Numbers

Do you know how to count in Irish? Learn some helpful words and phrases and test yourself on others you may already know!

1–19

When counting in Irish the spellings and even sounds of the numbers sometimes change.

When counting on fingers, or numbering things like train platforms, add a in front of the number. For example, ticket number 3 is ticéad uimhir a trí, and platform 5 is ardán uimhir a cúig. Most of the time, you only need to add a in front of the number.

However, some number spellings are changed, and will sound slightly different because of it.

• aon (1) becomes a haon
• ocht (8) becomes a hocht

20–100

When counting in Irish from 21–99, take the multiple of ten and then add the basic number after this. For example,

• twenty-five (25) is fiche + a cúig = fiche a cúig

• forty-three (43) is daichead + a trí = daichead a trí

• eighty-nine (89) is ochtó + a naoi = ochtó a naoi

However, it's really important to remember that there are different rules when counting people or things.

Learn more about counting people, things and ordinalsin this guide.