Can anyone help me here, I heard its a pain by putting plurals into Celtic languages.

How do I do plurals in Irish, I know they are different types.

Can anyone explain to me please?

Yeah, all modern Celtic languages have plurals you can't know before you learn them.

In Irish you can have a plural by changing/adding the vowels inside the word:

fear > fir
bó > ba

In many words you add an ending (-a, -e, -aí, -í, -te, -ta, -acha, -anta, -anna, -racha...)

For some words, you change the vowels and you add an ending:

sliabh > sléibhte

For some words, the plural is a completely new word:

bean > mná


I hope I've not forgotten anything...

I learned the hard way from my experience with German that the only truly reliable way to learn plurals is to memorize them right along with the singular when you commit the word to memory.

Rules for plural-formations are general guidelines that are useful in a pinch, but it's almost a disservice to teach people to depend upon them.

When you're making your vocabulary flashcards, my suggestion would be to have three items on the Irish side of the card

1. The word in singular with no article

2. The word with the definite article (helpful in mastering feminine and initial-vowel words)

3. The word in plural

This is simply what I've found most useful; your mileage may vary.

(Message edited by domhnall_Ó_h_aireachtaigh on September 03, 2007)

Patterns are handier to work give, especially since the alternative is to memorise both singular and plural in both nominative and genitive.

I know, and I agree with you. I'm just not convinced that patterns are reliable enough when it comes to plurals.

It would be good to know whether some linguist ever did a reliability study on this topic (i.e., of all possible applications of a given pattern rule, what percentage are exceptions and how common are those exception words?)

Dhomhnaill, I think it is something impossible to study. As you may well know CO plurals are rather arbitrary - chosen by fiat so there is no big logic there to study. Plurals in dialects are more logical, but still every dialect has its own logic.

Anyway, I think there are extremely broad patterns that accomodate so many words that are helpful to study:

* polysyllabic words ending in vowel in vowel get -í as plural ending m(there are some 20 exceptions that can be learned by heart)

madra - madraí, siopa - siopaí

* polysyllabic words ending in slender consonant get -í as plural ending:

seachtain - seachtainí, múinteóir - múinteóirí, buachaill - buachaillí

etc

It's better to learn singular and plural by heart first. Then, after you've learned a certain number of different words, you automatically start to understand the logic of these patterns.
Daithí