Italian numbers are one of the first things you need to be functional in the language — to ask the time, give your phone number, read a price tag, or tell someone your age. The good news is that Italian numbers are highly regular: once you know one through twenty, the rest of the language's numerals fall into predictable patterns. The bad news is that two of those patterns will trip up English speakers immediately, because Italian's punctuation conventions for numbers are the exact opposite of English's.
This page is the orientation: it surveys cardinals, ordinals, dates, time, measurements, fractions, and the punctuation conventions in one place, then points you to the dedicated subpages where you'll learn each system in detail.
The two big number systems
Like English, Italian distinguishes cardinal numbers (used for counting and quantifying) from ordinal numbers (used for ranking and ordering).
Cardinals: counting and quantifying
Cardinals answer the question quanti? (how many?). They are the words you use to count, give a price, state your age, give a phone number, or report a quantity.
Ho due fratelli e tre sorelle.
I have two brothers and three sisters. — due, tre: cardinals for quantity.
Il caffè costa un euro e cinquanta.
The coffee costs one euro fifty. — un, cinquanta: cardinals for price.
Mio nonno ha novantadue anni.
My grandfather is ninety-two. — novantadue: cardinal for age.
For a complete walk-through of cardinals see Cardinal Numbers 0–20, Cardinal Numbers 21–100, and Cardinal Numbers 100+.
Ordinals: ranking and ordering
Ordinals answer the question quale? in che posizione? (which one? in what position?). They are the words you use for rankings, sequences, dates' first day, kings, popes, and chapters.
Sono arrivato secondo nella gara.
I came second in the race. — secondo: the ordinal for second place.
Abito al terzo piano.
I live on the third floor. — terzo: ordinal for floor numbers.
Papa Giovanni Ventitreesimo.
Pope John the Twenty-Third. — ventitreesimo: ordinal used for popes and rulers.
Ordinals inflect for gender and number like adjectives: primo, prima, primi, prime. From eleven onward they are formed by attaching -esimo to the cardinal stem: undicesimo, dodicesimo, ventiquattresimo. See Ordinal Numbers for the full system.
The punctuation reversal
This is the single most likely thing to confuse an English speaker reading Italian (or any continental European language). Internalise it now.
| Number | Italian writing | English writing | Read aloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| one thousand | 1.000 or 1000 | 1,000 | mille |
| one million | 1.000.000 | 1,000,000 | un milione |
| pi (mathematical) | 3,14 | 3.14 | tre virgola quattordici |
| twelve point five | 12,5 | 12.5 | dodici virgola cinque |
| price label | €1.250,00 | €1,250.00 | milleduecentocinquanta euro |
Il pi greco è circa 3,14.
Pi is approximately 3.14. — Comma is the decimal separator; read aloud as 'tre virgola quattordici'.
L'appartamento costa 250.000 euro.
The apartment costs 250,000 euros. — Period as thousands separator; read aloud as 'duecentocinquantamila euro'.
La temperatura ideale è tra 20,5 e 22,0 gradi.
The ideal temperature is between 20.5 and 22.0 degrees. — Both numbers use the comma as decimal separator.
Dates: cardinal numbers (with one ordinal exception)
Italian dates use the format il + cardinal + (di) + month. The cardinal number is not an ordinal — it's the same form you use for counting. The only exception is the first of the month, which uses the ordinal primo.
Oggi è il quindici (di) marzo.
Today is March 15th. — il quindici: cardinal, not 'fifteenth'.
La scuola comincia il primo settembre.
School starts on September 1st. — il primo: the only date that uses the ordinal.
Sono nato il ventuno aprile.
I was born on April 21st. — il ventuno: cardinal, not 'twenty-first'.
This is a real point of difference from English. English says the fifteenth of March; Italian says (literally) the fifteen of March. For the full system including years, written formats, and day names, see Dates.
Time: 'sono le' / 'è l'una'
Italian uses cardinals plus the verb essere and the feminine plural article le (because ore, "hours", is feminine plural and is implicit).
— Che ore sono? — Sono le tre.
— What time is it? — It's three o'clock. — Sono le (sono le ore tre): plural with the article le, hours implicit.
È l'una di notte.
It's one in the morning. — Singular for one o'clock: è l'una (one hour). Note 'di notte' rather than 'di mattina' because it's the small hours.
