I recently read an article in the Journal the Montréal about a Québec/Canadian pharmaceutical chain (Jean Coutu) who was interested in buying a U.S. chain (Eckerds) for an amount written as 5G $.

I had absolutely NO idea what the G meant so I looked it up. I found out something quite interesting thing that I though you guys would be interested in. PLUS, I want to ask something to our overseas friends.

French and English use the same terms to describe several specific money amounts but some identical terms mean different amounts. Here is the list


French………………English……………….amount

Mille………………..thousand………………1,000
Million……………...million…………………1,000,000
Milliard…………….billion………………….1,000,000,000
Billion………………trillion…………………1,000,000,000,000
Trillion……………..quadrillion……………...1,000,000,000,000,000
Quatrillion………..quintillion…………….1,000,000,000,000,000,000

To our overseas friends…what terms do you use?

Oh, and the G, it stands for giga which stands for milliard/billion.

k = mille/thousand
M = million
G = milliard/billion
T = billion/trillion
P = trillion/quadrillion
E = quatrillion/quintillion