Irish Feminine
Learning the Irish Feminine is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Irish language. But first we need to know what the role of Feminine is in the structure of the grammar in Irish.
Irish feminine refers to female qualities attributed specifically to women and girls or things considered feminine. The complement to feminine is masculine. Here are some examples:
| English Feminine | Irish Feminine |
| Feminine | Baininscneach |
| he is happy | Tá sé sásta |
| she is happy | Tá sí sásta |
| he is American | Is Meiriceánach é |
| she is American | Is Meiriceámach í [ An Chopail - The Copula ] |
| |
| man | fear |
| woman | bean |
| father | athair |
| mother | máthair |
| brother | deartháir |
| sister | deirfiúr |
| uncle | uncail |
| aunt | aintín |
| bull | tarbh |
| cow | bó |
| boy | buachaill |
| girl | cailín |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Feminine in Irish has a logical pattern. Locate the Feminine above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Gaelic.
List of Feminine in Irish
Below is a list of objects, can you determine whether they're feminine, masculine or plural in Irish? Memorizing this table will also help you add very useful and important words to your Irish vocabulary.
| English Vocabulary | Irish Vocabulary |
| objects | rudaí |
| bathroom | seomra folctha |
| bed | leaba |
| bedroom | seomra codlata |
| ceiling | síleáil as in house/building (uast.. = limit in figures/calc etc} |
| chair | cathaoir |
| clothes | éadaí |
| coat | cóta |
| cup | cupán |
| desk | deasc |
| dress | gúna |
| floor | urlár |
| fork | forc |
| furniture | troscán |
| glass | gloine |
| hat | hata |
| house | teach |
| ink | dúch |
| jacket | seaicéad |
| kitchen | cistin |
| knife | scian |
| lamp | lampa |
| letter | litir |
| map | léarscáil |
| newspaper | nuachtán |
| notebook | leabhar nótaí |
| pants | bríste |
| paper | páipéar |
| pen | peann |
| pencil | peann luaidhe |
| pharmacy | cogaisíocht |
| picture | pictiúr |
| plate | pláta |
| refrigerator | cuisneoir |
| restaurant | bialann |
| roof | díon |
| room | seomra |
| rug | ruga/ mata urláir |
| scissors | siosúr |
| shampoo | foltfholcadh |
| shirt | léine |
| shoes | bróga |
| soap | gallúnach |
| socks | stocaí |
| spoon | Spúnóg |
| table | tábla |
| toilet | leithris |
| toothbrush | scuab fiacal |
| toothpaste | taos fiacla |
| towel | tuáille |
| umbrella | scáth |
| underwear | éadaí |
| wall | balla |
| wallet | sparán |
| window | fuinneog |
| telephone | guthán |
Feminine and Masculine have a very important role in Irish, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with the Gaelic Feminine, you might want to check the rest of our Irish lessons here: Learn Irish. Don't forget to bookmark this page.