Italian Numbers in Words
Write any whole number in Italian words, with the vowel elision and the tré accent handled for you.
2,025 written out in Italian.
Key numbers in Italian
Italian writes each number as one word. So 21 is ventuno and 23 is ventitré: a tens word drops its final vowel before uno and otto (ventuno, ventotto), and tre takes an accent when it ends the word (ventitré). Enter any integer from 0 to 999,999 to spell it out.
How Italian numbers work
Unlike English, Italian glues every number into a single lowercase word — there are no spaces between the parts. You read it in the same layers as English (units, tens, hundreds, then thousands), but you concatenate the pieces: venti + quattro becomes ventiquattro, and due + cento becomes duecento.
The units 0–9 (zero, uno, due, tre …) and the teens 10–19 (dieci, undici … diciannove) are fixed words to learn. The tens are venti, trenta, quaranta, cinquanta, sessanta, settanta, ottanta, novanta. Two small sound rules then keep the joins smooth.
Elision before uno and otto. A tens word ends in a vowel, and so do uno and otto begin with one. Italian drops the tens word’s final vowel to avoid the clash: venti + uno → ventuno, venti + otto → ventotto, trenta + uno → trentuno. The same elision happens at the hundreds junction — centuno (101), centotto (108), centottanta (180).
The tré accent. On its own, three is plain tre. But when it is the final unit attached to a tens word, it takes an acute accent: ventitré (23), trentatré (33), quarantatré (43), and so on.
Worked example: 2025
Read 2025 as “two thousand + twenty-five”. The thousands stem uses the suffix mila (duemila), and 25 is venti + cinque = venticinque. Join them into one word: duemilaventicinque.
- 1 Learn the fixed words. Units 0–9 and teens 10–19 are unique words; the tens are venti, trenta, quaranta, cinquanta, sessanta, settanta, ottanta, novanta.
- 2 Join tens and units — with elision. Concatenate the tens and unit words. Drop the tens word’s final vowel before uno and otto: ventuno (21), ventotto (28). Add the accent for three: ventitré (23).
- 3 Add the hundreds. cento is invariable and joins on: duecento (200), trecento (300). The same elision applies to the last two digits: centuno (101), centotto (108), centoventitré (123).
- 4 Attach the thousands. 1000 is mille; from 2000 the suffix is mila (duemila, tremila). Concatenate the remainder with no elision: milleuno (1001), duemilaventuno (2021).
Italian numbers reference
The fixed forms you build every other number from.
| Number | Italian |
|---|---|
| 0 | zero |
| 1 | uno |
| 2 | due |
| 3 | tre |
| 4 | quattro |
| 5 | cinque |
| 6 | sei |
| 7 | sette |
| 8 | otto |
| 9 | nove |
| 10 | dieci |
| 11 | undici |
| 12 | dodici |
| 13 | tredici |
| 14 | quattordici |
| 15 | quindici |
| 16 | sedici |
| 17 | diciassette |
| 18 | diciotto |
| 19 | diciannove |
| 20 | venti |
| 30 | trenta |
| 40 | quaranta |
| 50 | cinquanta |
| 60 | sessanta |
| 70 | settanta |
| 80 | ottanta |
| 90 | novanta |
| 100 | cento |
| 1000 | mille |
Where the rules bite
Elision is not optional. You never write “ventiuno” or “ventiotto” — the tens word must shed its final vowel, giving ventuno and ventotto. This repeats for every tens: trentuno, quarantotto, cinquantuno, sessantotto, settantuno, ottantotto, novantuno. It also fires at the hundreds join, so 180 is centottanta, not “centoottanta”.
cento and mille behave differently at the join. After the hundreds, elision still applies (centuno, centotto), but after mille it does not: 1001 is milleuno, keeping both words whole. From 2000 up, the thousands use the invariable suffix mila — duemila, tremila, ventimila — and the remainder simply glues on: duemilatrecentoquarantacinque (2345).
For the same idea in another language, compare the Spanish numbers writer or the French numbers writer.