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Time

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A’ cunntadh ainmearan sna deugan

Counting nouns in the teens

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. 

aon uair deug

eleven o’clock

dà uair dheug

twelve o’clock

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

trì uairean deug

thirteen hours

ochd uairean deug

eighteen hours

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).