Nouns
Nouns are classified into two grammatical genders (“masculine” and “feminine”), and are inflected for number (singular or plural).
Adjectives and determiners (articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers) must be inflected to agree with the noun in gender and number.
You can recognise masculine nouns by the following word endings, but there are many exceptions, so it's always best to confirm with a dictionary.
- (a)ire : iascaire (fisherman), ailtire (architect)
- án : cosán (path) , amhrán (song)
- (e)acht : ceacht (lesson), fuacht (a cold) - *if the noun has one syllable
- éad : éad (jealousy), seicéad (jacket)
- (e)adh : Geimhreadh (winter), Samhradh (summer), bualadh (beating)
- éal : Béal (mouth), Scéal (story)
- éar : Féar (grass), Páipéar (paper)
- éir : báicéir (baker), siunéir (carpenter) - * if referring to a job title
- eoir : múinteoir (teacher), feirmeoir (farmer)
- óir : cúintóir (assistant)
- úir : saighdiúir (soldier), dochtúir (doctor)
- ste : coiste (committee), páiste (child)
- ún : botún (mistake), priosún (prison)
- úr : casúr (hammer), pictiúr (picture)
With the definite article:
Masculine nouns take a t- on vowels
An t-arán = the bread
Masculine nouns have no change on consonants
An fear = the man
Masculine nouns have no change on
words beginning with s or d
An samhradh = the summer
You can also recognise feminine nouns by the following word endings, but again there are many exceptions, so it's always best to confirm with a dictionary.
- (a)íl : feadaíl (whistling)
- (e)áil : sábháil (rescue)
- (e)ailt : oscailt (opening), tochailt (digging)
- (a)int : seachaint (avoidance), tuiscint (understanding)
- áint : tiomáint (driving)
- is/ís : uirlis (instrument/tool), foraois (forest)
- chan : athbheochan (revival),
- (a)irt : abairt (sentence), scairt (call)
- (e)acht : beannacht (blessing), gluaiseacht (movement) *if the noun has more than one syllable
- (a)íocht : filíocht (poetry) *if the noun has more than one syllable
- úil : barúil (opinion)
- úint : canúint (dialect)
- lann : bialann (restaurant), amharclann (museum)
- eog /óg : babóg (doll), brídeog (bride)
With the definite article:
Feminine nouns have no change on vowels
An eochair = the key
Feminine nouns take a séimhiú on consonants
An bhean= the woman
Feminine nouns take on words beginning with S
An tsúil= the eye
Country names are feminine: Éire, An Fhrainc, *except England (Sasana) and America (Meiriceá)
River names are feminine: An tSionann (the Shannon)
Languages are feminine: Irish(An Ghaeilge), *except English (An Béarla)
Plurals are immune to gender
Plural nouns add a seimhiu (h) if they start with a vowel
| Na héin = the birds | Na húlla = the apples | Na horáistí = the oranges |
When counting things, we do not pluralise the noun
* Instead we add a séimhiú for 2-6, and an urú for 7-10
| Example: | Deilf = dolphin | Coinín = rabbit |
| Dhá dheilf = two dolphins | Ocht gcoinín = eight rabbit |
Gender and number
Most adjectives, demonstratives, and all articles must be inflected according to their gender and number of the noun they reference:
An teach bán mór seo (“this big white house”) *masculine
An chistin bhán mhór seo (“this big white kitchen”) *feminine
Na páistí maithe cliste seo (“these good clever children”)
Plural Formation
Irish nouns form their plural by adding/changing their endings:
The plural form can either be weak or strong
Weak plurals - Meaning that they go back to their nominative singular form in the genitive plural
| úll = apple | úlla= apples | *broadening (adding an a, o, or u) |
| leabhar = book | leabhair= books | *slenderizing (adding an e, or i) |
Strong plurals - Their nominative plural and genitive plural are the same
Example: siopa leabhar = shop of books
| í | scríobhneoir = writer | scríbhneoirí = writers |
| anna | dath = colour | dathanna = colours |
| acha | treoir = direction | treoracha = directions |
| aí | gealach = moon | gealaí = moons |
| aithe | eolaí = scientist | eolaithe = scientists |
| ta | bliain = year | blianta = years |
Example: níos mó dathanna = more (of) colours
Gender determination
In many cases, the gender of a noun can also be deduced from its ending:
| The general pattern is | if the last vowel is broad (A O U) it is masculine. |
| If the last vowel is slender (I E) it is feminine. |
Teach (“house”), Fear (“man”), Sliabh (“mountain”), and Rud (“thing”) are masculine,
Iris (“magazine”), Súil (“eye”), Abhainn (“river”), and Cistin (“kitchen”) are feminine.
The gender of nouns is not determined semantically by the sex or gender of the referent unlike other languages which change the word’s ending.
Likewise, we simply attach the masculine/feminine adjective to the noun itself, not the person,
Example:. Is múinteoir maith í = She is a good teacher
We know it is “she” because of the copula pronoun at the end, “í”
But “múinteoir maith” simply means “good teacher”.