Reading a Car Number Plate

Cars / Motoring / Insurance
1

Good afternoon All,
A bit of a silly question I suppose - if you had to read out a French number plate to someone else, how do you say the 3-digit bit in the middle?
For example, if the number was AB-123-CD, would you say ‘un, deux, trois’ or ‘cent vingt trois’ ?

2

cent vingt-trois

Nothing is silly. And thanks for the idea, the next time I have to quote a number, I’ll say it digit by digit, just for fun.

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3

I’ve always (in France) used cent vingt trois.

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4

This is something I could ask my French pals.

blah blah blah… or bluh blub blic… which is best, which is correct?
and I suspect I’ll get the same answer that I always get…
“les deux” :roll_eyes: :rofl:

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cent vingt trois

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6

Thanks all, “every day’s a school day” :light_bulb:

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Our French teacher said you have to say numbers to a French person as you posted. If you do digits they don’t usually get it. A bus like one hundred and ninety four is fine but tell a french person its the 1, 9, 4 and they may stand at the bus stop for hours. :rofl: She is French.

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8

Yes, heard the chap who emptied our fosse yesterday say trois cent quatre-vingt cinq.

9

I’ve spoken with a pal… we were walking.
He didn’t say anything at first… we just strolled..
Then he said… what’s that number plate, as a car drove past us..

I looked, he quickly turned me away I realised that I was muttering in English, which meant individual letters and numbers came automatically to me in this situation.

So, I muttered more loudly… and he grinned. I was saying the letters correctly in French, even saying each individual number correctly in French… but, being French, he would have lumped the numbers together as that’s what he was taught..

He said not to worry. It was better that I could read and remember a number plate and relate the details clearly… than forcing my brain to read the number plate the French way: and possibly get it wrong :roll_eyes: fair comment.

Incidentally, anything to do with time “quelle heure” and however a French person says it… I say it back to 'em to double check I’ve understood.
eg: dix-neuf heure = sept heure le soir and… quatorze heure = deux heure l’après midi
very basic, probably not correct procedure, but it works and everyone understands.. :+1:

EDIT: OH reminded me of how I talk to a friendly cow in the next field. I have known since it was born… The vet tagged it’s ear and it has an easy to remember number: 007*9… so I call out “hello/bonsoir double Oh seven star nine” and it calls back to … meuh :wink: