Counting nouns in the teens

A’ cunntadh ainmearan sna deugan

Joy tells us how to tell the time in Scottish Gaelic.

Cuimhnich. The teens are easier in Gaelic than English. Gaelic puts the ‘teen’ after the noun, so ‘three tables teen’ or ‘one hour teen’. In English we might say eleven o’clock or eleven hours, but in Gaelic we say  aon uair deug  and split the  aon  and  deug  with the  uair . This is true of all nouns in Gaelic. 

Remember that the number a dhà (two) changes to dà with a noun and takes the singular so a dhà dheug (12) changes to dà __ dheug .

Cuimhnich. We use the plural form after the numbers three to nine. In English we might say thirteen hours, but in Gaelic we say trì uairean deug , ‘three hours teen’. This is true with all nouns: trì taighean deug (three houses teen), ochd uinneagan deug (eight windows teen).