Numbers 11–100
Numbers 11–100
Beyond ten, Italian numbers start fusing into single compound words — the rules are simple, but they look unfamiliar until you've seen them a few times.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Elision Before uno and otto
venti + uno → ventuno, venti + otto → ventotto
twenty + one → twenty-one, twenty + eight → twenty-eight
When a tens word (venti, trenta, quaranta...) combines with uno or otto, it drops its own final vowel before attaching the unit: venti → ventuno, not ventiuno; trenta → trentotto, not trentaotto. Every other unit (due, tre, quattro...) attaches without dropping anything: ventidue, ventitré.
Numbers Fuse Into One Written Word
trentacinque
thirty-five
Unlike English, which keeps a hyphen between the tens and units ('thirty-five'), Italian writes the whole number as a single unbroken word: trentacinque. This keeps going well past 100 — two hundred is duecento, written as one word, not 'due cento'.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- eleven
- English
- twelve
- English
- thirteen
- English
- fourteen
- English
- fifteen
- English
- twenty
- English
- thirty
- English
- forty
- English
- fifty
- English
- one hundred
- English
- twenty-one
- English
- twenty-eight