{"id":9541,"date":"2017-08-13T10:45:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-13T10:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=9541"},"modified":"2018-07-15T13:17:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T13:17:39","slug":"saying-ordinal-numbers-out-loud-in-irish-ag-ra-orduimhreacha-os-ard-i-ngaeilge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/saying-ordinal-numbers-out-loud-in-irish-ag-ra-orduimhreacha-os-ard-i-ngaeilge\/","title":{"rendered":"Saying Ordinal Numbers Out Loud in Irish: Ag r\u00e1 orduimhreacha os ard i nGaeilge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) <\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve sometimes seen otherwise-confident learners of Irish come to a dead stop when they’re reading out loud and come to some numbers. \u00a0The basic numbers are challenging enough.\u00a0 First, one must deal with all the different mutations that follow (dh\u00e1 chat<\/strong> but seacht gcat<\/strong>).\u00a0 Then there are all the exceptions due to the “units of measurement” rules (dh\u00e1 cheann<\/strong> but tr\u00ed cinn<\/strong>).\u00a0 Additionally, one might wonder whether to say “sa bhliain m\u00edle, naoi gc\u00e9ad, seasca a ceathair<\/strong>” (\u00e0 la Ceacht 44 sa leabhar<\/strong> Progress in Irish<\/em>) or “sa bhliain naoi d\u00e9ag seasca a ceathair<\/strong>” for “1964.”\u00a0 And as for situations like cod\u00e1in, c\u00e9atad\u00e1in, c\u00f3imheasa or suimeanna, bhuel, Dia \u00e1r s\u00e1bh\u00e1il<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

One blogpost can’t possibly address all of those issues, but here we’ll tackle “cuid bheag den cheist,” .i. ag r\u00e1 na n-orduimhreacha os ard<\/strong> (saying the ordinal numbers out loud).<\/p>\n

Maybe one reason the numbers confound us so much is that we have instant recognition of the digits themselves but our brains can’t always think of the actual words for them quite as quickly.\u00a0 The good news, though, is that it all gets better with practice.<\/p>\n

For today’s post, we’ll just look at a handful of examples, which like most ordinal numbers in Irish have the “-\u00fa” ending, parallel to the “-th” in English.\u00a0 This is obviously not an attempt to make a complete list, just some random samples and the pronunciations for the sentences on lunar eclipses from the last blog:<\/p>\n

an 5\u00fa – an c\u00faigi\u00fa<\/strong>, as in “an c\u00faigi\u00fa roth<\/strong>,” the fifth wheel<\/p>\n

an 10\u00fa – an deichi\u00fa<\/strong>, as in “an deichi\u00fa duine sa l\u00edne<\/strong>,” the tenth person in line<\/p>\n

With the teens and higher numbers, it starts to get a little more complicated because we have to remember that these actually become number phrases.\u00a0 For example, “15” in Irish can either be “a c\u00faig d\u00e9ag<\/strong>” (three words) or it can be used with a noun in phrases like “c\u00faig dhuine dh\u00e9ag<\/strong>” (15 people) or “c\u00faig chat d\u00e9ag<\/strong>” (15 cats), also ending up as three-word phrases.\u00a0 Note that the item being counted (here “duine<\/strong>” or “cat<\/strong>“) comes in the middle of the phrase. \u00a0Somewhat similarly, the “\u00fa<\/strong>” ending for the English “-th” is pronounced with the “5” part, not with the “teen” part, sort of as if we could imagine saying “fifthteen” [sic] instead of “fifteenth.”<\/p>\n

an 15\u00fa – an c\u00faigi\u00fa\u00a0 ___\u00a0 d\u00e9ag<\/strong>, as in “an c\u00faigi\u00fa l\u00e1 d\u00e9ag<\/strong>“, the fifteenth day, very literally, the fifth day teen<\/p>\n

For saying numbers in the twenties out loud, we have a similar structure to the teens.\u00a0 The lower number comes first (here, the 1, the 7, and the 8), with the item being counted next, and with the “twenty” part (fiche<\/strong>) coming last.\u00a0 So we have:<\/p>\n

an 21\u00fa – an t-aon\u00fa\u00a0 ____\u00a0 is fiche<\/strong>, as in “an t-aon\u00fa l\u00e1 is fiche<\/strong>,” lit. “the first day and twenty.”\u00a0 This structure is very useful for saying dates out loud, as in “Beidh l\u00e1nur\u00fa na geala\u00ed le feice\u00e1il in \u00c9irinn ar an aon\u00fa l\u00e1 is fiche de mh\u00ed Ean\u00e1ir sa bhliain 2019<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

an 27\u00fa – an seacht\u00fa\u00a0 ___\u00a0 is fiche<\/strong>, as in “Beidh l\u00e1nur\u00fa na geala\u00ed le feice\u00e1il in \u00c9irinn ar an seacht\u00fa l\u00e1 is fiche de mh\u00ed I\u00fail sa bhliain 2018<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

an 28\u00fa – an t-ocht\u00fa\u00a0 ___\u00a0 is fiche<\/strong>, as in “Beidh l\u00e1nur\u00fa na geala\u00ed le feice\u00e1il in \u00c9irinn ar an ocht\u00fa l\u00e1 is fiche de mh\u00ed I\u00fail sa bhliain 2018<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

And for good measure, a few more, which go back to single-word numbers:<\/p>\n

an 100\u00fa – an c\u00e9ad\u00fa<\/strong>, the hundredth<\/p>\n

an 1000\u00fa – an m\u00edli\u00fa<\/strong>, the thousandth<\/p>\n

an 1000000\u00fa – an milli\u00fan\u00fa<\/strong>, the millionth<\/p>\n

Bhuel<\/strong>, that’ll probably not be the only time we address the issue of “ag r\u00e1 orduimhreacha os ard<\/strong>” in this blog, but I hope it’s been a useful sample.\u00a0 SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) I’ve sometimes seen otherwise-confident learners of Irish come to a dead stop when they’re reading out loud and come to some numbers. \u00a0The basic numbers are challenging enough.\u00a0 First, one must deal with all the different mutations that follow (dh\u00e1 chat but seacht gcat).\u00a0 Then there are all the exceptions due to the…<\/p>\n

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