Italian/Lessons/Lesson4

What we will learn
You will learn in this lesson, how to count, tell the time and date, and say how old you are in Italian. You will also learn how to ask for measurements and costs.

Numbers / Numeri
Italian mostly shares its way to identify numbers with the great majority of Romance languages, especially Spanish. Italian cardinal numbers, of any length, may be written as a single, continuous word formed by concatenation; sometimes with the elision of double vowels:
 * 342 trecentoquarantadue
 * 1984 millenovecentottantaquattro, not *millenovecentoottantaquattro

Cardinal numbers up to 1000

 * 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
 * 21 ventuno, not *ventiuno
 * 22 ventidue
 * 23 ventitré
 * 24 ventiquattro
 * 25 venticinque
 * 26 ventisei
 * 27 ventisette
 * 28 ventotto, not *ventiotto
 * 29 ventinove


 * 30 trenta
 * 40 quaranta
 * 50 cinquanta
 * 60 sessanta
 * 70 settanta
 * 80 ottanta
 * 90 novanta
 * 99 novantanove
 * 100 cento
 * 101 centouno
 * 199 centonovantanove
 * 200 duecento
 * 300 trecento
 * 400 quattrocento
 * 500 cinquecento
 * 600 seicento
 * 700 settecento
 * 800 ottocento
 * 900 novecento
 * 1,000 mille
 * 1,000 mille

Keep in mind that for numbers higher than 20 (venti) the last letter of the part describing tens is eliminated if 1 or 8 follows, e.g. ventuno (21), ventotto (28), trentuno (31), trentotto (38), quarantuno (41).

For other ending numbers than 1 and 8 you just use the normal word for tens, ventidue (22), ventitré (23), ventiquattro (24), quarantadue (42), quarantaquattro (44).

Notice that in the case of ventitré (23), trentatré (43), quarantatré (43)... an accent is written on the final E, in order to mark the stress on that letter. On the contrary, tre (3) is written with no accent, as it is a one-syllable word with no homograph (see Pronunciation for details on stress).

Cardinal numbers from 1000 higher
The number mille becomes mila in the plural, e.g. duemila. The numbers milione, miliardo and above are not adjectives; they take a preposition di when followed by a noun, e.g. miliardi di euro.


 * 1,000 mille
 * 2,000 duemila
 * 3,000 tremila
 * 10,000 diecimila
 * 100,000 centomila
 * 1,000,000 un milione
 * 10,000,000 dieci milioni
 * 1,000,000,000 un miliardo
 * 1,000,000,000,000 mille miliardi or un bilione

Ordinal numbers
First ten ordinal numbers have their proper words, the others are formed from the cardinal number by adding -esimo (see table). The final "o" or "e" is dropped from the cardinal number, unless it is an é in which case it just loses the accent, e.g. ventitreesimo. The ordinal numbers are used as adjectives and as fractions. When used as adjectives, they agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify.

Some ordinal numbers have synonyms e.g. undecimo (ancient italian) and decimoprimo (ancient italian) for undicesimo (11th), centosesto for centoseiesimo (106th), centosettimo for centosettesimo (107th), centottavo for centottesimo (108th), centonono for centonovesimo (109th); 110th is centodecimo

Fractions
A combination of cardinal (1, 2, 3...) and ordinal (3rd, 4th...) numbers are used to form fractions.

The word mezzo is used to represent a half.


 * half — mezzo

Arithmetic
The word più is used for addition.
 * 2 + 2 = 4, two plus two equals four, due più due uguale a quattro

The word meno is used for subtraction
 * 9 - 2 = 7, nove meno due uguale a sette

The word per is used for multiplication
 * 3 x 7 = 21, tre per sette uguale ventuno

The word diviso is used for division
 * 10 / 2 = 5, dieci diviso due uguale cinque

Time / Tempo
NB. When answering always use a singular verb (è) with 1 o' clock (è l'una), always use a plural verb (sono) with other times (sono le nove)

For the first day of the month you use the ordinal number (primo) while for all other days using ordinal numbers is a mistake, you have to use cardinal numbers instead.

Shopping
Dialog
 * A= Per favore, vorrei una pizza.
 * B= Sì!
 * A= Quanto costa?
 * B= Fanno due euro

task shopping: Write a dialog between two people, a shopkeeper and a customer, where the shopper asks the price of objects. Then act it out with a friend (in Italian!).

''Some food words for task;
 * verdure=Vegetables
 * frutta - fruit
 * succo - juice
 * acqua - water
 * cioccolato - chocolate
 * torta - cake
 * pizza - pizza
 * spaghetti - spaghetti
 * arrance - oranges''

Measures
Italià/Lliçó4 Italiano/Lección4