Italian Months of the Year: Complete Guide with Pronunciation

The 12 Italian months are gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile, maggio, giugno, luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre, novembre, dicembre. If you already know the English months, learning Italian months is remarkably straightforward because Italian preserves the original Latin month names more faithfully than any other Romance language.

With approximately 68 million native speakers according to Ethnologue's 2024 data, Italian is spoken across Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and Vatican City, with significant communities in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. Understanding the calendar is essential whether you are booking a pensione in Tuscany, navigating Italian bureaucracy, or simply reading a restaurant menu that changes ogni mese (every month).

"Italian maintains a closer morphological relationship to Latin than any other major Romance language. This is nowhere more evident than in its calendar terminology, where the month names have undergone minimal phonological change from their Latin originals."

(Bernard Comrie, The World's Major Languages, Routledge)

This guide covers all 12 months with pronunciation, their Latin origins, the grammar rules you need, and the cultural calendar that makes Italy unique.

The 12 Months in Italian

Here are all twelve months with English pronunciation approximations. Every Italian month is masculine and written in lowercase.

Latin Origins: Why Italian Months Sound Familiar

Italian month names are the most direct descendants of Latin among all Romance languages. If you compare Italian, Spanish, and French side by side, Italian consistently stays closest to the original Latin form.

The last four months reveal something fascinating about Roman history. Settembre through dicembre derive from the Latin numbers 7 through 10 because the original Roman calendar started in March, making September the seventh month. When January and February were added by King Numa Pompilius around 713 BC, the number-based names were never corrected.

The Treccani encyclopedia notes that luglio underwent the most dramatic phonological shift from its Latin source Iulius, with the initial "I" transforming to "L" through a process unique to Italian among Romance languages. Spanish retained julio and French kept juillet, both closer to the Latin original in their initial consonant.

Pronunciation Patterns

Italian month pronunciation follows consistent rules that make the system learnable once you know a few patterns.

The -embre / -obre Cluster

The final four months share a rhythmic pattern: settembre, ottobre, novembre, dicembre. They all stress the second-to-last syllable and end in -bre. Once you master one, the others follow naturally.

Double Consonants Matter

Italian distinguishes between single and double consonants. Febbraio has a double B (feb-BRAH-yoh), maggio has a double G (MAHD-joh), settembre has a double T (set-TEM-breh), and ottobre has a double T (ot-TOH-breh). Pronouncing double consonants means holding the sound slightly longer. Skip this and native speakers will notice immediately.

The GN and GL Sounds

Gennaio and giugno both contain the Italian gn combination, which sounds like the "ny" in "canyon." Luglio contains the gl combination (before i), which produces a "ly" sound similar to the "lli" in "million." These are two of the most distinctively Italian sounds and appear nowhere in English.

Grammar Rules for Italian Months

Gender and Articles

All Italian months are masculine. When you need an article, use il for months starting with a consonant and l' for aprile, agosto, and ottobre (which start with vowels):

• il gennaio più freddo (the coldest January)
• l'agosto più caldo (the hottest August)
• l'aprile scorso (last April)

Prepositions with Months

This is where learners often hesitate. The Accademia della Crusca confirms that three forms are all equally correct when expressing "in" a particular month:

In everyday conversation, a gennaio is the most frequently heard form. In gennaio is equally natural. The longer nel mese di gennaio (in the month of January) is reserved for formal writing or when you want extra emphasis.

Writing Dates in Italian

Italian date format is day-month-year, the opposite of American English. The definite article il precedes the day number, and the first of any month always uses the ordinal primo:

• il primo marzo (March 1st): ordinal for the first
• il 2 marzo (March 2nd): cardinal for all other days
• il 25 dicembre 2026 (December 25, 2026)
• il 14 febbraio (February 14)

The Italian Cultural Calendar

Italy's calendar is packed with traditions, festivals, and holidays that vary by region. Knowing the months means understanding when and why Italy celebrates.

Gennaio

The year begins with Capodanno (New Year's Day) on January 1st and Epifania on January 6th. The Epiphany is a major holiday in Italy, when children receive gifts from La Befana, a folklore figure who flies on a broomstick delivering candy to good children and coal to naughty ones. Many Italians consider the holiday season officially over only after January 6th.

Febbraio

February brings Carnevale, the legendary pre-Lenten festival. The Carnevale di Venezia is among the most famous in the world, with elaborate masks, costumes, and events spanning roughly two weeks. The exact dates shift each year since Carnival ends on Martedì Grasso (Fat Tuesday), which depends on Easter's date.

Marzo

March 8th is Festa della Donna (International Women's Day), celebrated across Italy with the gifting of mimosa flowers. Italian men give mimosa branches to the women in their lives: colleagues, mothers, partners, friends. The bright yellow flowers become ubiquitous at every street corner and market.

Aprile

Easter (Pasqua) often falls in April, and it is one of Italy's most important holidays. The Monday after Easter, Pasquetta (Little Easter), is a national holiday when Italians traditionally have outdoor picnics. April 25th is Festa della Liberazione, commemorating Italy's liberation from Nazi occupation in 1945.

Giugno

June 2nd is Festa della Repubblica, Italy's national day celebrating the 1946 referendum that established the Italian Republic. Rome hosts a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali, and le Frecce Tricolori (the Italian Air Force aerobatic team) paint the sky in green, white, and red.

Luglio e Agosto

July and August are defined by il Palio di Siena, the famous bareback horse race held in Siena's Piazza del Campo on July 2nd and August 16th. Each race represents centuries of rivalry between the city's contrade (neighborhoods).

Agosto

Ferragosto on August 15th is perhaps Italy's most culturally distinctive holiday. Originating from Emperor Augustus's Feriae Augusti in 18 BC, it has evolved into a mass vacation phenomenon. For roughly two to three weeks surrounding Ferragosto, factories close, shops shutter their doors, and cities empty as Italians flock to the coasts and mountains. Trying to conduct business in Italian cities during mid-August is nearly impossible, a fact that regularly surprises foreign visitors.

Dicembre

December revolves around Natale (Christmas) on the 25th and Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day) on the 26th. Italian Christmas traditions vary dramatically by region: panettone dominates in the north while pandoro is the sweet bread of choice in Verona and the northeast. The season extends through January 6th, making the Italian holiday period one of the longest in Europe.

Seasons and Month Groupings

Italians group months into seasons slightly differently than some English speakers might expect. The meteorological seasons are:

With seasons, Italian uses in without an article: in primavera (in spring), in estate (in summer), in autunno (in autumn), in inverno (in winter). This differs from the month prepositions where you can use either a or in.

Useful Phrases with Months

Once you know the month names, these expressions will help you use them naturally in conversation:

Notice that nato changes to nata for women because Italian past participles agree with the subject's gender when used with essere (to be). This is a fundamental Italian grammar rule you will encounter constantly.

Practice with Real Italian Content

The months appear everywhere in Italian daily life, from train schedules and museum hours to news broadcasts and film dialogue. Repeated exposure in real contexts is the fastest way to internalize them.

Italian cinema offers excellent calendar-related vocabulary practice. Films like Ferragosto scenes in Italian comedies, period dramas referencing historical dates, and everyday conversations about plans and schedules all reinforce month names naturally. Check out our guide to the best movies for learning Italian for recommendations across different genres and difficulty levels.

Wordy helps you practice Italian vocabulary in real context through movies and TV shows with interactive subtitles. When a month or date appears in dialogue, you can tap it to see the meaning, hear the pronunciation, and build your calendar vocabulary naturally. Explore our blog for more Italian learning guides, including Italian days of the week and Italian numbers to complete your foundational vocabulary.