Centuries

The Italian word for century is sècolo (vowel e has been accented for mere tutorial reasons). When writing a specific ordinal number before this word, usually roman numbers are used (see paragraph 3.2). Also western numbers can be used, but a roman numeral is always considered a more elegant choice. If you don't feel confident with roman numbers, check appendix 1.

il XIV secolo (read il quattordicesimo secolo) = the 14th century nel XX secolo (read nel ventesimo secolo) = in the 20th century

The English forms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini = Latin for "in the Year of the Lord") correspond to Italian forms aC (avanti Cristo) and dC (dopo Cristo = after Christ). Only when two or more centuries are mentioned, the numeral part may come after the word secolo:

nel I secolo aC e nel III secolo dC = in the 1st century BC and in the 3rd century AD may be turned into nei secoli I aC e III dC = literally in the centuries 1st BC and 3rd AD

Sometimes the abbreviations aC and dC are spelled with dots: a.C. and d.C.

7.4 DATES

Italian dates are always in the following standard:

day, always spelled in western numbers month, spelled either with letters (abbreviated or in full length) or with numbers (western or roman) year, spelled either in full length or by the last two digits

Separators are more often hyphens (-) or dots (. or ·), but backslashes (/) are also common, or no separator at all. A few examples:

3 · 5 · 1970 = May 3rd, 1970 (...never March 5th!) 1 gen 1990 = January 1st, 1990 2 - XII - 65 = December 2nd, 1965

Unlike English dates, Italian ones need a definite article, referred to the word giorno (= day). As all articles, they require a phonetical match with the number of the day (the first word following the article). Another important difference is that in Italian date numbers are cardinal, not ordinal as in English:

il 25 aprile (read il venticinque aprile) = April 25th (or on April 25th) dal 7 giugno (read dal sette giugno) = as of June 7th)

Only number 1 may be read in both ways:

l'1 maggio (read l'uno maggio) = May 1st (or on May 1st) can also be turned into il 1º maggio (read il primo maggio) = May 1st (or on May 1st)

Notice how in this case a roman number is never used. The cardinal number is more common when the month is followed by a year, in a full date:

1.12.1955 would be l'uno dicembre millenovecentocinquantacinque but 1.12 would more often be il primo dicembre

Anyway, both forms are correct in either case. Quite often, the simple preposition di (of) is used between number and month:

il 24 settembre = September 24th (or on September 24th) can also be il 24 di settembre = the 24th of September (or on the 24th of September)

In official or burocratic papers, dates may be read by their numbers:

23.8.97 could sound as ventitré otto novantasette

.5 WHAT TIME IS IT ?

The expression what time is it? in Italian is che ore sono? (literally "which hours are they?"), but also the singular form che ora è? is used. Italian hours always need a definite article, referring to the noun ora (hour), which is though usually omitted.

l'una	one o'clock
le due	two o'clock
le tre	three o'clock
.....	.....
le dodici	twelve o'clock

It should be noticed how the article is always plural, because the full expressions would be "the two hours", "the three hours", and so on; only one o'clock is singular. All forms are obviously feminine, because the noun ora to which they refer is feminine too. Italian can use both the 12-hour format and the 24-hour format, the latter being more formal (used in timetables, or in official speech, etc.).

le tredici	one o'clock PM
le quattordici	two o'clock PM
le quindici	three o'clock PM
.....	.....
le ventiquattro	twelve o'clock PM

A practical rule to convert the 24-hour format into the 12-hour format is to subtract 2 from the hour, and then 10:

21:00

21-2 = 19, then 19-10 = 9

9:00 PM

In common speech, though, the 12-hour format is much more commonly used; the "AM" or "PM" specification is usually omitted, since the context of the sentence will provide enough elements to understand which of the two is the right one. Should the time be possibly mistaken, the hour can be followed by the expressions antemeridiane (= antemeridian, AM) or pomeridiane (= postmeridian, PM). But in common speech and in most texts more common expressions take the place of these "official" ones: di mattina or del mattino (= in the morning), from 4 or 5 AM to 12 AM di pomeriggio or del pomeriggio (= in the afternoon), from 1 PM to 5 PM (or 6 PM) di sera (= in the evening), from 6 or 7 PM to 11 PM di notte (= at night), , from midnight to 2 or 3 AM Notice how some forms may use either simple preposition di, or the relevant compound preposition, as an alternative. The form di mattina has del mattino as an alternative (mattina is feminine, mattino is masculine, but both nouns mean morning).

le dieci di mattina (or le dieci del mattino) = ten o'clock AM le due di pomeriggio or le quattordici = two o'clock PM le dieci di sera or le ventidue = ten o'clock PM le due di notte = two o'clock AM

Obviously, time limits are not too strict:

le quattro del mattino (4 o'clock AM) could also be le quattro di notte le sei di pomeriggio (6 o'clock PM) could also be le sei di sera etc. etc.

Since hours require a plural article, also verb tenses need to be in plural form:

sono le cinque = it's five o'clock sono le quindici = it's three o'clock PM sono le cinque = it's five o'clock ...BUT è l'una = it's one o'clock

Due to the need of a definite article, only compound preposition are used:

dalle due alle quattro = from two to four all'una = at one o'clock sono tornato alle dieci = I came back at ten o'clock

The word ora (literally hour, but whose meaning corresponds to English o'clock) is seldom used, either in case the hour might be mistaken with a different numerical category, or to give emphasis to the expression:

il treno parte alle ore quattordici = the train leaves at two o'clock PM la bomba esplose alle ore sedici in punto = the bomb exploded at four o'clock PM sharp

But omitting the noun, both sentences would be perfectly correct all the same. The last sentence also shows how the expression in punto corresponds to English sharp (referred to an hour).