There is no Italian equivalent for the English eleven hundred, twelve hundred, etc. One says millecento, milleduecento, etc.
The function of periods and commas is reversed from that in English. Therefore, the number 1.000 = one thousand (or mille in Italian) and 1,5 = one point five or one and five tenths or, in Italian, uno virgola cinque.
The indefinite article is not used with cento (hundred) and mille (thousand), but it is used with milione (million).
cento favole (a hundred fables)
mille notti (a thousand nights)
un milione di dollari (a million dollars)
Cento has no plural form. Mille has the plural form mila.
cento lire, duecento lire
mille lire, duemila lire
L. is the abbreviation for lira/lire. Milione (plural milioni) and miliardo (plural miliardi) require di when they occur directly before a noun.
In Italia ci sono 57 milioni di abitanti. (In Italy there are 57 million inhabitants.)
Il governo ha speso molti miliardi di dollari. (The government has spent many billions of dollars.)
But:
Tre milioni cinquecentomila (3.500.000) lire (3.5 million lire)
Italian Numbers One Hundred and Greater
| 100 | cento | 1.000 | mille |
| 101 | centouno | 1.001 | milleuno |
| 150 | centocinquanta | 1.200 | milleduecento |
| 200 | duecento | 2.000 | duemila |
| 300 | trecento | 10.000 | diecimila |
| 400 | quattrocento | 15.000 | quindicimila |
| 500 | cinquecento | 100.000 | centomila |
| 600 | seicento | 1.000.000 | un milione |
| 700 | settecento | 2.000.000 | due milioni |
| 800 | ottocento | 1.000.000.000 | un miliardo |
| 900 | novecento | 2.000.000.000 | due miliardi |
