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The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being “popular” (noun) and the other one “savant” (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:

* brother: frère / fraternel < from Latin frater
* finger: doigt / digital < from Latin digitus
* faith: foi / fidèle < from Latin fides
* cold: froid / frigide < from Latin frigidus
* eye: œil / oculaire < from Latin oculus

In some examples there is a common word from Vulgar Latin and a more savant word borrowed directly from Medieval Latin or even Ancient Greek.

* Cheval—Concours équestre—Hippodrome

The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than Italian words of Latin origin because as French evolved from Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word.

It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are of foreign origin. About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from ancient Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from other Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Slavic languages and Baltic languages, 10 for Basque and 144 — about three percent — from other languages.

Numerals

The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60–99. The French word for eighty, for example, is quatre-vingts, which literally means "four twenties", and soixante-quinze (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).

Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic. In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used.

It should also be noted that French uses a period or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq.

Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows:

* One: un /œ̃/
* Two: deux /dø/
* Three: trois /tʁwa/
* Four: quatre /katʁ/
* Five: cinq /sɛ̃k/
* Six: six /sis/
* Seven: sept /sɛt/
* Eight: huit /ʔɥɪt/
* Nine: neuf /nœf/
* Ten: dix /dis/
* Eleven: onze /ɔ̃z/
* Twelve: douze /duz/
* Thirteen: treize /tʁɛz/
* Fourteen: quatorze /katɔʁz/
* Fifteen: quinze /kɛ̃z/
* Sixteen: seize /sɛz/
* Seventeen: dix-sept /dis.sɛt/
* Eighteen: dix-huit /di.z‿ɥit/
* Nineteen: dix-neuf /diz.nœf/
* Twenty: vingt /vɛ̃/

Source: Wikipedia