- •Interjections:
- •If a noun is plural, its modifiers will be plural:
- •In nel nello nell' nella nei negli nelle
- •In addition to the
- •Indefinite Pronouns:
- •Vario (various)
- •Improbable:
- •Il negozio, nel quale ho comprato la rivista, era chiuso. (The shop where I bought the magazine was closed.)
- •Insegnare (to teach)
- •Indicative:
- •If you compare these present tense sentences with the past tense sentences below, you notice that the main verb in the past requires the verb in the noun clause to be shifted to the past:
- •In quanto che, per il fatto che, dal momento che, (since)
- •In Italian, The only way to say 1,ioo through 1,900 is millecento, milleduecento, milletrecento, etc. There is no italian equivalent to "thirteen hundred".
- •Italian phone numbers can have from five through ten (or even more) digits.
- •In place of English "have" -- to "Have something done" --
In Italian, The only way to say 1,ioo through 1,900 is millecento, milleduecento, milletrecento, etc. There is no italian equivalent to "thirteen hundred".
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Collective Numbers ("about ten, about sixty, etc.), normally formed by dropping the final vowel of the cardinal numbers and adding -ina, are used to express approximations ("about ten", "about fifty", etc.) Collective numbers are feminine nouns and are almost always indefinite, so they normally require the indefinite article una. They are followed by the preposition di if used with another noun.
una diecina <about ten>
una cinquantina <about fifty>
una trentina di nostri amici <about thirty of our friends>
Exceptions:
un centinaio <about a hundred>, centinaia <hundreds>
un migliaio <about a thousand>, migliaia <thousands>
Dozen/dozens (of):
una dozzina, due dozzine, etc. <a dozen, two dozen, etc.>
Una Dozzina di mele <a dozen apples>
a Dozzina <by the dozen>)
(uno sacco di: Ho uno sacco di cose da fare, <I have dozens of (lots of) things to do.> -- sacco really means "sack" so <I have a sack of things to do>
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Cardinal numbers in simple Mathematical constructions:
piu = plus -- Addizione
meno = minus -- sottrazione
per = times, multplied by -- multiplicazione
diviso per = divided by -- divizione
Fratto = divided by -- divizione
fa (fanno) = equals, are
e uguale a = equals, are
tre piu sette fa (fanno) dieci <3 + 7 = 10>
(Tre piu sette e uguale a dieci <3 + 7 = 10>)
trenta meno quindici fa (fann0) quindici <30 - 15 = 15>
cinque per sei fa (fanno) trenta <5 x 6 = 30>
quaranta diviso per diece fa (fanno) quatro <40 : 10 = 4>
Fractions -- frazione:
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1/2 = la meta <one/a half> (le due mete <both halves>) (1 1/2 = uno e meta <one and a half>)
1/2 = mezzo,-a,-i,-e <one/a half (something)> (I due mezzi (cosi) <both half (somethings)>)
La meta is the noun and mezzo is the adjective:
la meta della classe <half of the class>
mezza bottiglia <a half bottle>
Other fractions use the same word for nouns and adjectives, but they are also inflected when used as adjectives, e.g., la terza bottiglia
1/3 = un terzo <one/a third> (2/3 = due terzi <two thirds>) (1.2/3 = uno e due terzi <one and two thirds>)
1/4 = un quarto <one/a fourth or one/a/quarter>
1/5 = un quinto
1/6 = un sesto
1/7 = un settimo
1/8 = un ottavo
1/9 = un nono
1/10 = un decimo
1/11 = un undecimo
....
1/17 = un diciasettimo
1/18 = un dicottimo/un dicottavo
1/19 = un dicianovimo/un dicianono
1/20 = un ventesimo
1/21 = un ventunesimo
1/22 = un ventiduesimo
1/23 = un ventitresimo
....
1/28 = un ventottesimo/un ventottavo
....
1/100 = un centesimo
....
1/1000 = un millesimo
As in English, fractions are formed by using a cardina number in the numerator and an ordinal in the denominator, and if the numerator is more than one, the denominator is plural.
Sources differ on how to form obscure fractions -- mathematicians appear to prefer "un ventottesimo" for 1/28 (but are just as likely to say "uno diviso per (or fratto) ventotto.") Linguists like "un ventottoavo" for 1/28 (but they also may just say "uno diviso per ventotto.")
As in English, any fraction can be spoken like "dieci diviso per ventitre <ten divided by twenty three>.
Fratto also is translated by the English word fractional.
Decimals (Frazione decimale):
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Decimal fractions are formed regularly in Italian using the word "virgola" <comma>. True to the word, a comma is used in Italian rather than the period used in English:
1,25 = uno virgola venticinque <1.25 = one point two five>
Italians with many english speaking contacts may say "uno punto (decimale) venticinque" when speaking to Enlish speakers.
Multiplicative numbers (double, triple, etc.):
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Multiplo <multiple, manifold>
doppio <double, twice, dual, twofold>
triplo <triple, treble, threefold>
quadruplo <quadruple>
quintuplo <quintuple>
sestuplo <sextuple>
settuplo <septuple>
ottuplo <octuple>
nonuplo <nontuple>
dieci volte maggiore/tanto <tenfold, decuple>
undici volte maggiore/tanto <elevenfold>
centuplo <hundredfold, centuple>
mille volte magiore/tanto <thousandfold>
Multi-, dupli-, tripli- quadrupli-, etc. are used as prefixes
multiplicare, duplicare, triplicare, quadruplicare, etc. <to miltiply, to double, to triple, to quadruple, etc.>
Telephone numbers:
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