Combining articles with noun-adjective and adjective-noun

When an article occurs before either an adjective-noun (a-n) or a noun-adjective (n-a) combination, it will obviously have the same gender and number, and it will phonetically match with the word coming next to it:

il grande oceano (a-n, masculine)	the great ocean	(the article matches grande)
l'oceano grande (n-a)	the great ocean	(the article matches oceano)
l'unica scelta (a-n, feminine)	the only choice	(the article matches unica)
la scelta unica (n-a)	the only choice	(the article matches scelta)
i piccoli uccelli (a-n, masculine)	the small birds	(the article matches piccoli)
gli uccelli piccoli (n-a)	the small birds	(the article matches uccelli)
una buona occasione (a-n, masculine)	a good opportunity	(the article matches buona)
un'occasione buona (n-a)	a good opportunity	(the article matches occasione)
uno stupido incidente (a-n, masculine)	a stupid accident	(the article matches stupido)
un incidente stupido (n-a)	a stupid accident	(the article matches incidente)

When using indefinite articles before an adjective, beware of a typical mistake which should be avoided: the use of an apostrophe where it is not needed. Focus the following examples:

un incredibile evento = an incredible event un ultimo tentativo = a last try un amaro ricordo = a bitter memory un'incredibile notizia = an incredible news un'ultima risposta = a last answer un'amara bevanda = a bitter drink

In the first three sentences the noun is masculine, so un does not require an apostrophe (un evento, un incredibile evento, or un tentativo, un ultimo tentativo). In the second three sentences the noun is feminine, so una is shortened in un' which does require an apostrophe (una notizia, but un'incredibile notizia), since for phonetic reasons una drops the last a before words starting with a vowel. It's quite common for beginners to write incorrectly "un'incredibile evento", especially when the adjective has the same inflection for masculine and feminine (as in this case). So always rely on the following noun (in this case evento, masculine), not on the adjective.

3.1 CARDINAL & DECIMAL NUMBERS

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Cardinal numerals (1, 2, 3... etc.) are used for mathematics or for stating quantities. The name of Italian ones works in the following way:

1 to 10 have a specific name, 11 to 16 follow a semi-standard pattern (more or less like English ...-teen), 17 to 19 have a different semi-standard pattern; all the others can be obtained with a fully standard pattern.

The following tables show also English sounds.

0 to 10

zero	dzehroh	zero (but also nill, o, etc...)
uno	wnoh	one
due	dweh	two
tre	treh	three
quattro	quah'ttroh	four
cinque	chinqueh	five
sei	sehy	six
sette	seh'tteh	seven
otto	oh'ttoh	eight
nove	nohveh	nine
dieci	dyehchih	ten

Numbers do not change inflection for different genders, except uno, which actually behaves as the same indefinite article (see paragraph 2.4), and therefore when followed by a matching noun changes as follows:

uno	one (as a digit)
uno scopo, un cane, un occhio	one purpose (= a purpose), one dog (= a dog), one eye (= an eye)
una scatola, una chiave, un'oca	one box (= a box), one key (= a key), one goose (= a goose)

But any other number is irrespective of gender (the noun will obviously be plural):

un albero, tre alberi (masculine)	one tree, three trees
una casa, tre case (feminine)	one house, three houses
un cane, otto cani (masculine)	one dog, eight dogs
una chiave, otto chiavi (feminine)	eight keys

In written Italian, it is usually more correct to spell small numbers by their names when they state a quantity: "there were five ships" would be better than "there were 5 ships". When using articles, the numeral acts like a plural adjective in the "adjective-noun" pattern:

gli alberi - i tre alberi	(gli matches alberi, while i matches tre)	the trees - the three trees
le case - le tre case	(le matches both case and tre)	the houses - the three houses
i cani - gli otto cani	(i matches cani, while gli matches otto)	the dogs - the eight dogs
le chiavi - le otto chiavi	(le matches both chiavi and otto)	the keys - the eight keys

