Introduction to Modern Irish--part 5--numbers and counting

My first thought was, "oh! counting and numbers, how hard could this be?" I was so wrong...

For those who are still reading these posts, my apologies, this is probably not what you signed up for!

The first thing to understand is that there are three ways of counting: one type is for counting objects, like pens, books, dogs, etc; another is for counting people; and yet another is for...well, numbers, such as giving out one's phone number.

 We will start with the last of these:

Spelling --English translation-- How it sounds

 

0---a náid-------uh nayd

1---a haon-----uh hayn/hane

2---a dó---------uh doe (a deer, a female deer...)

3---a trí---------uh tree

4---a ceathair--uh kaw-her

5---a cúig------uh koo-ig

6---a sé--------uh shay

7---a seacht---uh shocked

8---a hocht----uh hocked

9---a naoi------uh nay

10--a deich------uh deh

11---a haon déag------uh hayn day-ug (or 'jeg', depending on where you are from.

12---a dó dhéag---------uh doe yay-ug (or 'yeg', depending on where you are from.

13---a trí déag---------uh tree jeg

14---a ceathair déag--uh kaw-her jeg

15---a cúig déag------uh koo-ig jeg

16---a sé déag--------uh shay jeg

17---a seacht déag---uh shocked jeg

18---a hocht déag----uh hocked jeg

19---a naoi déag------uh nay jeg

20--fíche--------fee-heh

30--triocha-----truck-a

40--daichead---dah-hed

50--caoga-------kway-guh

...this will do when rattlin' off a bunch of numbers for a mobile phone or for playing bingo, but when you are actually counting a list of things (nouns) there are some rules to observe:

let's pretend that we're counting tables--just work with me here...

remember, table is 'bord'
one and two are weird...but 1-6 are lenited form...'bord' becomes 'bhord'

one table---bord amháin--bored avawn

two tables--dhá bhord ----ha vord (with a German sounding gutteral noise...) 'cha vord'

three tables-trí bhord--------tree vord...

and on until you get to 7, when you stop leniting the word and you eclipse it instead, with an urú...

seven tables---seacht mbord--shocked mored

eight tables---hocht mbord-----hocked mored 

and on and on... 

 Now counting people is a bit more difficult--some numbers are completely different!

1---duine-----------din-nah (literally means 'people')

2---beirt--------------bert (or I've heard 'birch')

3---triúr-------------troo-er

4---ceathrar--------kaw-her-er

5---a cúigear------koo-ig-er

6---seisear---------shesher

7---seachtar--------shocked-er

8---ochtar-----------oct-er

9---naonúr----------nay-noor

10--deichniúr-------deh-noor

Now some useful phrases!

Cén uimhir atá agat?--what is your mobile/cell number?--kane/kayn iv-er a-taw a-gut

is í m'uimhir ná--my number is--iss ee miver/mih-ver naw...

Huzzah! Tune in next time for days of the week, locations and professions!