How to Tell Time and Date in Italian
There are gateways to learning a language. One of them is to learn some socialising preliminaries, such as counting or telling time and date. Here, a brief How To is presented for time and date in Italian.
Steps
- Learn counting and numbers in Italian from WikiHow simple page, How to Count in Italian.
- Note that pronounciations are cited informally. Formal pronounciations in Italian phoenetics are inside slashes /.../.
Learn Time
- Time: Ora, Tempo (tem-poe). (/o-ra/, /tεm-po/)
- Clock: L'orologio (loroh-lodjoe). (/lo-ro-lɔ-dʒo/)
- Hour: L'ora (lo-rah). (/lo-ra/)
- Minute: Minuto (minoo-toe). (/mi-nu-to/)
- Second: Secondo (secon-doe). (/se-kon-do/)
- Moment: Momento (momen-toe). (/mo-men-to/)
- Quarter: Quarto (koo-ar-toe). (/kwar-to/)
- Half: Mezzo (met-tzoe). (/mεd-dzo/)
- A quarter to: Meno un quarto (men-o-oon-koo-ar-toe). (/me-no/ /un/ /kwar-to/)
- Morning, AM: Di mattina (dee-mat-teenah). (/di/ /ma-ti-na/)
- Noon: Mezzogiorno (met-tzoe-djor-no). (/med-dzo-dʒor-no/)
- Afternoon, PM: Di pomeriggio (dee-po-mereej-joe). (/di/ /po-me-rid-dʒo/)
- Evening, PM: Di sera (dee-seh-ra). (/di/ /se-ra/)
- Midnight: Mezzanotte (met-tzah-not-teh). (/med-dza-nɔt-te)
- Ask time!
- What time is it? Che ora è? (keh-orah-eh). (/ke/ /o-ra/ /è/)
- It is eight o'clock. Sono le otto (so-no-leh-ot-toe). (/so-no/ /le/ /ɔt-to/)
- It is ten past eight. Sono le otto e dieci (so-no-leh-ot-toe-eh-dee-eh-chee). (/so-no/ /le/ /ɔt-to/ /e/ /djε-t∫i/)
- It is quarter past eight. Sono le otto e un quarto (so-no-leh-ot-toe). (/so-no/ /le/ /ɔt-to/ /e/ /kwar-to/)
- It is half past eight. Sono le otto e mezzo (so-no-leh-ot-toe-eh-met-tzoe). (/so-no/ /le/ /ɔt-to/ /e/ /mεd-dzo/)
- It is quarter to nine. Sono le nove meno un quarto (so-no-leh-no-veh-men-oh-oon-koo-ar-toe). (/so-no/ /le/ /nɔ-ve/ /me-no/ /un/ /kwar-to/)
- It is ten to nine. Sono le nove meno dieci (so-no-leh-no-veh-men-oh-dee-eh-chee). (/so-no/ /le/ /nɔ-ve/ /me-no/ /djε-t∫i/)
- What time is it? Che ora è? (keh-orah-eh). (/ke/ /o-ra/ /è/)
- Ask when!
- At What time? A che ora (ah-keh-o-rah)? (/a/ /ke/ /o-ra/)
- At one o'clock. All'una (ahl-loon-ah). (/al-lu-na/)
- At two o'clock. Alle due (aleh-doo-eh). (/al-le/ /du-e/)
- At eight o'clock in the evening. Alle otto di sera. (/al-le/ /ɔt-to/ /di/ /se-ra/)
- At What time? A che ora (ah-keh-o-rah)? (/a/ /ke/ /o-ra/)
Learn Dates
- Calendar: Calendario (ka-len-daree-o). (/ka-len-da-rjo/)
- Year: L’anno (lan-no). (/lan-no/)
- Season: La stagione (lastah-djoe-neh). (/la/ /sta-dʒo-ne/)
- Month: Il mese (eel-meh-zeh). (/il/ /me-ze/)
- Winter: L’inverno (leen-ver-no). (/lin-vεr-no/)
- January: Gennaio (djehn-nah-yoe). (/dʒen-na-jo/)
- February: Febbraio (feb-rah-yoe). (/feb-bra-jo/)
- March: Marzo (mart-so). (/mar-tso/)
- Spring: La primavera (lapreemah-veh-rah). (/la/ /pri-ma-vε-ra/)
- April: Aprile (ah-p-reeleh). (/a-pri-le/)
- May: Maggio (mah-djoe). (mad-dʒo)
- June: Giugno (djoo-nee-o). (/dʒuŋ-ŋo/)
- Summer: L’estate (less-tah-teh). (/le-sta-te/)
- July: Luglio (looy-lee-oh). (/luʎ-ʎo/)
- August: Agosto (ah-gohs-to). (/a-gos-to/)
- September: Settembre (seht-temb-reh). (/set-tεm-bre/)
- Autumn: L’autunno (lah-oo-toon-no). (/lau-tun-no/)
- October: Ottobre (ot-tob-reh). (/ot-to-bre/)
- November: Novembre (no-vemb-reh). (/no-vεm-bre/)
- December: Dicembre (dee-chemb-reh). (/di-t∫εm-bre/)
- Week: Settimana (set-tee-mah-nah). (/set-ti-ma-na/)
- Monday: Lunedì (loo-neh-dee). (/lu-ne-di/)
- Tuesday: Martedì (marteh-dee). (/mar-te-di/)
- Wednesday: Mercoledì (merkoleh-dee). (/mer-ko-le-di/)
- Thursday: Giovedì (djoe-veh-dee). (/dʒo-ve-di/)
- Friday: Venerdì (ve-ner-dee). (/ve-ner-di/)
- Saturday: Sabato (sah-bah-toe). (/sa-ba-to/)
- Sunday: Domenica (doe-meneekah). (/do-me-ni-ka/)
- Ask dates!
