If you’re going to start your child on Italian somewhere, start with numbers.
Not because numbers are the most useful words — they aren’t. Because numbers are a closed set. There are twenty of them and then you’re done.
Compare that to animals, or food, or feelings, where the list never ends and neither you nor your child ever gets the satisfaction of finishing anything.
Numbers also come with something no other vocabulary set has: a built-in reason to say them out loud, dozens of times a day, without anyone having to invent a reason. Stairs. Grapes. Seconds before a race. The repetition is already in your day, you’re just changing the language it happens in.
Print this or screenshot it. The stressed syllable is in capitals.
| Number | Italian | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | uno | OO-noh |
| 2 | due | DOO-eh |
| 3 | tre | treh |
| 4 | quattro | KWAH-troh |
| 5 | cinque | CHEEN-kweh |
| 6 | sei | say |
| 7 | sette | SET-teh |
| 8 | otto | OT-toh |
| 9 | nove | NOH-veh |
| 10 | dieci | DYEH-chee |
| 11 | undici | OON-dee-chee |
| 12 | dodici | DOH-dee-chee |
| 13 | tredici | TREH-dee-chee |
| 14 | quattordici | kwat-TOR-dee-chee |
| 15 | quindici | KWEEN-dee-chee |
| 16 | sedici | SEH-dee-chee |
| 17 | diciassette | dee-chas-SET-teh |
| 18 | diciotto | dee-CHOT-toh |
| 19 | diciannove | dee-chan-NOH-veh |
| 20 | venti | VEN-tee |
Two pronunciation notes worth getting right early, because they’re the ones English speakers reliably miss:
Most children stall at ten. Here’s the shortcut that gets them past it.
From 11 to 16, Italian says the small number first, then -dici:
Then at 17, it flips. Dici moves to the front:
Once a five-year-old spots the flip, they usually find it funny rather than confusing — and they remember it because they discovered it. Don’t explain this to a three-year-old; just get them solid on one to ten and let twenty wait.
Ranges, not rules. Children move at wildly different speeds and none of it predicts anything.
If you’re not sure your child is ready to start at all, this is worth reading first.
1. Stair counting
One number per step, every single time you go up. Uno, due, tre… Coming down, count backwards. It takes no extra time and it happens ten times a day.
This is the highest-return activity on the list, and it’s the one parents most often skip because it doesn’t feel like teaching.
2. Snack counting
Grapes, blueberries, crackers. Count them out onto the plate together before eating. Then ask quanti sono? (KWAN-tee SOH-noh — how many are there?) and count again.
Eating one and recounting is, to a three-year-old, the funniest thing that has ever happened.
3. Uno, due, tre… via!
Every countdown becomes Italian. Before a jump, a race, a slide, throwing a ball. Via (VEE-ah) means “go.”
4. Dammi… (Give me…)
Pile up blocks or toy cars. Dammi tre macchine — give me three cars (DAM-mee). They hand them over, counting as they go.
Why it works: two skills at once, comprehension and counting, but only one of them feels like the task.
5. Body counting
Count fingers, toes, ears, noses. Quante dita? (how many fingers — KWAN-teh DEE-tah). Nobody needs to fetch anything, which makes this the game for the ten minutes before bed.
6. Il gioco dei dadi (The dice game)
Roll a die, say the number in Italian, move that many spaces on any board game you already own. Two dice when they’re ready — and now they’re adding in Italian, which is the point.
7. Hide the number
Write 1 to 10 on paper scraps and hide them around a room. Your child finds them and puts them in order. Call out dov’è il sette? to send them hunting for a specific one.
8. Numeri al supermercato
At the shop: prendi cinque mele (take five apples). Counting into a bag, in Italian, in public, with a purpose. Children take this job extremely seriously.
9. Countdown backwards
Dieci, nove, otto… before anything dramatic — a rocket launch, jumping into a pool, turning out the lights. Backwards counting is significantly harder than forwards and this is the only painless way to practise it.
10. Ambarabà ciccì coccò
The Italian equivalent of “eeny meeny miny moe” — the traditional rhyme Italian children use to decide who goes first. Ask any Italian relative to say it for you once and you’ll have it. It’s nonsense, it’s rhythmic, and it gets used dozens of times a week for real decisions rather than for practice.
Numbers are the one area where repetition genuinely matters — and repetition is the thing children will accept endlessly from a game and refuse instantly from a parent.
Three of the Parlini Land games do this in Italian specifically:
Trace the Numbers — your child traces each numeral with their finger while hearing it named in Italian. This links the written symbol to the Italian word, which is the connection that makes school maths in Italian possible later.
Order the Numbers — sequencing, biggest to smallest and back again. This is the game that shakes out the child who has memorised the sound of counting without understanding the order, which is more common at four than most parents realise.
Can You Count — a voice asks conta i …? and your child taps to count what’s on screen.
The Number Board — tap on each number and hear it.
Every prompt is voiced by a real Italian speaker — no AI voices — so the numbers your child learns are the numbers they’ll recognise from a relative on the phone. The design is deliberately calm, so this isn’t a game that leaves a four-year-old overstimulated.
See how the games fit together across the whole app: learn Italian through kids’ games.
“They can recite to ten but can’t count five objects.” Completely normal, and it’s not an Italian problem — it’s a counting problem that happens to be showing up in Italian. Recitation is a song; counting is a one-to-one mapping. Go back to counting things they can physically move, one at a time, out of a pile and into a new pile.
“They mix up sette and sei.” Almost universal. Both start with the same sound. Separate them for a week — play games that use six and not seven, then swap — before putting them back together.
“They refuse to count in Italian and switch to English.” Don’t make them start over. Count alongside them in Italian while they count in English; the two tracks running at once does more than any correction. And check whether the counting has quietly become a test rather than a game — that’s usually what’s happened. More on getting past resistance here.
Signs you’re getting somewhere, in the order they tend to appear:
Number four is the big one. It looks like a mistake and it’s actually the moment the word stopped being a performance and became a word they own.
If you want a broader plan rather than numbers alone, start here: tips for teaching kids Italian, ages 2–5.
Parlini Land is available on the App Store and Google Play, with number games in Italian and 10 other languages. Monthly, annual and lifetime plans available. Download Parlini Land today.