Sono le otto e mezzo.
It's eight thirty (literally 'eight and half'). — e mezzo / e mezza for half past.
Alle quindici e trenta parte il treno.
The train leaves at 15:30. — Italian uses the 24-hour clock freely in formal/written contexts: alle 15:30 = at 3:30 PM.
For the full system — quarter to, quarter past, noon, midnight, and the 24-hour clock — see Telling Time.
Measurements
Standard SI/metric units, with cardinals as the quantifier. The unit usually goes after the number, sometimes after a preposition.
Il pacco pesa cinque chilogrammi.
The package weighs five kilograms. — Cardinal + unit, no preposition.
La stanza è tre metri per quattro.
The room is three by four metres. — 'per' (by) joins the two dimensions, the unit follows the second number.
Prendo due litri di latte.
I'll take two litres of milk. — Cardinal + unit + di + commodity.
Italy is firmly metric. Litri, metri, chilogrammi, gradi (Celsius) are the everyday units. Imperial measurements (pollici, libbre, miglia) are not used in daily Italian life and would sound foreign to a native speaker.
Fractions
Fractions in Italian are formed with the cardinal for the numerator and the ordinal for the denominator. From thirds onward, the denominator behaves like an adjective and inflects in number.
| Fraction | Italian | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | un mezzo / mezzo | "Mezzo" is special: used as adjective (mezza pizza, half a pizza) or noun (un mezzo, a half) |
| 1/3 | un terzo | cardinal + ordinal denominator |
| 1/4 | un quarto | — |
| 2/3 | due terzi | denominator inflects to plural: terzi |
| 3/4 | tre quarti | quarti: plural ordinal |
| 5/8 | cinque ottavi | ottavi: plural of ottavo |
Mezza pizza non basta per quattro persone.
Half a pizza isn't enough for four people. — Mezza is the special form for one half, agreeing with the feminine pizza.
Tre quarti degli studenti sono in vacanza.
Three quarters of the students are on holiday. — tre quarti: numerator + plural ordinal denominator.
Il libro è due terzi nuovo, un terzo riproposto.
The book is two thirds new, one third reissued. — due terzi (plural denom.) and un terzo (singular).
For decimals, percentages, and the full fraction system see Fractions and Decimals.
Currency: euro is invariable
When Italy adopted the euro in 2002, the language adopted a curious convention: euro is invariable. Whether you have one or a million, it stays euro — no plural euri in standard Italian, despite occasional informal use. The smaller unit is centesimo (cent), which does pluralise normally: un centesimo, dieci centesimi.
Costa un euro e cinquanta centesimi.
It costs one euro and fifty cents. — euro: invariable, even when modified by a number greater than one. centesimi: regular plural.
Ho pagato cinquanta euro per il biglietto.
I paid fifty euros for the ticket. — Still 'euro', not 'euri'.
Il prezzo è di duemila euro.
The price is two thousand euros. — duemila euro, plural meaning, singular form.
The older Italian currency, the lira (plural lire), did pluralise normally: cento lire, mille lire. So Italian had a regular plural for its national currency for over a hundred years and then adopted an irregular invariable for the euro. This is unusual and worth memorising as a one-off fact.
A practical reference card
For everyday A1 functioning, these are the absolute essentials.
| Function | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Counting | cardinal | uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque… |
| Age | avere + cardinal + anni | Ho trent'anni. (I'm 30.) |
| Phone number | digit by digit (single cardinals) | tre-tre-cinque, otto-due-uno… |
| Time | sono le + cardinal / è l'una | Sono le sette. (It's seven.) |
| Date | il + cardinal (+ di) + month | il quindici (di) marzo |
| First of month | il primo + month | il primo gennaio |
| Price | cardinal + euro / centesimi | tre euro e cinquanta |
| Year | nel/del + cardinal (compound) | nel duemilaventiquattro (in 2024) |
| Floor / position | al + ordinal + piano | al terzo piano |
| Rank in race | è arrivato + ordinal | è arrivato secondo |
| Decimal | cardinal + virgola + cardinal | tre virgola quattordici (3,14) |
| Percentage | cardinal + per cento | cinquanta per cento (50%) |
Common Mistakes
These are the most frequent slip-ups for English speakers learning Italian numbers.
