Italian Number to Words

21 to ventuno, 28 to ventotto, with correct elision rules

Convert any integer into correctly spelled Italian words, handling vowel elision (venti plus uno becomes ventuno, venti plus otto becomes ventotto), the tre accent (ventitre), and the -mila thousands suffix. Accurate up to the billions. Runs in your browser.

Why does 21 become ventuno and not ventiuno?

Italian tens drop their final vowel before the words uno and otto. So venti plus uno becomes ventuno and venti plus otto becomes ventotto. The same rule gives trentuno, quarantuno, and ottantotto.

Spelling Italian numbers correctly is not a matter of stitching words together, because Italian applies vowel elision and accents that change the spelling. This converter handles those rules so the output matches how Italians actually write numbers in full.

How it works

The number is broken into three-digit groups and named with the scale words mila, milioni, and miliardi. Within each group three rules apply:

elision: venti + uno  → ventuno      (drop the tens vowel before uno/otto)
         venti + otto → ventotto
         cento + uno  → centuno       (cento drops its o before uno/otto)
accent:  ...tre at the end of a compound → ...tré  (ventitré, centotré)
mille:   1000 → mille,  2000 → duemila  (suffix -mila, joined directly)

Numbers below twenty are irregular and stored directly (dieci, undici, dodici…). Everything else is built from the tens, the hundreds prefix cento, and the scale words.

Example and tips

The number 1,234,567 becomes un milione duecentotrentaquattromilacinquecentosessantasette — a single run for the part under a million, with un milione separated by a space. For cheques and contracts, the spelled-out form is the legally controlling figure, so the elision matters: write ventotto euro, never ventiotto. The tool accepts grouping dots and spaces in the input and ignores them.