If you’re a native English speaker, you’ll only be familiar with counting such as “One, two, three”, and also counting things using the exact same words “One dog, two dogs, three dogs”.

But the words for the numbers in the Irish language change depending on the following situations:

1. If you are just counting numbers.
2. Or if you’re counting things.
3. Or if you’re counting people.

(We’ve written an article also on Irish language grammar).

Basic Irish Language Numbers (1 to 3)

Let’s teach you how to first count the basic Irish Gaelic numbers. You need to start small!

1. A haon /ah hay-un/ = One

2. A dó /ah doh/ = Two

3. A trí /ah tree/ = Three

That’s it! You can now count to three in the Irish language. There’s a couple of things to look at here. First, I have put the approximate pronunciation guide in italics for English speakers. Second, you have surely notice the “A” at the beginning of each number. It’s pronounced somewhere between /ah/ and /uh/. The “A” is said before a number when you’re counting up. It’s just a convention which comes naturally to Irish native speakers. The pure Irish words for “one, two, three” are “aon, dó, trí”. But if you’re counting up in a row, you’ll say “a haon, a dó, a trí“.
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Counting 1 to 10 in Irish

Ready to count some more numbers? Let’s go now from one to ten. To hear these numbers spoken, check the Irish Gaelic lesson on Bitesize Irish Gaelic.

1. A haon /ah hay-un/ = One

2. A dó /ah doh/ = Two

3. A trí /ah tree/ = Three

4. A ceathair /ah cah-hir/ = Four

5. A cúig /ah coo-ig/ = Five

6. A sé /ah shay/ = Six

7. A seacht /ah shocked/ = Seven

8. A hocht /ah hukt/ = Eight

9. A naoi /ah nay-ee/ = Nine

10. A deich /ah jeh/ = Ten

For more examples on counting in Irish Gaelic, sign up for Bitesize Irish Gaelic to listen to Counting above 20 Part I and Counting above 20 Part II. The BBC have a great online lesson on counting that you can listen to in your browser. Do you want this lesson to be longer and cover more items? If so, just comment on this article, and I’ll get right to it! Seriously!