When the numbered noun is single (i.e. "only one"), the adjective unico = only can be used:

il gatto (the cat) - un gatto (one cat) - l'unico gatto (the only cat) la strada (the road) - una strada (one road) - l'unica strada (the only road) l'indice (masc., the index) - un indice (one index) - l'unico indice (the only index)

(if you don't feel confident with articles, browse again paragraph 2.4) Instead, when numbers are treated as nouns, they are always masculine and singular, because Italian assumes that numero (= number) comes before them, although in most cases it may be omitted. And, as any other noun, also the word numero requires an article:

il numero uno or simply l'uno	number one
il numero due or simply il due	number two
il numero otto or simply l'otto	number eight
il numero dieci or simply il dieci	number ten

As usual, notice how the article phonetically depends on the following word.

11 to 19

undici	wndychih	eleven
dodici	dohdychih	twelve
tredici	trehdychih	thirteen
quattordici	quah'ttohrdychih	fourteen
quindici	quihndychih	fifteen
sedici	sehdychih	sixteen
diciassette	dychassehtteh	seventeen
diciotto	dychohttoh	eighteen
diciannove	dychahnnohveh	nineteen

As you see, the first group has a root resembling numbers 1 to 6, followed by the suffix ...dici, a contraction of dieci (ten), with accent falling on the last syllable before the suffix. The last three numbers, instead, have an opposite pattern: a prefix for ten (dicia...) is followed by the digit, though for fonetic reasons something changes in the overall spelling. The stressed syllable is the same as for the corresponding digits. The same rules stated above for 0 to 9 are also valid for these numbers (and for the following ones, as well), therefore:

undici	(eleven)
gli undici cani (masculine)	the eleven dogs)
le undici case (feminine)	the eleven houses
il numero undici or simply l'undici	(number eleven)
diciannove	(nineteen)
i diciannove cani (masculine)	the nineteen dogs)
le diciannove case (feminine)	the nineteen houses
il numero diciannove or simply il diciannove	(number nineteen)

FULL MULTIPLES OF 10

venti	vehnty	twenty
trenta	trehntah	thirty
quaranta	quahrahntah	forty
cinquanta	chinquahntah	fifty
sessanta	sehssahntah	sixty
settanta	seh'ttahntah	seventy
ottanta	oh'ttahntah	eighty
novanta	nohvahntah	ninety
cento	chehntoh	one hundred

So the multiples of ten are not very different from the English ones, as they use a suffix ...anta (but ...enta for thirty) in the same way English uses ...ty. Names of digits slightly change, binding with the suffix. The word cento, instead, actually means hundred (Italian does not require to specify one, as in English). All rules are the same as above:

cinquanta	(fifty)		cento	(one hundred)
i cinquanta cani (masculine)	(the fifty dogs)		i cento cani	(the one hundred dogs)
le cinquanta case (feminine)	(the fifty houses)		le cento case	(the one hundred houses)
il numero cinquanta or il cinquanta	(number fifty)		il numero cento or il cento	(number one hundred)

COMPOUND NUMBERS FROM 21 TO 99

To obtain twenty-one, thirty-two, forty-eight, etc., the pattern is similar to English: bind the multiple of 10 to the digit (with no dash).

ventuno	vehntwnoh	twenty-one
ventidue	vehntydweh	twenty-two
ventitré	vehntytreh	twenty-three
ventiquattro	vehntyquah'ttroh	twenty-four
venticinque	vehntychinqueh	twenty-five
ventisei	vehntysehih	twenty-six
ventisette	vehntyseh'tteh	twenty-seven
ventotto	vehntoh'ttoh	twenty-eight
ventinove	vehntynohveh	twenty-nine
and the same for other numbers:
trentuno	trehntwnoh	thirty-one
trentadue	trehntahdweh	thirty-two
trentatré	trehntahtreh	thirty-three
quarantuno	quahrahntwnoh	forty-one
quarantadue	quahrahntahdweh	forty-two
cinquantuno	chinquahntwnoh	fifty-one
cinquantadue	chinquahntahdweh	fifty-two

Note that the stress always falls on the digit. Two observations: when digits start with a vowel (uno, otto) the last vowel of the multiple of ten is dropped (ventuno, not "ventiuno"; quarantotto, not "quarantaotto"); etc. since digit tre is monosyllabic (one syllable), in order to keep the stress on vowel e also in compound numbers, the last vowel is spelled é (with an accent): tre, but ventitré; trentatré; quarantatré; etc.).

