Seasons

The Italian names of the four seasons are:

primavera	spring
estate	summer
autunno	autumn or fall
inverno	winter

Italian also has adjectives referring to each season:

primaverile	(of) spring
estivo (fem. estiva)	(of) summer
autunnale	(of) autumn or fall
invernale	(of) winter

The simple preposition in is commonly used with seasons:

in primavera gli uccelli tornano dai paesi caldi = in spring birds come back from (the) hot countries i contadini fanno il vino in autunno = (the) peasants make (the) wine in autumn

Sometimes, simple preposition di is used, especially with estate and inverno, in which case it is phonetically shortened in d' (with an apostrophe). It is less commonly used with autunno. Obviously, primavera would require a full di, but this preposition is not really used at all with this noun.

d'estate il tempo è bello = in summer the weather is fine quando d'inverno nevica, accendiamo il fuoco = when in winter it snows, we light the fire

In some expressions, as the ones above, di is more commonly used, but preposition in could have also been used, and both forms would have been correct, as well. An article is only used to indicate seasons when no event is related to them:

detesto l'autunno = I hate (the) autumn i fiori sono simboli della primavera = (the) flowers are symbols of (the) spring l'inverno giunse presto = (the) winter came soon

When adjectives are used, no special rule is required:

i lunghi mesi invernali = the long winter months il clima autunnale è grigio e piovoso = the autumn weather is dull and grey (notice that clima is a masculine noun, despite the ...a inflection) le vacanze estive sono sempre troppo corte = (the) summer holidays are always too short

7.3 YEARS & CENTURIES

NOTE before you go any further, be sure to master Italian numbers; you might wish to check again paragraph 3.1. Some sentences also use compound prepositions, so if you are in doubt check again paragraph 5.2.

YEARS

In Italian years are pronounced as if they were simple numbers:

1963	nineteen sixty-three	millenovecentosessantatré	(one thousand nine hundred and sixty-three)
1500	fifteen hundred	millecinquecento	(one thousand five hundred)
1701	seventeen hundred and one	(millesettecentouno)	one thousand seven hundred and one

...and so on. Unlike English, Italian years need a definite article, because they are referred to the word anno (= year).

il 1950 (read il millenovecentocinquanta) = nineteen fifty nel 1950 = in nineteen fifty dal 1950 = from (or as of) nineteen fifty fino al 1950 = until or through nineteen fifty fra il 1950 e il 1960 = between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty

When a month is referred to a specific year, the latter needs an article, unlike the English form:

il maggio del 1963 = May 1963 nel dicembre del 1995 = in December 1995 dal febbraio del '48 = as of February '48

Sometimes, when the year might be mistaken with a number, the word anno is used:

l'anno 2000 (read l'anno duemila) = year two thousand nell'anno 2 = in year 2 dall'anno 500 = as of (or from) year 500