🗣️ Gaeilge
Ag Comhaireamh
Counting things and counting people
Irish has three ways to say “three”. The one you use depends on whether you’re counting out loud, counting things or counting people.
Count the cats
First, a guess. Cat is “cat”, and when you count out loud, two is a dó. What do you think “two cats” is?
Now add cats one at a time, and listen to the number and to the start of cat.
Three ways to say three
A trí is for counting out loud and for a number on its own. Trí is for counting things. Triúr is for counting people. Tap a line, then tap the three you’d use for it.
Counting out loud
Tap each number to hear it. A haon and a hocht have an h because aon and ocht start with a vowel.
An h, or a letter in front
From two to six, the thing gets an h after its first letter. From seven to ten, it gets a letter in front instead, and the letter depends on how the word starts.
A word that starts with a vowel gets n- in front. Words that start with l, n or r never change.
Pick the right one each time.
Where people slip
English puts a number in front of a plural, as in “four pens”. Irish does it differently in three ways. Pick the right one each time.
How do you say “four pens”?
How do you say “two girls”?
How do you say “one cat”?
Count anything
Pick a number and a thing, and listen. The thing stays in the singular after every number.
How many
The thing
People have their own numbers. Pick how many, and who.
How many
Who
Listen and pick
This time there’s nothing to read. Play it, then pick how many you heard. There are 140 sentences in here, so it’s different every time you come back.
Spot it
Here are six to finish with. Nothing is scored or timed.
Eleven to nineteen
From eleven to nineteen, the number is in two parts and the thing goes between them. Déag is the Irish for “-teen”, and it comes last.
Bliain means “year”. A year is a thing, so twelve years uses dhá and bliain gets its h, exactly as cat does.
Next time you hear trí cailíní, you’ll know it should be triúr cailíní, and you’ll be able to say why.