just like to ask how is it to say the year correctly in Irish? (2004, 1975, 1457 etc). I have looked the last few days on the net, before coming to ye. Strange it is stated so little.

Féach ar mo shampla: Rugadh mo ghrá na ghaeilge i ndá míle ceathair.

The statement is not correct, I'd say, but the sentiment is!

Rugadh mo ghrá ar an Ghaeilge sa bhliain dhá mhíle a ceathair.

Or you could say:

Gineadh mo ghrá don Ghaeilge sa bhliain dhá mhíle ceathair.

I think "gineadh" is better than "rugadh" when talking about a concept, I'm not exactly sure why but it seems more apposite.

Lughaidh & Seán a' Chaipín,

I deliberatly did not check the sentance and just wrote it as an example, it is not a sentiment I hold dear i.e. I appreciate the translation but it is second to the year question. I'm not throwing it back in yeir faces and I will analyse the sentance but the main question was in how one says any year at random, the whole modus operandi of saying the year, if you allow me to strangle Latin to say it.

For example:
2004 is abit easier than 1956, or 1378. Does one go 1000+300+78 for 1378 for example?

Below is a list of different cathegories of years:
23 BC (minus numbers)
year zero (0)
AD 23 (1-100)
AD 450, 950 (101-1000)
1169 (1001-1999)
2000 (2000+)

Thanks for the translation.

sa bhliain ...
fiche trí roimh críost
náid
fiche trí
ceithre céad caoga
naoi gcéad caoga
h-aon déag (céad implied) seasca naoi
dhá mhíle

Omitted seimhiú's and eclipses excepted

Of course, in the Gaeltacht you are most likely to hear the year in English!

(Message edited by aonghus on February 09, 2005)

"Of course, in the Gaeltacht you are most likely to hear the year in English!"
-Aonghus

So I have noticed among natives! In fact I really thought it was de rigour at this point.

With lenitions and eclipses:

sa bhliain ...
fiche a trí roimh Chríost
náid
fiche a trí
ceithre chéad caoga
naoi gcéad caoga
aon déag (céad implied) seasca a naoi = míle céad seasca a naoi
dhá mhíle

quote:

Of course, in the Gaeltacht you are most likely to hear the year in English!

Why?! My Irish teacher always said the year in Irish:

1996 = Naoi déag nócha sé

2003 = Dhá mhíl' 's a trí

Well, it's hard to say why but that's the way it is. In the Philipines, speakers of Tagalog use Spanish numbers. Unless I'm mistaken, some of the smaller Finnic languages in Russia use Russian when giving the years.

>Why?! My Irish teacher always said the year in >Irish:
>1996 = Naoi déag nócha sé

I think that saying "naoi déag nócha sé", that is to say 19 96 is an habit coming from English (I think English is the only language in which years are said like that). I think older Gaeltacht people wouldn’t say it like that.
Anyway...

Native speakers of Breton often say the years in French as well, but I know some of them (depending on the place and on whether they are used to speak Breton today or not) who are able to say them in Breton.