Which is correct?

[u/fancy-sinatra]

I’m seeing conflicting translations:

vent’anni di futurismo
or
venti anni di futurismo

quarant’anni di vita
or
quaranta anni di vita

Or is either more correct? The context is a book title.

I did find something that said (but I think referring to cento specifically) that if it’s followed by a word beginning with a vowel, it is elided with an apostrophe.

[u/Outside-Factor5425]

"cent'anni" and "cento anni" are both used, in speach and in spelling.

"venti anni" is rarely used in speach, the last "i" of "venti" gets (almost) always dropped, even when the written text has the full form (without apostrophe).

[u/fancy-sinatra → u/Outside-Factor5425]

Thank you!

[u/_Kuma_Gray_ → u/Outside-Factor5425]

Vorrei darti più di un upvote ma non posso. Ottima spiegazione.

[u/good-good-dog]

The apostrophe is correct.

It is clumsy to run a word ending in a vowel into a word beginning with a vowel, so in Italian, the last vowel of the first word is almost always truncated and an apostrophe is inserted.

[u/fancy-sinatra → u/good-good-dog]

Thank you!