❌ Compro tre euros di pane.
Wrong — euro is invariable in Italian, despite the meaning being plural. There is no 'euros' or 'euri' in standard Italian.
✅ Compro tre euro di pane.
I'll buy three euros' worth of bread. — euro stays singular.
❌ La temperatura è 20.5 gradi.
Wrong — Italian uses a comma as decimal separator, not a period. 20.5 in Italian writing would mean 'twenty thousand five hundred'.
✅ La temperatura è 20,5 gradi.
The temperature is 20.5 degrees. — Comma as decimal separator.
❌ Oggi è il quindicesimo marzo.
Wrong — Italian dates use cardinals, not ordinals: il quindici marzo. Only the first of the month uses an ordinal (il primo).
✅ Oggi è il quindici marzo.
Today is March 15th. — Cardinal: il quindici, not 'il quindicesimo'.
❌ È le una.
Wrong — for one o'clock, Italian uses the singular: è l'una (one hour, feminine singular). Plurals (sono le) start from two.
✅ È l'una.
It's one o'clock. — Singular form for one.
❌ La popolazione è 60,000,000.
Wrong — Italian groups thousands with periods, not commas. 60,000,000 in Italian writing would be misread; the correct form is 60.000.000.
✅ La popolazione è 60.000.000.
The population is 60 million. — Periods as thousands separators.
Key takeaways
Italian numbers are highly regular. Once you learn 0–20, you can predict 21–100; once you learn 100, you can build numbers up to a million by simple concatenation.
Punctuation is reversed. Decimal comma (3,14), thousands period (1.000). Misreading this is the most common single number-reading error English speakers make.
Dates use cardinals, except for the first of the month, which uses the ordinal primo.
Time uses cardinals in plural with le (sono le tre) — except one o'clock, which is singular: è l'una.
Euro is invariable. Use un euro, dieci euro, mille euro. The cents (centesimi) pluralise normally.
Numbers under a million are written as one word: ventuno, trentadue, milleduecentocinquanta. We will see this concatenation rule in detail in Cardinal Numbers 21–100 and Cardinal Numbers 100+.
The dedicated subpages — 0–20, 21–100, 100+, Ordinals, Dates, Telling Time, Fractions and Decimals — go into each subsystem in detail.
Now practice Italian
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers 0–20A1 — The Italian numbers from zero to twenty, with full pronunciation, stress patterns, the inflection of uno (un/uno/una/un'), the invariable status of due and tre, the accent on -tré in compounds, and the irregular forms diciassette and diciannove.
- Cardinal Numbers 21–100A1 — How Italian builds the cardinals from twenty-one to one hundred: the tens (venti, trenta, quaranta…), the concatenation rule that fuses ten and unit into a single word, the vowel-elision rule (venti+uno = ventuno), and the acute accent on -tré in compound numbers.
- Cardinal Numbers 100+A2 — Italian large numbers: cento and its compounds (duecento, trecento), mille and its plural mila (duemila, tremila), milione and miliardo (which DO inflect), the one-word concatenation rule up to a million, year notation, and Italian's reversed punctuation conventions for big numbers.
- Italian Ordinal NumbersA1 — How to form and use Italian ordinals — primo through decimo, the productive -esimo suffix from undicesimo onward, full agreement in gender and number, and the special roles ordinals play in dates, centuries, popes, and rankings.
- Italian DatesA1 — How to write and say dates in Italian — the day-month-year order, the obligatory definite article, the special role of primo for the first of the month, the lowercase months and weekdays, the way years are read as a single word, and the cultural shorthand of decades and centuries.
- Telling Time in ItalianA1 — How to ask and tell the time in Italian — the singular È l'una for 1:00 and plural Sono le tre for 3:00, the use of mezzo, mezza, and un quarto, the special words mezzogiorno and mezzanotte, the 24-hour clock for trains and TV schedules, and the prepositions a / alle for appointments.
- Italian Fractions and DecimalsA2 — How Italians say fractions, decimals, percentages, and basic arithmetic — the cardinal-plus-ordinal pattern of fractions, the comma (not period) as the decimal separator, the use of mezzo and mezza for halves, the four arithmetic verbs, and the system of approximate quantities like una decina and un centinaio.