FULL MULTIPLES OF 100

Very simple! Just bind each digit to cento:

duecento	dwehchentoh	two hundred
trecento	trehchentoh	three hundred
quattrocento	quah'ttrohchentoh	four hundred
cinquecento	chinquehchentoh	five hundred
seicento	sehychentoh	six hundred
settecento	seh'ttehchentoh	seven hundred
ottocento	oh'ttohchentoh	eight hundred
novecento	nohvehchentoh	nine hundred
mille	mylleh	one thousand

COMPOUND NUMBERS FROM 100 TO 999

Also cento behaves in the same way as the previous numbers, although in English you would have to use conjunction and (i.e. one hundred and one; three hundred and two; etc.):

centouno	chentohwnoh	one hundred and one
centodue	chentohdweh	one hundred and two
centotré	chentohtreh	one hundred and three
centoquattro	chentohquah'ttroh	one hundred and four
centocinque	chentohchinqueh	one hundred and five
centosei	chentohsehih	one hundred and six
centosette	chentohseh'tteh	one hundred and seven
centootto	chentohoh'ttoh	one hundred and eight
centonove	chentohnohveh	one hundred and nine
centodieci	chentohdyehchih	one hundred and ten

Note that this time no elisions are made, therefore cento always remains the same, also before uno and otto. For greater numbers with a cento compound, the pattern is the same:

centoundici (one hundred and eleven) centoventitré (one hundred and twenty-three) centocinquantotto (one hundred and fifty-eight) centonovanta (one hundred and ninety) etc.

Also multiples work out in the same way:

duecentocinque (two hundred and five) trecentodiciassette (three hundred and seventeen) quattrocentosessantasette (four hundred and sixty-seven) cinquecentotrentuno (five hundred and thirty-one) ottocentocinquantaquattro (eight hundred and fifty-four) novenentoottantotto (nine hundred and eighty-eight) etc.

FULL MULTIPLES OF 1,000

Mille is slightly different from the cento concept: it actually means one thousand (not simply thousand): its multiples are therefore made of number + ...mila (suffix for mille), also for numbers greater than 9:

duemila	dwehmyhlah	two thousand
tremila	trehmyhlah	three thousand
quattromila	quah'ttrohmyhlah	four thousand
cinquemila	chinquehmyhlah	five thousand
seimila	sehymyhlah	six thousand
settemila	seh'ttehmyhlah	seven thousand
ottomila	oh'ttohmyhlah	eight thousand
novemila	nohvehmyhlah	nine thousand
diecimila	dyehchymyhlah	ten thousand
undicimila	wndychihmyhlah	eleven thousand thousand
dodicimila	dohdychihmyhlah	twelve thousand
ventimila	vehntymyhlah	twenty thousand
ventunomila	ventwnohmyhlah	twenty-one thousand
ventiduemila	ventydwehmyhlah	twenty-two thousand
trentamila	trehntahmyhlah	thirty thousand
quarantamila	quahrahntahmyhlah	forty thousand
centomila	chentohmyhlah	one hundred thousand
centodiecimila	chentohdyehchymyhlah	one hundred and ten thousand
centocinquantamila	chentohchinquahntahmyhlah	one hundred and fifty thousand
duecentomila	dwechentohmyhlah	two hundred thousand
novecentonovantanovemila	nohvehchentohnohvantahnohvehmyhlah	nine hundred ninety-nine thousand

Notice how the stress is always carried by the ...mila suffix.

