Numbers, time and dates in Italian

euro has no plural

English adds an s to the currency — « two euros », « fifty euros » — and Italian, which puts almost everything else in the plural, seems to invite the same. The word does not change: un euro, due euro, mille euro. The Swiss franc, on the other hand, does have a plural: due franchi.

A number is one word

English writes a number as a string of separate words with the odd hyphen. Italian runs the pieces together into a single word, however long it gets: millenovecento, duemilaventiquattro. Only the million stands apart, because it is a noun: due milioni.

No « and » after the hundred

British English puts « and » after the hundreds and the thousands — « one hundred and five », « two thousand and ten ». Italian has nothing there: the pieces join directly, centocinque, duemiladieci. An e in the middle turns one number into two.

The tens lose their vowel

In English both halves of « twenty-one » stay whole. In Italian two vowels do not meet: before uno and otto the tens drop their last letter — ventuno, ventotto, trentuno, novantotto. Before every other digit the vowel stays: ventidue, trentasette.

mille becomes mila

In English « thousand » never changes. In Italian a single thousand is mille, and from two upwards it is mila, joined to the number before it: duemila, tremila, diecimila.

No « a » before cento and mille

English counts the single hundred — « a hundred », « one thousand ». Italian does not: cento, mille, with nothing in front. The million is the exception, because it is a noun: un milione.

The hours are plural

English says « it is » for every hour. Italian thinks of le ore, the hours, and so uses the plural verb and the feminine article: sono le tre, sono le dieci. Only one o’clock, midday and midnight are singular: è l’una, è mezzogiorno, è mezzanotte.

The date takes the plain number

English says the date with an ordinal — « the 23rd », « the twenty-third of July ». Italian uses the ordinary number and puts nothing between day and month: il ventitré luglio. Only the first of the month is an ordinal, just as in English: il primo maggio.

Months are written small

English gives the months a capital letter. Italian does not — gennaio, luglio, dicembre — and the days of the week are small as well. A capital in the middle of a date is one of the surest signs of a translation.

A year is said as one number

English splits a year into two pairs — « nineteen eighty-four », « twenty twenty-four ». Italian reads the whole number, in one word: millenovecentottantaquattro, duemilaventiquattro. It sounds long, and it is the only form there is.

The decimal point is a comma

Italian writes 3,14 and says virgola, comma. And unlike English, which reads the digits after the point one by one, Italian usually reads a short decimal part as a number: tre virgola quattordici.

The point separates the thousands

Comma and point swap places. Italian separates the thousands with a point and the cents with a comma: 1.250,50 €. Read with English eyes, 1.250 looks like one and a quarter, and it is one thousand two hundred and fifty.

Zero is always zero

In a phone number English says « oh » for the nought. Italian has no such shortcut: it is zero every time, and the number is read out digit by digit — zero due.