1989 in French
mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf
Updated May 2026
Fall of the Berlin Wall
NUMERAL
1 989
FRENCH
mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf
IPA
/mil.nœf.sɑ̃.katʁ.vɛ̃.nœf/
Breakdown
Real sentence examples
“Le mur de Berlin est tombe en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf.”
“La Revolution roumaine a eu lieu en decembre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf.”
Year context
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell on the night of 9 November. France marked the bicentenary of the French Revolution in the same year (1789-1989), with major public ceremonies in Paris on 14 July 1989.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Long compound year form including the quatre-vingt-neuf vigesimal at the end. Mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf is the canonical pronunciation; the hundreds form "dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf" exists in older French and is occasionally seen in literary contexts.
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