COMPOUND NUMBERS FROM 1,001 TO 999,999

There is a slight change at this point, as mille and ...mila sometimes need conjunction e (= and), where in English it is usually omitted. Follow these examples:

• mille e uno (mylleh eh wnoh) = one thousand one

• mille e sette = one thousand seven

• mille e trentacinque = one thousand thirty-five

• mille e cento = one thousand one hundred

• mille e trecento = one thousand three hundred

• mille e novecento = one thousand nine hundred

BUT...

• millecentouno = one thousand one hundred and one

• millecentonove = one thousand one hundred and nine

• millecentoventotto = one thousand one hundred and twenty-eight

• millequattrocentonovantasei = one thousand four hundred and ninety-six

• milleottocentotrentatré = one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three

Therefore, as a general rule, conjunction e breaks the word only when mille is followed by numbers smaller than 100, or by full multiples of 100 (duecento, trecento, etc.). The unbroken form is used in all other cases. But in written texts, books, newspapers, etc., such big numbers are uncommon to be spelled with words: "almost two thousand people attended the event" would be more likely than "one thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven people...", or if the right number was required it would often be spelled with numerals: "1987 people". So if you don't become familiar now with these patterns, you can still do well, although you will need to master these numbers for dates (discussed in paragraph 3.4).

NOTE

In English, numbers like 1,100; 1,200; 1,300; etc. may either sound one thousand one hundred, one thousand two hundred, etc., or eleven hundred, twelve hundred, etc.: this never happens in Italian, which only uses the first form (mille e cento, mille e duecento, etc.), as the word cento does not support digits greater than nine (novecento).

DECIMAL NUMBERS AND SEPARATORS

While English uses a comma ( , ) as a separator for thousands, Italian uses a full stop ( . ).

1,100 (English spelling) becomes 1.000 344,901 (English spelling) becomes 344.901 and so on.

Obviously, thousand separators do not affect pronounciation: they are simply used as mere graphic elements. The comma instead, in Italian virgola, is used as a separator for decimals, whereas in English a dot is normally used:

1.15 (English spelling) becomes 1,15 63.05 (English spelling) becomes 63,05 and so on.

In this case, the word virgola is used exactly as English point, so that in the examples above the pronounciation would be:

1,15 = uno virgola quindici (one point fifteen) 63,05 = sessantatré virgola zero cinque (sixty-three point o five) and so on.

Fractions, instead, will be discussed in paragraph 3.3.

.2 ORDINAL NUMBERS

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As suggested by their name, ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd... etc.) are used for indicating orders or ranks. In Italian, they have specific forms from 1 to 10, while all the following ones use one same suffix, so they are quite easy to learn. Unlike cardinal numbers, though, ordinals behave like an adjective, therefore they can have both a masculine and a feminine gender, in both singular and plural forms (all of them are regular). Also in this page English sounds are shown.

ORDINAL NUMBERS FROM 1st TO 9th

primo	pryhmoh	first
secondo	sehkohndoh	second
terzo	tehrtzo	third
quarto	quahrtoh	fourth
quinto	quihntoh	fifth
sesto	sehstoh	sixth
settimo	seh'ttymoh	seventh
ottavo	oh'ttahvoh	eighth
nono	nohnoh	ninth
decimo	dehchimoh	tenth

Assuming that in most western languages the expressions first and second are irregular (i.e. they have no phonetic relation with their cardinal numbers one and two), in all the others the name of the digit is still recognizable, though slightly changed: tre - terzo, quattro - quarto, cinque - quinto, and so on, while many suffixes change. As adjectives, they all follow the most common pattern:

primo (masculine singular) primi (masculine plural) prima (feminine singular) prime (feminine plural) secondo (masculine singular) secondi (masculine plural) seconda (feminine singular) seconde (feminine plural)

And so on with all the others. As in English, ordinals require an article, whose gender and phonetics will match the ordinal:

il primo, = the first (masculine singular); la prima = the first (feminine singular); i primi, = the first (masculine singular); le prime = the first (feminine singular); l'ottavo = the eighth (masculine singular); l'ottava = the eighth (feminine singular); gli ottavi = the eighth (masculine plural); le ottave = the eighth (feminine plural); etc. etc.

