Nouns are as the Irish says "name-words" ainmfhocail. In Irish nouns may have two or three forms. In English nouns also change. Consider the differences between singular (only one) and plural (more than one) in English: mouse, mice, man, men, child, children etc. In Irish nouns also change from singular to plural luch - a mouse, lucha - mice; fear - a man, fir - men, páiste - a child, páistí - children. Irish however may have other forms and traditionally these are called tuisil - cases. There are four tuisil - cases that you should know: An Tuiseal Ainmneach - the nominative case, An Tuiseal Gairmeach - the vocative case, An Tuiseal Ginideach - the genitive case, and An Tuiseal Tabharthach - the dative case. Just click on the links for each of these for an explanation of their use and form

Examples of nouns in their groups - - called díoclaontaí - - declensions are shown below. You should be asking why is a word allocated to one group and not another. And the answer? They are grouped according to the formation of their tuiseal ginideach.

Before attempting to cover the tuiseal ginideach however you need to know the basic form of the noun an tuiseal ainmneach - - the nominative case used when the noun is the subject or object of a verb (subject: the "do-er" of the action; object: the "receiving-end" of the action of the verb.)

First consider the definite and indefinite article an t-alt equivalent to "the" and "a" in English. Definite nouns have an - the or na - the (plural) before them. Indefinite nouns stand alone. See these examples: an bád - the boat; bád - a boat; na báid - the boats; báid - boats.

For the English definite article "the" use an with singular nouns and na with plural. Note also that an becomes na in the tuiseal ginideach of feminine nouns. The Irish noun on its own shows the English indefinite article "a".

FIRINSCNEACH - MASCULINE / BAININSCNEACH - FEMININE

Next you need to know that nouns in Irish belong to one of two groups called firinscneach - - masculine and baininscneach - - feminine. Male and female gender has a little to do with it although it is not the only criterion. Cailín - - a girl is masculine and stail - - a stallion is feminine

Do you need to know whether a noun is masculine or feminine? For accurate writing you should. Do not be put off by this however. Few Irish speakers and a surprising number of writers are unsure of the inscne - gender of many Irish nouns. The main thing is to use your Irish "ceart nó cearr - right or wrong". The learner must have the courage to disregard the misguided criticism of the perfectionists and carry on. They mean well but do not allow them to discourage you. Knowledge of masculine and feminine will come with familiarity.

The following table shows masculine and feminine nouns with the definite article singular. I have tried to cover all the possible variants with the nouns I have selected, nouns beginning with consonants, with vowels, and with "s". They behave differently.

Note:
(a) the nouns beginning with consonants;
(b) those beginning with vowels; and
(c) those beginnning with "s".

The beginning of the word is treated differently in masculine and feminine nouns starting with a consonant; a vowel; or "s". Can you make out the six rules from this list:

So now you know the rules for the tuiseal ainmneach - the nominative case with and without an :

An + Masculine Nouns Indefinite masculine nouns singular (Indefinite? Where you have "a" in English a bird, an apple). Do not put an before the word. Leave it on its own. alt, bád, asal, amadán, éan, carr, etc Definite masculine nouns singular (Definite? Where you have "the" in English the bird, the apple but see also ) Words beginning with a vowel: Put an t-alt - the article an with them. Put t- (t hyphen) before a lower-case vowel:an t-ádh, an t-asal, an t-amadán, an t-éan, an t-ólachán, an t-úll, Put a small t and no hyphen before a capital letter as in An tUachtarán, AN tOIREACHTAS); Words beginning with a consonant including s: Put an t-alt with them but make no change to the initial consonant: an cat, an doras, an fear, an geata, an leabhar, an siopa. An + Feminine Nouns With feminine nouns put a séimhiú - lenition on the first consonant after an; put t before s ; and leave vowels as they are. Remember also there are many consonants that cannot take a séimhiú - lenition such as h, j, k, l, n, q, r, v, w, x, y, z, and some that can but do not in the Tuiseal Ainmneach - Nominative Case i.e. d & t. Firinscneach - - Masculine. Baininscneach - - feminine An bád An bhróg An t-éan An áit An t-uisce   An séipéal An tsúil An carr An long   An nead     An doras An duais An talamh An tír This might be a good time to have a look at our page on the Irish alphabet. Only 18 letters of the Roman Alphabet used to be used in Irish but nowadays with x-ghathu and zú and who knows what other borrowings all 26 letters have found their way into the language.

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