How to count in Italian
Enter a number and read it spelled out in Italian.
Language overview
Italian (italiano) is a romance language from the indo-european family. Official language in Italy, San Marino, and Vatican City, co-official in Switzerland (alongside with French, German and Romansh), it counts about 62 million speakers.
Italian numbering rules
- Numbers from zero to ten are specific words, namely zero [0], uno [1], due [2], tre [3], quattro [4], cinque [5], sei [6], sette [7], otto [8], nove [9], and dieci [10].
- From eleven to sixteen, numbers are formed from the root of the digit followed by ten: undici [11], dodici [12], tredici [13], quattordici [14], quindici [15], and sedici [16]. From seventeen to nineteen, the order is reversed, as the unit is put directly after the ten: diciassette [17], diciotto [18], and diciannove [19].
- The tens have specific names based on the matching digit root except for ten and twenty: dieci [10], venti [20], trenta [30], quaranta [40], cinquanta [50], sessanta [60], settanta [70], ottanta [80], and novanta [90].
- Compound numbers are formed by juxtaposing the ten and the unit, causing an apocope of the last vowel of the ten name before a digit starting with a vowel, i.e. one and eight (e.g.: ventuno [21], trentadue [32], quarantotto [48]). When a compound number ends with three, tre becomes tré and the stress is put on the last syllable (e.g.: cinquantatré [53]).
- The hundreds are formed by prefixing the word hundred by the multiplier digit, except for one hundred: cento [100], duecento [200], trecento [300], quattrocento [400]…
- Hundreds, tens and units are linked together with no space (e.g.: centonove [109], duecentotrenta [230], novecentonovantanove [999]).
- Thousands are formed by prefixing the word thousand by the multiplier digit, except for one thousand: mille [1,000] (plural mila), duemila [2,000], tremila [3,000], quattromila [4,000], cinquemila [5,000]…
- Numbers are grouped in words of three digits, with the specific rule that a space is added after the word for thousand if its multiplier is greater than one hundred and does not end with a double zero (e.g.: duemilatrecentoquarantacinque [2,345], seicentomiladue [600,002], settecentosessantacinquemila duecento [765,200]).
- Italian language uses the long scale for big numbers where every new word greater than a million is one million times bigger than the previous term. One million is un milione, un miliardo is 109 (the US billion), and un bilione (1012) worths a thousand US billions, the next step, 1015, being un biliardo (one quadrillion).
- The digit one (uno) becomes un before a masculine noun, which is the case of all scale names. Besides, their plural construction is regular, the ending -e or -o becoming -i (e.g.: un milione [one million], due milioni [two million], un miliardo [one billion], due miliardi [two billion]).
Books
- In English
- Italian Grammar [
,
], Marcel Danesi, Barron’s Educational Series (2002) - Essential Italian Grammar [
,
], Olga Ragusa, Dover Publications (1963) - In Spanish
- Gramática analítico descriptiva de la lengua italiana [
], Fausto Díaz Padilla, Universidad de Oviedo (1999) - In French
- Grammaire Italienne [
,
], H. Monachesi, BiblioBazaar (2009)
Numbers list
| 1 – uno 2 – due 3 – tre 4 – quattro 5 – cinque 6 – sei 7 – sette 8 – otto 9 – nove | 10 – dieci 11 – undici 12 – dodici 13 – tredici 14 – quattordici 15 – quindici 16 – sedici 17 – diciassette 18 – diciotto | 19 – diciannove 20 – venti 30 – trenta 40 – quaranta 50 – cinquanta 60 – sessanta 70 – settanta 80 – ottanta 90 – novanta | 100 – cento 1,000 – mille one million – un milione one billion – un miliardo one trillion – un bilione |
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