ORDINAL NUMBERS FROM 11th ONWARDS

From 11th onwards, you only need to add suffix ...esimo, and to drop the cardinal number's last vowel (except when the last digit is ...tre = ...three):

undicesimo	wndychehsyhmo	eleventh
dodicesimo	dohdychehsyhmoh	twelfth
tredicesimo	trehdychehsyhmoh	thirteenth
quattordicesimo	quah'ttohrdychehsyhmoh	fourteenth
ventesimo	vehntehsyhmoh	twentieth
ventunesimo	vehntuhnehsyhmoh	twenty-first
ventiduesimo	vehntydwehsyhmoh	twenty-second
ventitreesimo	vehntytrehehsyhmoh	twenty-second
trentesimo	trehntehsyhmoh	thirtieth
trentunesimo	trehntwhnehsyhmoh	twenty-first
trentaduesimo	trehntahdwehsyhmoh	twenty-second
trentatreesimo	trehntahtrehehsyhmoh	twenty-second
quarantesimo	quahrantehsyhmoh	fortieth
centesimo	chentehsyhmoh	one hundredth
duecentesimo	dwechentehsyhmoh	two hundredth
millesimo	myllehsyhmoh	one thousandth

The modern way to indicate ordinal numbers is to add their last vowel to the number, in "superscript" style:

1^o (primo) or 1^a (prima) 9^o (nono) or 9^a (nona) 17^o (diciassettesimo) or 17^a (diciassettesima)

etc. etc... Just like adjectives, they can also have the plural form:

8ⁱ (ottavi) or 8^e (ottave) 22ⁱ (ventiduesimi) or 22^e (ventiduesime) etc. etc...

The more classic way to indicate an ordinal number is to use roman numbers:

I = 1^o (primo) or 1^a (prima) IX = 9^o (nono) or 9^a (nona) XVII = 17^o (diciassettesimo) or 17^a (diciassettesima) etc. etc...

When a roman number occurs in an Italian text, it should always be considered an ordinal number, unless it is a date. If you don't feel too confident with these numbers, appendix 1 will show you how they work. Adding a superscript vowel to roman numbers (i.e. III^o, V^a, etc.) is considered incorrect: since they already act as ordinal numbers, the vowel would be redundant. Roman numbers are now seldom used, to indicate volumes, chapters, monarchs, centuries, and very few more categories. In common speech, ordinal numbers are used according to the "adjective-noun" pattern, i.e. they are always followed by the classified noun, never vice-versa:

il primo giorno (the first day) le seconde case (the second houses) la ventesima volta (the twentieth time) etc.

Instead, when a roman number is used, the ordinal number usually follows the noun: when they are used to indicate a monarch, a pope, or other rulers, they are mentioned as in English, but omitting article the:

Leone IV (read as Leone quarto) = Leo IV, (in English, Leo the fourth) Carlo VIII (Carlo ottavo) = Charles VIII (in English, Charles the eighth).

When indicating a book's chapter or volume, a play's act, etc.:

volume III (volume terzo), capitolo XIII (capitolo tredicesimo) = third volume, thirteenth chapter atto II (atto secondo) = second act.

In these cases both forms are accepted, so also terzo volume, secondo atto, etc., would be correct if spelled with letters (but not with roman numbers). When indicating a century (also in this case both forms are correct):

secolo XVII (secolo diciassettesimo) or XVII secolo(diciassettesimo secolo) = seventeenth century.

NOTE

As already said, ordinals greater than 10th do not use the same suffix as the smaller ones, having simplified the inflection to ...esimo or ...esima. In old-style Italian, instead, all ordinals used to follow the pattern decimo primo (instead of undicesimo), decimo secondo (instead of dodicesimo), etc., also for larger numbers (ventesimo quinto instead of venticinquesimo, settantesimo nono instead of settantanovesimo, etc.), thus keeping the original suffixes of the first nine digits; today this form is very rarely used, and sounds quite archaic.

.3 FRACTIONS