Months of the year in Italian: how to say them
The months of the year in Italian are gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile, maggio, giugno, luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre, novembre and dicembre. They are written without a capital letter and they are all masculine. In Italian film and television dialogue the month mentioned most is settembre, and the one mentioned least is febbraio.
The twelve months
| English | Italian | Say it | Named after | Per million words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | gennaio | jen-NAH-yo | Janus, god of doorways and beginnings | 9.8 |
| February | febbraio | feb-BRAH-yo | februa, a Roman festival of purification | 8.3 |
| March | marzo | MAR-tso | Mars, god of war | 10.8 |
| April | aprile | ah-PREE-leh | Latin Aprilis, of uncertain origin | 12.6 |
| May | maggio | MAHD-jo | the goddess Maia | 13.5 |
| June | giugno | JOO-nyo | the goddess Juno | 12.9 |
| July | luglio | LOO-lyo | Julius Caesar | 14.4 |
| August | agosto | ah-GOS-to | the emperor Augustus | 11.0 |
| September | settembre | set-TEM-breh | septem, seven | 17.1 |
| October | ottobre | ot-TOH-breh | octo, eight | 12.9 |
| November | novembre | no-VEM-breh | novem, nine | 11.4 |
| December | dicembre | dee-CHEM-breh | decem, ten | 10.5 |
The last column is how many times the word is said per million words of Italian subtitles.
Three sounds to watch. Gi before a vowel is the English j, so giugno starts like "June". Gn is the ny of "canyon" and gli is close to the lli of "million", which gives giugno and luglio their endings. And a double consonant is held a moment longer: febbraio, maggio, settembre, ottobre.
Where the names come from
All twelve names are Roman. The Romans named the first months of their year for gods and festivals, and then ran out of ideas and counted.
- January is the month of Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings, and February is named for februa, a festival of purification held in it.
- March belongs to Mars, May to the goddess Maia and June to Juno. The origin of April, Latin Aprilis, is not known for certain.
- July and August were once Quintilis and Sextilis, the "fifth" and "sixth" months. They were renamed for Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus.
- September, October, November and December are simply "seventh", "eighth", "ninth" and "tenth", from Latin septem, octo, novem and decem.
The numbers are two out because the early Roman year began in March. When January became the first month, the names stayed where they were, so the "seventh" month is now the ninth. Italian keeps the Roman names almost unchanged: settembre, ottobre, novembre and dicembre still contain sette, otto, nove and dieci, the Italian for seven, eight, nine and ten.
How to use them
- No capital letter. Sono nato a maggio, "I was born in May".
- "In May" is a maggio or in maggio. Both are correct. Nel mese di maggio is "in the month of May".
- A date takes il and a plain number: il 3 maggio, "the third of May"; il 25 dicembre. Before a vowel it is l': l'8 marzo, l'11 settembre.
- The first of the month is the exception. It uses the ordinal: il primo maggio, "the first of May".
- "This", "next", "last": questo mese, il mese prossimo, il mese scorso; il prossimo settembre, "next September".
- To ask the date: Quanti ne abbiamo oggi? or Che giorno è oggi?
- Dates are written day first: 3/5/2027 is the third of May.
The seasons
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| spring | la primavera |
| summer | l'estate |
| autumn | l'autunno |
| winter | l'inverno |
"In summer" is in estate or d'estate; "in winter", in inverno or d'inverno.
Which month do Italian films say most?
Settembre, at 17.1 per million words, ahead of luglio and maggio. Febbraio is last at 8.3, about half as often, with gennaio just above it.
Months are mentioned less than days. All twelve together are said about 145.2 times per million words, fewer than the seven days of the week. The days are counted in the days of the week in Italian.
Learn them in a sentence
- In che mese sei nato? — What month were you born in?
- Sono nata a luglio. — I was born in July. (A woman speaking.)
- Oggi è il 3 maggio. — Today is the third of May.
- Ci vediamo a settembre. — See you in September.
- Il primo gennaio è festa. — The first of January is a holiday.
Dates need numbers: numbers 1 to 100 in Italian has them all. The months are among the most common Italian words, and the Italian course, Verbavia (our own course), teaches them with dates and times, free on the web. The hundred words said most of all are explained in the 100 most common Italian words.
Another set every beginner needs: colours in Italian, ranked by how often films say each one.
Sources
- Treccani, Vocabolario on line: gennaio, febbraio, luglio, agosto and settembre, for the Latin origin of each name.
- Wikipedia: Roman calendar, on the year that began in March, the numbered months, and the renaming of Quintilis and Sextilis.
- The counts are from OpenSubtitles 2018 (Lison, P. & Tiedemann, J., 2016, aclanthology.org) through Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords lists, content licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com. They are computed by
scripts/frequency_thousand.pyand printed from its output rather than typed.