Irish words for every day: days, months, numbers, greetings in Gaeilge
Four sets of basic Irish words, each on a page of its own: the seven days, the twelve months, the numbers and the greetings. Every page gives the standard spelling of An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the forms the dictionary foclóir.ie records, and the grammar that makes Irish words change their first letter.
Irish words by topic
Each page opens with a table of the Irish words and then explains their origin, spelling, mutations and use, with example phrases from the dictionary.
- 01Days of the week in Irish: Dé Luain to Dé Domhnaigh, the three fastsThe days of the week in Irish are Dé Luain, Dé Máirt, Dé Céadaoin, Déardaoin, Dé hAoine, Dé Sathairn and Dé Domhnaigh. Each one also has a second form with the article, an Luan or an Aoine, and three of the seven are named after the Christian fast.
- 02Months in Irish: Eanáir to Nollaig, festival months and the dateThe months in Irish are Eanáir, Feabhra, Márta, Aibreán, Bealtaine, Meitheamh, Iúil, Lúnasa, Meán Fómhair, Deireadh Fómhair, Samhain and Nollaig. Five come from Latin, three are named after the old Gaelic festivals, two describe the harvest, and December is named after Christmas.
- 03Numbers in Irish from náid to milliún: mutations, people and ordinalsCounting in Irish goes a haon, a dó, a trí, a ceathair, a cúig, a sé, a seacht, a hocht, a naoi, a deich. Numbers in Irish have three sets of forms: one for counting, one in front of a noun, and a special set for people, so two houses is dhá theach but two men is beirt fhear.
- 04Greetings in Irish: Dia duit, slán leat, go raibh maith agatThe standard greeting in Irish is Dia duit, God to you, and the reply is Dia is Muire duit, God and Mary to you. To a group it becomes Dia daoibh. Goodbye depends on who is leaving: slán leat to the person who goes, slán agat to the person who stays.
How Irish words are written
- GaeilgeIrish Latin
- Dia duithello Latin
- Dé hAoineFriday Latin
Irish has been written in the Latin alphabet since the 5th century, when it replaced Ogham, the notched script of the oldest inscriptions. The traditional alphabet has 18 letters, a to u without j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z, which appear only in loanwords and technical terms. The Irish alphabet and the Ogham alphabet are both set out on the alphabets pages.
The one accent is the síneadh fada, the long mark, on á, é, í, ó and ú. It changes the sound and often the meaning, so Irish words written without their fadas are misspelt. Lenition, the softening of a first consonant, is written with an h after it, bhó, mhí; older books in the Gaelic type wrote a dot above the letter instead. The Irish uncial specimen shows that type.
The written standard is An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, first published in 1958 and maintained by the translation service of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament.
Dates, numbers and greetings: what to expect
Days and months take capitals in Irish. Each day has two forms, Dé Luain for on Monday and an Luan for Monday as a noun, and three days are named after the Christian fast; the days of the week in Irish explain both. The months in Irish mix Latin names with the festivals Bealtaine, Lúnasa and Samhain.
Numbers have a counting form, a haon, a dó, a form before nouns that mutates the noun, and a separate set for people, beirt, triúr. The numbers in Irish page sets out all three.
Greetings are blessings: Dia duit, God to you, answered by Dia is Muire duit. The greetings in Irish page covers the three dialect questions for how are you and the two goodbyes.
Where Irish is spoken
Irish is the national and first official language of Ireland under the Constitution, and an official language in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. It became an official language of the European Union on 1 January 2007 and a fully recognised EU language when a derogation ended on 1 January 2022.
The 2022 census counted 71,968 people who speak Irish daily outside the education system, 20,261 of them in the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking districts in the west and north-west. Many more learn the language at school, which is where most people first meet these Irish words. Its nearest relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, stand beside it on the Celtic word list.
Questions about Irish words
Is Irish the same as Gaelic?
Irish, Gaeilge, is one of the Gaelic languages; Scottish Gaelic and Manx are the others. In Ireland the language is called Irish in English.
Why do Irish words change their first letter?
Because of initial mutations. Lenition adds an h after the first consonant, eclipsis puts another consonant in front, and grammar decides which applies: trí bhád, three boats, seacht gcapall, seven horses.
Do the fadas matter in Irish words?
Yes. The síneadh fada marks a long vowel and is part of the spelling, so Máirt or Iúil without it is a spelling mistake.