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, pleasecontact me.

Hear the Irish numbers:

Notes

• When counting alouda is added before the numbers, e.g.a haon, a dó, a trí, etc.
• When counting objectsdó (2) becomesdhá andceathair (4) becomesceithre
• 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 andbróg (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 initalics above). This is rarely used in the standard and literary language these days, exceptdaichead for 40, which is a contraction ofdá fhichead (2 x 20). Some people useleathchéad ("half a hundred") for 50 as well. In Connacht young people tend to useceathracha for 40, while some older people usedhá fhichead ordhá scór.
• There are several variant forms of numbers from 21 onwards. For example: 21 is alsoa haon fichead ora haon ar fhichid, 22 is alsoa dó fichead ora dó ar fhichid and 31 is alsoa haon agus tríocha,a haon tríochad ora haon ar thríochaid
• Ages in obituaries are sometimes counted inscór, 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, pleasecontact 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

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Numbers in Celtic languages

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

Numbers in other languages

Alphabetical index |Language family index

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