Learning to Count in Italian is Much Easier Than You Think
Learning how to say numbers is one of the first things that we do when learning a language because we use them all the time! We count objects, we count days, weeks, months and years, we use dates, percentages, prices, and we say our age, among many other things, but you get it.
Luckily, the Italian numerical system is pretty easy for English speakers as it is very similar structurally to English numbers. We will be learning the numbers 0 to 1,000,000 as that will cover you for most things you want to count. It might sound like a lot but you will see that it is relatively straightforward to grasp Italian numbers.
Numbers 0 – 19
0 zero
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 diciasei
17 diciassette
18 diciotto
19 dicianove
Numbers 20 – 99
The system of counting from 20 to 99 is very straightforward and essentially follows the same pattern as English. You take the initial number of the set of 10, such as 20, 50, or 90, and simply add the number from 1 to 9.
There are couple of things to point out about Italian numbers over 20:
◉ When one part of the number ends in a vowel and is followed by either a 1 (UNO) or an 8 (OTTO), then that vowel at the end of the first part is omitted (Italian doesn’t like more than one vowel between words!). So the 1st and 8th number of every set of ten will delete a vowel in the middle.
◉ When spelling out Italian numbers, there are no spaces between the words. This can make for some very long words as you get into the larger numbers!
20 venti
21 ventuno
22 ventidue
23 ventitré
24 ventiquattro
25 venticinque
26 ventisei
27 ventisette
28 ventotto
29 ventinove
30 trenta
40 quaranta
50 cinquanta
60 sessanta
70 settanta
80 ottanta
90 novanta
Numbers 100-1,000,000
100 cento
200 duecento
300 trecento
423 quattrocentoventitre
785 settecentoottantacinque
1000 mille
2000 duemila
3000 tremila
6510 seimilacinquecentodieci
10.000 diecimila
20.000 ventimila
30.000 trentamila
44.000 quarantaquattromila
90.021 novantamilaventuno
100.000 centomila
200.000 duecentomila
300.000 trecentomila
1.000.000 un milione