Go mbeannaí Dia daoibh arís eile, welcome back to the glory that is the Bluffer’s Guide to Irish.
Last week we got counting up to 12 so we could tell the time but what about the big numbers, like when you are buying a pint in the Europa or a skinny latte in your local Hipsterville.
Well, we touched on fiche - twenty last week so going up in tens we have tríocha - thirty, daichead - forty, caoga - fifty, seasca - sixty, seachtó - seventy, ochtó - eighty and nócha is ninety.
We know the numbers up to ten so add them to the units of ten and you can count up to a hundred.
Caoga a haon - is 51, seasca a naoi - is 69, ochtó a ceathair is 84 and so on.
Of course if you put naoi déag - nineteen or fiche - twenty before them, you can talks about years.
Rugadh mé means I was born so rugadh mé i naoi déag ochtó a trí - means I was born in 1983.
So you have a go. In what year were you born? When were your friends and family born?
Have a quiz with dates. When did WWII start? When did Donegal last win the All-Ireland football final? What year was the Act of Union?
Now the moment the Bluffer has been dreading - because it is quite complicated but with full confidence in his loyal leadership, let’s go where only the mad go - into the world of counting things in Irish.
One is easy - you add the word amháin to whatever you are talking about so carr amháin - one car, forc amhain - one fork, teach amháin - one house.
Now that you have been lulled into a false sense of security, let’s go hardcore.
From 2 to 6, you add a h to the first letter of the noun and a dó becomes dhá and ceathair becomes ceithre.
For those of you still reading, I will explain that using a favourite word of mine, pionta - a pint.
When it’s two pints, you’d ask for dhá phionta.
Those are the two rules about adding a h to the first letter and dó changing to dhá.
You might have guessed already that four pints is ceithre phionta and sé phionta for example is five pints, whether it’s at the bar or at the blood transfusion service.
You might have noticed that the nouns aren’t put into the plural in Irish following a number, you don’t say sé phiontaí for example.
From seven to ten, you don’t add a h after the first letter but a different letter at the beginning.
With p you add a b so seacht bpionta - is seven pints and it’s the same with ocht, naoi and deich, you add another letter to the beginning of the noun and the Bluffer will put these in the Irish language section of the Irish News website.
For example seacht mbarra seacláide - seven bars of chocolate, ocht ngloine bainne - eight glasses of milk and naoi gcathaoir - nine chairs.
So you’re on your own now, loyal fans. Pick an object, find out what it is in Irish and count them from one to six and from seven to ten.
And don’t forget to look up the Bluffer’s Guide on the website.
CÚPLA FOCAL
fiche (feeha) -
twenty
tríocha(chruha) - thirty
daichead(dyhid) - forty
caoga(kayga) - fifty seasca(shaska) - sixty
seachtó(shakhto) - seventy
ochtó (okhto) - eighty
nócha(nawha) - ninety,
céad (cayd) - a hundred
caoga a haon(cayga hane) - 51
seasca a naoi - 69, ochtó a ceathair(okhto a kehir) - eighty-four
naoi déag(nee jayg) - nineteen
rugadh mé i naoi déag ochtó a trí(rugoo may i nee jayg okhto a chree) - I was born in 1983
carr amháin(caar awine) - one car
forc amháin(fork awine) - one fork,
teach amháin(chakh awine) - one house
pionta(pinnta) - a pint
dhá phionta ((gaa finnta) two pints
ceithre phionta (kerra finnta) - four pints
sé phionta (shay finnta) - six pints
seacht bpionta(shakt pinnta) - seven pints
seacht mbarra seacláide(shakht marra shaklaaja) - seven bars of chocolate
ocht ngloine bainne (okht nglinya baanya) - eight glasses of milk
naoi gcaothaoir(nee gaheer) - nine chairs
THE BLUFFER EXTRA
With the numbers between 7-10 you add extra letters to the noun you are counting.
With vowels you add n- so seacht n-ancaire - seven anchors, ocht n-eilifint - eight elephants, naoi n-ostrais nine ostrichs, deich n-úll - ten apples.
The rest goes like this:
b is preceded by m: seacht mbó - seven cows
c is preceded by g: seacht gcathaoir - seven chairs
d is preceded by n: seacht ndoras - seven doors
f is preceded by bh: seacht bhfuinneog - seven windows
g is preceded by n: seacht ngabhar - seven goats
p is preceded by b: seacht bpaidir - seven prayers
t is preceded by d: seacht dtabla - seven tables.