- In Italian, in contrast to English, they use cardinal numbers. Hence, they say, "30 martz," not "30th March."
- Only for the first day of the month, Italians use ordinal "primo" abbreviated as 1o, equivalent to English 1st.
- In Italian, they do not capitalize names of months.
- What is the date? Quanti ne abbiamo (koo-ahntee-neh-ahb-bee-ahmo)? (/kwan-ti/ /ne/ /ab-bja-mo/)
- It is 30th of March 2012. È il (eh-eel) trenta marzo 2012. (/e/ /il/ /tren-ta/ /mar-tso/)
- It is 12th of July 2010. È il dodici luglio 2010. (/e/ /il/ /do-di-t∫i/ /luʎ-ʎo/)
- It is 1st of May 2012. È il primo maggio 2012. (/e/ /il/ /pri-mo/ /mad-dʒo)
- It is 20th of September 1870. È il venti settembre 1870. (/e/ /il/ /ven-ti/ /set-tεm-bre/)
- Do not forget, "È il," where, "È" means "is" and "il" is the Italian article similar to English the.
- What is today? Che giorno è (keh-djor-no-eh)? (/ke/ /dʒor-no/ /e/)
- It is Saturday. È sabato. (/e/ /sa-ba-to/)
- It is Monday. È lunedi. (/e/ /lu-ne-di/)
- It is Thursday. È giovedi. (/e/ /dʒo-ve-di/)
- Italians also do not capitalise weekdays.
Learn Modifiers of Time
- These modifiers define the time of events in Italian.
- First group:
- Day: Il giorno (eel-djor-no). (/il/ /dʒor-no/)
- Night: La Notte (note-teh). (/il/ /nɔt-te/)
- Second group:
- The day before yesterday: L'altro Ieri (lahl-teh-roe-yeh-ree). (/lal-tro/ /jε-ri/)
- Yesterday: Ieri. (/jε-ri/)
- Today: Oggi (o-djee). (ɔd-dʒi)
- Tomorrow: Domani (doe-mah-nee). (/do-ma-ni/)
- The day after tomorrow: Domani l'altro. (/do-ma-ni/ /lal-tro/)
- Third group:
- Before: Prima di. (/pri-ma/ /di/)
- Now: Adesso. (/a-dεs-so/)
- After: Dopo. (/do-po/)
- Fourth group:
- Never (ever): Mai. (/mai/)
- Seldom: Di rado. (/di/ /ra-do/)
- Occasionally: talvolta. (/tal-vɔl-ta/)
- Often: Spesso. (spes-so)
- Usually: Di Solito. (/di/ /sɔ-li-to/)
- Always: Sempre. (/sεm-pre/)
- Forever: Per sempre. (/per/ /sεm-pre/)
- Fifth group:
- Early: Presto. (/prεs-to)
- Late: Tardi. (/tar-di/)
- Sixth group:
- Immediately: Subito. (/su-bi-to/)
- Then: Poi. (/pɔi/)
- Soon: Appena. (/ap-pe-na/)
- Later: Dopo. (/do-po/)
- Finally: Infine. (/in-fi-ne/.)
- Seventh group:
- Past: Scorso. (/skor-so/)
- Present: Presente. (/pre-zεn-te/)
- Future: Futuro. (fu-tu-ro)
- Further enriching expressions:
- For today : per oggi. (/per/ /ɔd-dʒi/)
- Until tomorrow : a domani. (/a/ /do-ma-ni/)
- Until later : a più tardi. (/a/ /pju/ /tar-di/)
- All day : tutto il giorno. (/tut-to/ /il/ /dʒor-no/)
- At the same time : allo stesso tempo. (/al-lo/ /stes-so/ /tεm-po/)
- In the mean time (meanwhile) : nel frattempo. (/nel/ /tεm-po/)
- From time to time (occasionally) : di tempo in tempo, di tanto in tanto). (/di/ /tεm-po/ /in/ /tεm-po/) (/di/ /tan-to/ /in/ /tan-to/)
- Ahead of time (sooner) : in anticipo. (/in/ /an-ti-t∫i-po/)
- Just now : proprio ora. (/prɔ-prjo/ /o-ra/)
- Until now : fino ad ora. (/fi-no/ /ad/ /o-ra/)
- Two (three, and so on) times a day (a week, and so on): due (tre, eccetera) volte al giorno (alla settimana, eccetera). (/du-e/ (/tre/ /et-t∫-te-ra/) /vɔl-te/ /al/ /dʒor-no/ (/al-la/ /set-ti-ma-na/ /et-t∫-te-ra/))