Numbers in Italian: The Complete Guide for Numbers 0 to 1,000,000+

Nobody thinks about numbers when learning Italian, but they clarify our communication and enrich our imagination. So numbers do count… a lot.

It’s not just about eggs—it’s about how many eggs are in the basket. How many people are coming? What time did you arrive? How much is that watch?

These all require you to know Italian numbers. They are essential to day-to-day, real-life conversation.

This guide will show you exactly how to use numbers in Italian—from zero up to sextillion, with the basics of ordinal numbers included too.

Read on to get the hang of Italian numbers, and practice along with the audio pronunciation!

Contents

• Numbers 1 to 10 in Italian
• Numbers 11 to 20 in Italian
• Numbers 30 to 100 in Italian
• Numbers 101 and Beyond in Italian
• Ordinal Numbers in Italian

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Numbers 1 to 10 in Italian

So here are the first 10 numbers in Italian. You’re going to have to memorize them as they’re the building blocks of any Italian number you can think of:

• Zero — Zero
• Uno — One
• Due — Two
• Tre — Three
• Quattro — Four
• Cinque — Five
• Sei — Six
• Sette — Seven
• Otto — Eight
• Nove — Nine
• Dieci — Ten

Numbers 11 to 20 in Italian

Here are numbers 11 to 20: 

• Undici — Eleven
• Dodici — Twelve
• Tredici — Thirteen
• Quattordici — Fourteen
• Quindici — Fifteen
• Sedici — Sixteen
• Diciasesette — Seventeen
• Diciotto — Eighteen
• Diciannove — Nineteen
• Venti — Twenty

You’ll have an easier time remembering them if you think:

11 is “1 and 10” combined, where uno and dieci → undici

12 is “2 and 10” combined, where due and dieci → dodici

You’ll also notice that the order of names becomes inverted from 17 to 19. Instead of dici coming second, it gets written first for numbers diciassette , diciotto and diciannove .

Numbers 30 to 100 in Italian

Here are the tens, starting from thirty:

• Trenta — Thirty
• Quaranta — Forty
• Cinquanta — Fifty
• Sessanta — Sixty
• Settanta — Seventy
• Ottanta — Eighty
• Novanta — Ninety
• Cento — One hundred

The tens get written before the ones digit. For example:

23 = Ventitre  

76 = Settantasei

84 = Ottantaquattro

Except for dieci (10) and venti (20), all tens digits are named based on their roots. So 50, coming from cinque (five), becomes cinquanta.

Note that Italians have found ways to save time and pronounce their numbers faster. This is primarily done by dropping a letter or two.

For example, when two vowels happen to be sitting side by side, the first vowel is dropped. So instead of venti-uno, you’d drop the i of venti and say ventuno  for the number 21. 

Ventuno is a little smoother on the tongue, don’t you think?

Other examples include:

38 = Trentotto  (instead of trenta-otto)

51 = Cinquantuno (instead of cinquanta-uno)

98 = Novantotto (instead of novanta-otto)

Numbers 101 and Beyond in Italian

101 to 1,000

Let’s move on to hundreds:

• Duecento — Two hundred
• Trecento — Three hundred
• Quattrocento — Four hundred
• Cinquecento — Five hundred
• Seicento — Six hundred
• Settecento — Seven hundred
• Ottocento — Eight hundred
• Novecento — Nine hundred
• Mille — One thousand

The hundreds are formed by adding the suffix -cento  to the multiplier digit.

From the ones, tens and hundreds, the bigger your number is, the longer its written form will be. This is because Italian doesn’t separate the hundreds, tens and ones. They have it as one long word with no breaks or spaces.

For example:

154 = Centocinquantaquattro

747 = Settecentoquarantasette

948 = Novecentoquarantotto

1,001 to 1,000,000

Here are your thousands series:

• Duemila — Two thousand  
• Tremila — Three thousand
• Quattromila — Four thousand
• Cinquemila — Five thousand
• Seimila — Six thousand
• Settemila — Seven thousand
• Ottomila — Eight thousand
• Novemila — Nine thousand
• Diecimila — Ten thousand

The thousands are formed by adding the suffix -mille  to the digit multiplier.

But unlike the hundreds which used -cento throughout the series (because cento has no plural form), the thousands use the plural of mille which is mila .

For the hundred-thousands, we use the suffix -centomila :

• Centomila — One hundred thousand
• Duecentomila — Two hundred thousand
• Trecentomila — Three hundred thousand
• Quattrocentomila — Four hundred thousand
• Cinquecentomila — Five hundred thousand
• Seicentomila — Six hundred thousand
• Settecentomila — Seven hundred thousand
• Ottocentomila — Eight hundred thousand
• Novecentomila — Nine hundred thousand
• Un milione — One million

In Italian, to form the plurals of regular nouns, we change the e to i. So one million is un milione, and two million becomes due milioni .

This pattern carries on through the millions, so tre milioni , quattro milioni , etc. 

Now that we have reached the million, it’s time to talk about really big numbers in Italian. 

Going Beyond 1,000,000

Here are some of those bigger numbers: 

• Un miliardo — One billion
• Un bilione — One trillion
• Un biliardo — One quadrillion
• Un trilione — One quintillion 
• Un triliardo — One sextillion

Once you get beyond the millions, Italian alternates between the suffixes -ione and -iardo.

Note that the Italian bilione refers to the English trillion, not billion. This is due to the differences in long and short-scale naming systems used in the different countries. 

So when an American thinks of, say, “a billion,” his Italian counterpart thinks of it as “a thousand million.”

Now that you know the Italian numbers, you just need to put them into practice!

It does involve a bit of memorization, but once you have the basics down, you’ll be able to count up to bigger numbers in Italian. Flashcards come in really handy for this kind of learning, with digital options like Anki available for those learning on the go.

Another option is the language learning program FluentU, as it has a number flashcard deck linked to a video library of Italian media clips. Here, you can see the numbers used naturally by native speakers with the help of interactive subtitles.

Once you’re more confident with Italian numbers, try them out in the real world with these guides on time in Italian and shopping in Italian.

Ordinal Numbers in Italian

So far, we’ve talked about cardinal numbers, which are used for things like counting apples in a bag or counting the number of times you’ve seen a movie.

In this section, we’ll be talking about ordinal numbers in Italian. These tell us about the specific position or rank that an object has relative to an ordered set, such as “first,” “second” and “third.”

Here are the first ten ordinal numbers:

• Primo — First
• Secondo — Second
• Terzo — Third
• Quarto — Fourth
• Quinto — Fifth
• Sesto — Sixth
• Settimo — Seventh
• Ottavo — Eighth
• Nono — Ninth
• Decimo — Tenth

Examples:

Terzo giro  (Third lap)

Sesto mese  (6th month) 

Ho vinto il primo premio! (I won first prize!)

Now that you know numbers in Italian, you’re one step close to fluency!

With enough practice, you can boost your confidence when interacting with native speakers. Count on it!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)