How to count money

Italian culture

Imagine this scenario: You’re grocery shopping during your trip to Italy and hyperventilate as soon as the cashier tells you your total. What the heck did they just say? You’re in need of a math lesson!

In this article, we will take a look at the different ways you can count money in Italian with lots of native audio recordings, so you may never panic again while buying things.

Euro and euro cents

Italy’s (and Europe’s) official currency is the euro. You’re lucky we’re using euros now, because if we were still using lire, you’d have to count money in thousands just to buy bread!

Euro has only one form for both singular and plural and it is a masculine noun.

Un euro, l’euro, gli euro

A euro, the euro, the euros

A euro cent is called centesimo, and there’s no shortened form of this word. When you are talking about more than one euro cent, you have to use centesimi, the plural form of the word. This is too a masculine word.

Il centesimo, i centesimi

The cent, the cents

For example, if you want to say you have 3.20 euros in your pocket, say…

Ho tre euro e venti centesimi.

I have 3 euros and 20 cents.

Know that Italian uses a comma for decimals and a period for thousands. This is very, very different from what you’re used to as an English speaker.

If you’re buying a slice of meat and you see this price tag:

25,00 € / kg

25.- euros per kg

Know that the meat actually costs 25.- euros per kilogram, not 25,000 euros!

25,000 euros in Italian would actually be written as 25.000 euro.

25.000 euro

25,000 euros

That said, let’s see how to count money in Italian with the use of numbers.

Cardinal numbers in Italian from 1 to 100

The following tables show all Italian cardinal numbers from 1 to 100. Make sure you listen to the audio recordings to learn how to pronounce all the numbers!

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
22	ventidue
23	ventitre
24	ventiquattro
25	venticinque
26	ventisei
27	ventisette
28	ventotto
29	ventinove
30	trenta
31	trentuno
32	trentadue
33	trentatre
34	trentaquattro
35	trentacinque
36	trentasei
37	trentasette
38	trentotto
39	trentanove
40	quaranta

41	quarantuno
42	quarantadue
43	quarantatre
44	quarantaquattro
45	quarantacinque
46	quarantasei
47	quarantasette
48	quarantotto
49	quarantanove
50	cinquanta
51	cinquantuno
52	cinquantadue
53	cinquantatre
54	cinquantaquattro
55	cinquantacinque
56	cinquantasei
57	cinquantasette
58	cinquantotto
59	cinquantanove
60	sessanta

61	sessantuno
62	sessantadue
63	sessantatre
64	sessantaquattro
65	sessantacinque
66	sessantasei
67	sessantasette
68	sessantotto
69	sessantanove
70	settanta
71	settantuno
72	settantadue
73	settantatre
74	settantaquattro
75	settantacinque
76	settantasei
77	settantasette
78	settantotto
79	settantanove
80	ottanta

81	ottantuno
82	ottantadue
83	ottantatre
84	ottantaquattro
85	ottantacinque
86	ottantasei
87	ottantasette
88	ottantotto
89	ottantanove
90	novanta
91	novantuno
92	novantadue
93	novantatre
94	novantaquattro
95	novantacinque
96	novantasei
97	novantasette
98	novantotto
99	novantanove
100	cento

Counting the thousands

In the unlikely occurrence that you need to learn how to count money in Italian in the thousands, here’s the numbers from 1.000 to 10.000.

1,000	mille
2,000	duemila
3,000	tremila
4,000	quattromila
5,000	cinquemila
6,000	seimila
7,000	settemila
8,000	ottomila
9,000	novemila
10,000	diecimila

Examples

Let’s now make a few examples using what we have learned.

Sono otto euro.	That’s 8 euros.
Sono dieci euro e ventinove centesimi.	That’s 10 euros and 29 cents.
Sono centotrentadue euro e tredici centesimi.	That’s one hundred and thirty-two euros and thirteen cents.
Sono trecento euro e settanta centesimi.	That’s three hundred euros and 72 cents.
Sono quattromila euro.	That’s 4 thousand euros.

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