"thousand" in seven languages
Meaningthousand
Spanish
mil
/mil/
inherited
Invariable: dos mil.
French
mille
/mil/
inherited
Invariable: deux mille.
Italian
mille
/ˈmille/
inherited
plural: mila
The plural mila (duemila) comes from Latin's plural MĪLIA.
Portuguese
mil
/miw/
inherited
Romanian
mie
/ˈmije/
fem.inherited
plural: mii
From the plural MĪLIA, treated as a feminine noun: o mie, două mii.
Catalan
mil
/mil/
inherited
English
thousand
/ˈθaʊzənd/
native English · Old English þūsend
English → ItalianthousandmilleNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: mile (a thousand paces), millennium, million, millipede.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
MĪLLE (pl. MĪLIA)‘thousand’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A Roman mile was mille passuum, a thousand double paces. Italian alone kept a separate plural: mille, but duemila.
English relatives: mile (a thousand paces), millennium, million, millipede
Learn it
In a sentence
- esLa ciudad tiene dos mil años de historia.
- frLa ville a deux mille ans d'histoire.
- itLa città ha duemila anni di storia.
- ptA cidade tem dois mil anos de história.
- roOrașul are două mii de ani de istorie.
- caLa ciutat té dos mil anys d'història.
- enThe city has two thousand years of history.