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Talking about decades with 'negli anni Ottanta'

In English you can say the eighties or simply the 80s. Italian can't use the number on its own. A decade is always gli anni (the years) followed by the tens number: gli anni Ottanta, gli anni Sessanta, gli anni Novanta. Literally, you are saying "the eighty years".

English speakers tend to make two mistakes here. The first is dropping anni and saying something like gli Ottanta. The second is translating "in the eighties" word for word as in gli anni Ottanta and forgetting that the article merges with the preposition. The correct form is negli anni Ottanta.

Word list
annomA1 year gli anni + tens number = the decade cinquantamA1 fifty negli anni Cinquanta = in the fifties dieciA1 ten negli anni Dieci = in the 1910s novantamA1 ninety negli anni Novanta = in the nineties ottantamA1 eighty negli anni Ottanta = in the eighties quarantamA1 forty negli anni Quaranta = in the forties sessantamA1 sixty negli anni Sessanta = in the sixties settantamA1 seventy negli anni Settanta = in the seventies trentamA1 thirty negli anni Trenta = in the thirties ventiA1 twenty negli anni Venti = in the twenties zeromA2 zero negli anni Zero = in the 2000s
How it works

The basic building block is gli anni plus the number: gli anni Venti, gli anni Cinquanta. Because anni is masculine plural, the article is gli. When a preposition comes before it, the two words merge:

  • in + gli = negli: negli anni Settanta (in the seventies)
  • di + gli = degli: la musica degli anni Ottanta (eighties music)
  • da + gli = dagli: dagli anni Novanta (from the nineties on)

The number is often written with a capital letter, as in anni Ottanta. You will also see it in lower case (anni ottanta) or with digits and an apostrophe (anni '80). All three are correct. Just keep anni in every case.

Mia madre era giovane negli anni Settanta.
(My mother was young in the seventies.)
Adoro la musica degli anni Ottanta.
(I love 80s music.)

Notice that English "80s music" puts the decade in front of the noun. Italian puts it after the noun, linked with degli.

The words

The key noun is anno, which here always appears in the plural, anni. After it comes one of the tens numbers. Each of these numbers works the same way.

The early decades

Dieci, venti, trenta and quaranta cover the 1910s to the 1940s. English rarely names the 1910s, but Italian says gli anni Dieci without any problem. The same phrase is also used for the 2010s.

Negli anni Dieci molti italiani sono partiti per l'America.
(In the 1910s many Italians left for America.)
Mia nonna è nata negli anni Venti.
(My grandmother was born in the twenties.)
Gli anni Trenta e gli anni Quaranta sono stati anni difficili.
(The thirties and forties were difficult years.)
The mid and late century

Cinquanta, sessanta, settanta, ottanta and novanta are the decades you will hear most often, especially when people talk about music, fashion and family history.

Mi piace la moda degli anni Cinquanta.
(I like fifties fashion.)
Negli anni Sessanta mio nonno aveva una Vespa.
(In the sixties my grandfather had a Vespa.)
Sono nato negli anni Novanta.
(I was born in the nineties.)
The 2000s

For 2000 to 2009, Italians often say gli anni Zero, using zero in the same slot. Gli anni Duemila is also common, although it can refer to the 2000s more broadly.

Negli anni Zero tutti avevano un lettore MP3.
(In the 2000s everyone had an MP3 player.)
Watch out

The article depends on the sentence. You need it whenever the decade acts like a normal noun phrase: gli anni Ottanta, negli anni Ottanta, degli anni Ottanta. However, when the decade works as a style label straight after a noun, Italians often drop both the preposition and the article.

Stasera c'è una festa anni Ottanta.
(There's an eighties party tonight.)

Don't confuse decades with age. Ha ottant'anni means someone is eighty years old. In that phrase the number comes first and there is no article. A decade always has anni first and the number second.

Mio nonno ha ottant'anni.
(My grandfather is eighty years old.)

Centuries follow a different system entirely: l'Ottocento is the 1800s and il Novecento is the 1900s. If you want the general word for a ten-year period, use decennio (decade), as in l'ultimo decennio (the last decade).

Summary

To name a decade, always say anni followed by the tens number, never the number alone: gli anni Ottanta. After in or di, the article merges with the preposition, so you get negli anni Ottanta (in the eighties) and la musica degli anni Ottanta (eighties music). The same pattern covers every decade, from anni Dieci to anni Zero.