres romains When to use Roman numerals in French

Roman numerals are used quite often in French, as both cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers. They are commonly used to express all of the following: Dates, especially in official documents and on monuments établi MCMXLVI

established 1946

© MMIII

© 2003

Time periods le XVIIIe siècle

the 18th century

trimestre II

second quarter*

IIIe millénaire

third millenium

Proper names Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Louis XIV

Louis the 14th

Governments la Ve République

the 5th Republic

la XXe dynastie

the 20th dynasty

Events and assemblies les jeux de la XXIXe Olympiade Games of the 29th Olympiad IIIe Sommet de l'Assemblée Third summit of the APF parlementaire de la Francophonie Arrondissements le IIe arrondissement

the 2nd district

le XVIIIe arrondissement

the 18th district

Books - title page dates - introductory page numbers - illustration numbers - section, installment, volume, and appendix numbers introduction p. vi

introduction, page 6

volume I

volume 1

appendice III

appendix 3

titre xi

title 11

Music and poetry: verse and stanza numbers

couplet II

verse 2

strophe VI

stanza 6

Divisions of plays Acte I

Act 1

Scène III

Scene 3

Note: I'm not necessarily saying you can't use Roman numerals in English in these examples they are just less common in English than in French. And it is very rare to use Roman numerals as ordinal numbers in English; terms like Xe siècle will virtually always be translated as "10th century." *Trimestre is a false cognate - it means quarter, not trimester - French number expressions