Numbers

Gaelic numbers come in two shapes from the very start. There is the bare word, which is what goes in front of a noun, and there is a counting form with a in front of it, which is what you say when you are reciting numbers on their own — counting steps, reading out a score, giving a phone number.

The a is only there to give the number something to lean on. Before aon and ochd, which start with a vowel, it becomes a h-.

• aonOONone

  🎙 Say it yourself
• dhàGHAAtwoIn front of a noun this is dà — see the next section.

  🎙 Say it yourself
• trìTREEthree

  🎙 Say it yourself
• ceithirKAY-hirfour

  🎙 Say it yourself
• còigKOH-ikfive

  🎙 Say it yourself
• siaSHEE-uhsix

  🎙 Say it yourself
• seachdSHAKHKseven

  🎙 Say it yourself
• ochdOKHKeight

  🎙 Say it yourself
• naoiNOO-eenine

  🎙 Say it yourself
• deichJAYKHten

  🎙 Say it yourself

The ch in ochd and seachd is the one in loch, not the one in church. The d is barely there: ochd comes out close to okhk.

Put a number in front of a noun and the counting a is dropped. aon and dà soften the word that follows — lenition — and leave the noun singular. From three upwards the noun is plural and nothing is softened.

dà is a survival of an old dual number, for exactly two of something, which is why it behaves differently from the numbers around it and why dhà changes its shape to get there.

• aon taighOON TUYone house

  aon

  one

  taigh

  house

  🎙 Say it yourself
• dà thaighDAA HUYtwo housesThe t is softened to th, which is just a breath.

  dà

  two

  thaigh

  house

  🎙 Say it yourself
• trì taigheanTREE TUY-unthree houses

  trì

  three

  taighean

  houses

  🎙 Say it yourself
• deich taigheanJAYKH TUY-unten houses

  deich

  ten

  taighean

  houses

  🎙 Say it yourself

A few everyday nouns stay singular however many there are, among them bliadhna (year) and uair (hour): deich bliadhna is ten years, not deich bliadhnaichean.

The teens are the units one to nine with deug after them, the same idea as English -teen. After dhà it softens to dheug.

With a noun, the noun goes in the middle rather than at the end: thirteen cats is trì cait deug, three cats -teen.

• aon deugOON jaykeleven

  aon

  one

  deug

  -teen

  🎙 Say it yourself
• dhà dheugGHAA yayktwelve

  dhà

  two

  dheug

  -teen

  🎙 Say it yourself
• còig deugKOH-ik jaykfifteen

  còig

  five

  deug

  -teen

  🎙 Say it yourself
• trì cait deugTREE KATCH jaykthirteen cats

  trì

  three

  cait

  cats

  deug

  -teen

  🎙 Say it yourself

deug is unstressed, so it is said quickly and lightly — jayk rather than JAYK. The stress stays on the unit in front of it.

Traditional Gaelic counts in twenties rather than tens, in the way French still says quatre-vingts for eighty. Twenty is fichead, forty is dà fhichead — two twenties — sixty trì fichead, and eighty ceithir fichead.

The numbers in between are built by adding to a twenty. ar fhichead is on twenty, so thirty is deich ar fhichead, ten on twenty. Above forty you add with 's a: dà fhichead 's a deich, two twenties and ten, is fifty.

Schools have also taught a decimal set since the last century, made by putting -ad on the unit. Both are current: the twenties are what you meet in older speech, songs and set expressions, and the decimal tens are what most people now use for dates, prices and phone numbers.

• ficheadFEE-chuttwenty

  🎙 Say it yourself
• dà fhicheadDAA EE-chutfortyfh is silent, so fhichead loses its f altogether.

  dà

  two

  fhichead

  twenty

  🎙 Say it yourself
• trì fichead 's a deichTREE FEE-chut suh JAYKHseventy

  trì

  three

  fichead

  twenty

  's

  and

  a

  (counting)

  deich

  ten

  🎙 Say it yourself
• ceudKEE-uta hundred

  🎙 Say it yourself
• mìleMEE-luha thousand

  🎙 Say it yourself

fichead, ceud and mìle take a singular noun after them, as aon and dà do: ceud bliadhna, a hundred years.

People get a set of numbers of their own, and it is not optional: three people is triùir, never trì daoine. They run from one to ten, and above that you go back to the ordinary numbers.

They work as nouns rather than as numbers. What is being counted follows in the genitive plural, which for most words shows up as lenition — triùir chloinne, three children — and they can stand alone: bha dithis ann, there were two of them there.

• dithisJEE-hishtwo people

  🎙 Say it yourself
• triùirTROO-irthree people

  🎙 Say it yourself
• còignearKOH-ik-nyurfive people

  🎙 Say it yourself
• dithis nigheanJEE-hish NYEE-untwo girls

  dithis

  two (people)

  nighean

  girl

  🎙 Say it yourself
• triùir chloinneTROO-ir KHLON-yuhthree children

  triùir

  three (people)

  chloinne

  children

  🎙 Say it yourself

aonar is hardly ever used to count. Where you will meet it is nam aonar, on my own — literally in my one-person state.

The ordinals carry the article, and the first three are irregular. a' chiad softens the word after it — a' chiad latha, the first day.

From fourth upwards they are the plain number with -amh on the end, so once you know the units you can recognise all of them. These are also how dates are said.

• a' chiad lathauh CHEE-ut LAA-uhthe first day

  a'

  the

  chiad

  first

  latha

  day

  🎙 Say it yourself
• an dàrna turasun DAAR-nuh TOO-rusthe second time

  an

  the

  dàrna

  second

  turas

  time

  🎙 Say it yourself
• an deicheamh lathaun JAYKH-uv LAA-uhthe tenth day

  an

  the

  deicheamh

  tenth

  latha

  day

  🎙 Say it yourself

cia mheud asks how many, and the noun after it stays singular where English would make it plural: cia mheud cat? is how many cats.

Age is counted in years, with bliadhna singular and a dh'aois — of age — at the end. Phone numbers, scores and door numbers are read digit by digit in the counting forms: a h-aon, a naoi, a naoi.

• neoni — zero, used in scores and sums rather than in counting.
• dusan — a dozen, which like fichead takes a singular noun: dusan ugh, a dozen eggs.
• leth — half, as in leth-uair, half an hour.
• a h-uile — every, followed by a singular noun: a h-uile latha, every day.

• Cia mheud bràthair a th' agad?kya VEE-ut BRAA-hir uh HAK-utHow many brothers do you have?

  Cia mheud

  how many

  bràthair

  brother

  a

  that

  th'

  is

  agad

  at-you

  🎙 Say it yourself
• Tha mi fichead bliadhna a dh'aoisHA mee FEE-chut BLEE-uh-nuh uh GHOOSHI am twenty years old

  Tha

  am

  mi

  I

  fichead

  twenty

  bliadhna

  year

  a dh'aois

  of age

  🎙 Say it yourself
• neoniNYAW-neezero

  🎙 Say it yourself

Number rush, in the games, asks for the Gaelic behind a digit against the clock — the teens, the twenties, the personal numerals and the ordinals, straight from this page's tables. Numbers turn up in the grammar guide too, and telling the time, the days, the months and the date are on the time and dates page.