123 Irish Numbers: An Easy Beginner’s Guide

Irish Numbers

Learning the Irish numbers or uimhreacha is one of the basic things that can help you get by in the land of Emerald Isle. Aside from expanding your vocabulary in the Irish language, numbers can provide one an opportunity to express important concepts with clarity- may you be ordering food, purchasing something from the market, visiting the tax office, or even when you are paying your fare.

Also, if you are a traveler, learning this will prevent you from making costly mistakes! To help you get started, we have prepared a simple guide that will walk you through the numbers (ordinal and cardinal) in Irish and say it like a real native speaker.

There are basically three ways to count in the Irish language, making it quite challenging for new learners. The locals have the basic cardinal numbers for describing the quantity, and this can be further divided into two categories: basic Irish numbers and cardinal numbers with a noun. We also have the Irish ordinal numbers to tell positions. Before we discuss all the translations for this, let us first identify some of the basic vocabulary terms which you have to master first:

English IrishLanguage Function
NumberUimhirNoun
The numberAn uimhirWith singular article
NumbersUimhreachaPlural
The numbersNa huimhreachaWith plural article

How To Count Things In Irish

If you have been watching native speakers count aloud, you might realize that the locals usually add the letter “a” before the actual cardinal number. Due to this phenomenon, some numbers like a haon (one) or a hocht (eight) also transform to include an -h prefix. Below are the cardinal translations that you must master to be confident in the Irish language.

NumberIrish
1a haon
2
3trí
4ceathair
5cúig
6
7seacht
8a hocht
9naoi
10deich
11a haon déag
12dó dhéag
13trí déag
14ceathair déag
15cúig déag
16sé déag
17seacht déag
18ocht déag
19naoi déag
20fiche
21fiche a haon
22fiche a dó
23fiche a trí
24fiche a ceathair
25fiche a cúig
26fiche a sé
27fiche a seacht
28fiche a hocht
29fiche a naoi

Notice the pattern in the Irish numbers there? To continue counting until 1000, all you need to do is add the number’s translation in the tens place first and then continue adding the numbers. Below are the Irish translations for the tens.

NumberIrish
30tríocha
40daichead
50caoga
60seasca
70seachtó
80ochtó
90nócha
100céad
1000míle
Irish numbers Ordinal Format

Irish Numbers In Ordinal Format

When it comes to describing the different orders and positions, may it be for competitions, ranking things, or the day of the month, we use ordinal numbers or Orduimhreacha. See the details below on the translations so that you start using them when speaking with the locals.

NumberIrish
1an chéad
2an dara
3an tríu
4an ceathrú
5an cúigiú
6an seú
7an seachtú
8an t-ochtú
9an naoú
10an deichiú
11an t-aonú … déag
12an dóú … déag
13an tríu … déag
14an ceathrú … déag
15an cúigiú … déag
16an séú … déag
17an seachtú … déag
18an t-ochtú … déag
19an naoú … déag
20an fichiú
21an t-aonú … is fiche
22an dóú … is fiche
23an ceathrú … is fiche
24an cuígiú … is fiche
25an cuígiú … is fiche
26an séú … is fiche
27an seachtú … is fiche
28an ochtú … is fiche
29an naoú … is fiche

As you can find from the table above, the pattern is the same, and all you need to do is to add the same translation to the end of the word. Below is a continuation for Irish numbers 30 to 1000.

NumberIrish
30an tríochadú
40daicheadú
50caogadú
60seascadú
70seachtódú
80ochtódú
90nóchadú
100an chéadú
1000an míliú
Irish Numbers For People

Irish Numbers For People

In the case of Ireland and the Gaelic language, the locals make use of another counting system when they are referring to people. This counting system is known as personal numbers. I’ll be listing below the basic counting from one to twenty to help you get started.

NumberIrish
Oneduine
Twobeirt
Threetríur
Fourceathrar
Fivecúigear
Sixseisear
Sevenseachtar
Eightochtar
Ninenaonúr
Tendeichniúr
Elevenaon duine dhéag
Twelvedáréag
Thirteentrí dhuine dhéag
Fourteenceithre dhuine dhéag
Fifteencúig dhuine dhéag
Sixteensé dhuine dhéag
Seventeenseacht dhuine dhéag
Eighteenocht dhuine dhéag
Nineteennaoi dhuine dhéag
Twentyfiche dhuine

As we reach this part of the page, we hope that you were able to understand how the Irish people count using their native language. And now that you are done with it, we hope that you’ll find the courage to put the words into use when speaking with the locals or Ireland. Finally, if you enjoyed this post, we invite you to stick around and read out updated posts, such as the basic languages in Ireland, the most common Irish verbs, and how to construct a meaningful question-based statement.

Before you jump off, allow us to ask you a question… would you be interested in learning Irish and multiple foreign languages today? Well, search no more because we’ve got the support you’ll ever need. Read on below to find out more about our most recommended site and application!

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The Ling app is an interactive language learning platform developed to help language enthusiasts from all walks of life. What separates it from the rest of the other apps is that this one is made and maintained by real native speakers and language professionals. For this reason, the translations here are guaranteed to be correct, and that the audio files you will hear are spoken by real people and not robotic voices!

And the best part of it all… the Ling app is available to download from the Play Store and App Store. Get the best language learning support today!

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