Numbers
Italian numbers are regular once you know the building blocks — and a few spellings to watch.
The cardinals: uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci; then undici, dodici, tredici, quattordici, quindici, sedici, diciassette, diciotto, diciannove. The tens: venti, trenta, quaranta, cinquanta, sessanta, settanta, ottanta, novanta, cento.
Compound numbers drop the final vowel of the ten before uno and otto: ventuno, ventotto, trentuno. Tre keeps its ending but takes an accent at the end of a compound: ventitré, trentatré. Cento never changes (duecento, trecento); mille becomes mila in the plural (duemila).
Uno follows the indefinite article rules before nouns: un libro, una casa, un'amica, uno studente. Other numbers are invariable: due libri, tre case. Numbers also give ages with avere: Ho venticinque anni (I am twenty-five).
Examples
- uno, due, tre ... dieci one, two, three ... ten
- ventuno, ventidue, ventitré, ventotto twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-eight
- cento, duecento, mille, duemila one hundred, two hundred, one thousand, two thousand
- Ho trentadue anni. I am thirty-two years old.
- Il conto è quarantotto euro. The bill is forty-eight euros.
Common mistake
Writing ventiuno or ventiotto — the ten loses its final vowel before uno and otto: ventuno, ventotto. And remember the accent in ventitré.