"Le français est parlé couramment par ________ 200 millions de personnes dans le monde."

Question

French language is spoken by more than 200 million people around the world.

I put "plus que" since that felt like "more than" but the correct answer is "plus de." I'm struggling to understand this since it doesn't fit the same structure as the lesson examples (e.g. French is spoken by more people than Italian).

Thanks for any clarification!

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Elysia,
Maarten's answer is great!

Tom a plus de 15 ans d'expérience dans ce domaine = Tom has more than 15 years experience in this area
J'ai plus de 100 livres dans ma bibliothèque privée = I have more than 100 books in my private library
Les scientifiques ont répertorié plus de 47 000 d'espèces animales en danger en 2025 = Scientists recorded more than 47,000 species in danger in 2025

-> "plus de + [number] (de) [noun]"
 
Tom a plus de chance que moi = Tom has more luck than I (do)
-> "plus de + [noun] que [...]"
 
I will pass on your comments about "plus de + [number]" for further discussion.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Céline Pickard · Answer

Bonjour à tous,
Following on your query and comments about using numbers with "plus de...", we decided to add a few examples in the lesson so that it clears up any ambiguity.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Elysia,

this is a statement of ‘ superiority’ applying to the quantity of ‘ the number (of people speaking French) ‘.

It can be confusing that it translates into common English usage as ‘ more than ‘ in this structure, but that’s just the way it is.

The French expression to be used in a simple number/quantity superiority statement applying to nouns is ‘ plus de qqc ‘

Effectively it is the same as the first part of the first comparative statement in the lesson :

‘ j’ai plus de livres ( superiority statement) que toi ( qualifying comparison statement )

I think the lesson could explain this further - as the heading, examples and text don’t fully convey the distinction.

See link below to Laura Lawless site for more discussion and a good final ‘ en résumé )

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/expressions/expressions-of-quantity/