Irish/Vocabulary/Animals

Lessons

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Wikiversity's Department of Irish Studies

This lesson is part of Unit 3 of WikiBooks Irish, a comprehensive open-source course in the Irish language. Lessons in Unit 3 are intended for the advanced Irish learner and contain specialized vocabulary and language notes for specific subject areas.

Talking About Animals

Vocabulary
animal	ainmhí	pronunciation

When discussing ainmhí (animals) as gaeilge, bear in mind the following:

Pronouns

Because Irish has no neutral pronouns, animals take the pronoun appropriate to the grammatical gender of the word in question. Most general names for animal species are masculine.

Eating Animals

As in English, in some cases different words are used for the animal's meat when used as food than when discussing the living animal. These words will be considered separately in the Unit 3 lesson on food.

Peataí

Vocabulary
peata	pet	pronunciation

cat	cat
dog	madra
kitten	puisín
puppy	coileán

Ainmhithe na hÉireann

bird	éan
butterfly	féileacán
deer	fia
duck	lacha
mouse	luch
owl	ulchabhán
spider	damhán alla
rabbit	coinín
rat	francach
seal	rón
turtle	turtar

Ainmhithe na feirme

Vocabulary
feirme	farm	pronunciation

cow	bó
calf	lao, gamhain
foal	searrach
goat	gabhar
hen	cearc
horse	capall
pig	muc
lamb	uan
sheep	caora

Ainmhithe an zú

Vocabulary
zú	zoo	pronunciation

giraffe	sioráf
crocodile	crogall
bear	béar
elephant	eilifint
hippopotamus	dobhareach
kangaroo	cangarú
wolf	mac tíre
zebra	séabra
koala	cóála
lion	leon
monkey	moncaí
panda	panda
penguin	piongain
tiger	tíogar

Ainmhithe uisceach

cod	trosc
crab	portán
dolphin	deilf (f)
fish	iasc
lobster	gliomach
salmon	bradán
shark	siorc
whale	míol mór