Counting Objects 1-10 in Irish

When counting in Irish, we use the singular noun. If I were to ask you this question, “Cé mhéad cat atá sa chrann?” (How many cats are there in the tree?), the answer to this question may be “aon chat amháin” (one cat).

Now let’s continue with this list, up to 10. In each case, I’ll ask the question and I will follow up with the answer…

Cé mhéad cathaoir atá sa seomra? Tá dhá chathaoir sa seomra. (There’s two chairs in the room.)

Cé mhéad bosca atá ar an tseilf? Tá trí bhosca ar an tseilf. (There’s three boxes on the shelf.)

Cé mhéad madra atá ar an tsráid? Tá ceithre mhadra ar an tsráid. (There’s four dogs on the road.)

Cé mhéad bád atá sa chuan? Tá cúig bhád sa chuan. (There’s five boats in the harbour.)

Cé mhéad cat atá sa ghairdín? Tá sé chat sa ghairdín. (There’s six cats in the garden.)

Cé mhéad bó atá sa pháirc? Tá seacht mbó sa pháirc. (There’s seven cows in the field.)

Cé mhéad bus atá ar an mbóthar? Tá ocht mbus ar an mbóthar. (There’s eight buses on the road.)

Cé mhéad traein atá sa stáisiún traenach? Tá naoi dtraein sa stáisiún traenach. (There’s nine trains in the train station.)

Cé mhéad cupán atá sa chófra? Tá deich gcupán sa chófra. (There’s ten cups in the cupboard.)

You can see from these phrases that the patterns sometimes change depending on the number of things we are counting. Try practicing this with things in your home, referring back to this video for help.

Agus sin é, a chairde! That’s how to count objects in the Irish language, 1-10.