Numbers in Irish

How to count in Irish (Gaeilge), a Celtic language spoken in mainly Ireland, with details of cardinal, ordinal and personal numbers, and some notes.

Key to abbreviations: m = masculine, f = feminine

If any of the numbers are links, you can hear a recording by clicking on them. If you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Hear the Irish numbers:

Notes

• When counting aloud a is added before the numbers, e.g. a haon, a dó, a trí, etc.
• When counting objects dó (2) becomes dhá and ceathair (4) becomes ceithre
• dhá (2) takes the dual case. For most nouns this is the same as the singular, however it's different for some nouns, including: lamh (hand) = laimh, bos (palm) = bois, cos (foot) = cois, cluas (ear) = cluais and bróg (shoe) = bhróig.
• The cardinal numbers 1-6 cause lenition (séimhiú) in the following noun, eg. aon chat (one cat), dhá mhadra (two dogs), trí mhuca (three pigs), ceithre chearca (four hens), cúig chaorach (five sheep), sé chapall (six horses).
• The cardinal numbers 7-9 cause eclipsis (úrú) in the following noun, eg. seacht ngéanna (seven geese), ocht n-iasc (eight fish), naoi mbád (nine boats)
• When using ordinal numbers the thing you're counting is inserted in the gap with the dots ..., eg. an seachtú lá déag de mí Dheireadh Fómhair = 17th October.
• The personal numbers are used for counting people.
• There is a vigesimal system of counting for numbers from 20 onwards (shown in italics above). This is rarely used in the standard and literary language these days, except daichead for 40, which is a contraction of dá fhichead (2 x 20). Some people use leathchéad ("half a hundred") for 50 as well. In Connacht young people tend to use ceathracha for 40, while some older people use dhá fhichead or dhá scór.
• There are several variant forms of numbers from 21 onwards. For example: 21 is also a haon fichead or a haon ar fhichid, 22 is also a dó fichead or a dó ar fhichid and 31 is also a haon agus tríocha, a haon tríochad or a haon ar thríochaid
• Ages in obituaries are sometimes counted in scór, e.g. ceathair scór is seacht = 87 ("4 score and 7".

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Links

Numbers and counting in Irish
http://www.phouka.com/irish/ir_numbers.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/colinandcumberland/littleblackbook/wordbank/numbers.shtml
http://www.nualeargais.ie/gnag/zahlen.htm
https://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/channumerals/Irish.htm

Irish language | Gaelic script | Ogham alphabet | Phrases | Numbers: Modern Irish, Middle Irish, Old Irish | Colours | Family words | Terms of endearment | Time | Dates | Weather | Proverbs | Comparison of Celtic languages | Celtic cognates | Celtiadur | Tower of Babel | Tongue twisters | Songs | Learning materials | Books about Ogham | My podcast about Irish | Links

Numbers in Celtic languages

Proto-Celtic, Old Irish, Middle Irish, Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Gaulish, Proto-Brythonic, Cumbric, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, Welsh, Middle Cornish, Cornish, Old Breton, Middle Breton, Breton

Numbers in other languages

Alphabetical index | Language family index

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