dhá

See also: dha, DHA, and dhà

Irish

Etymology 1

From Old Irish dá, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ɣɑː/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ɣaː/, (unstressed) /a/

Numeral

dhá (triggers lenition)

1. two

   Tá dhá charr aige

   He has two cars

   dhá dóibh ― two of them (non-personal)

   Bheadh sé níos fearr dá bhféadfadh dhá de na rudaí ag deighilt

   It would be better if two of the things could be separated

Usage notes

• Used before nouns; dó is used when free-standing (counting, telling a row of numerals, etc). The following noun is in the singular nominative (or, in the few cases where distinct duals have survived, the dual nominative (e.g. dhá bhróig – "two shoes")) and is almost always lenited; the sole exception is with the third-person possessive determiner a, which triggers mutation as if the dhá simply was not there:

• a dhá chapall ― his two horses (lenition)
• a dhá húll ― her two apples (h-prothesis)
• a dhá dteach ― their two houses (eclipsis)

• When used with adjectives, the adjective is always in the nominative plural and is lenited by default:

• dhá bhád mhóra

  two big boats

• dhá mhadra dhubha

  two black dogs

• dhá amhrán ghearra

  two short songs

• The alternative form dá is used after the definite article (which is always in the singular and is always an, even with feminine nouns in the genitive), aon ("any"), and céad ("first"):

• an dá leabhar

  the two books

• teangacha an dá thír

  the two countries' languages

• aon dá áit

  any two places

• an chéad dá bhliain

  the first two years

• When referring to human beings, the personal form beirt is used.

Etymology 2

Lenited form of dá.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ɣɑː/, /ɑː/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ɣaː/

Conjunction

dhá

1. Alternative form of dá

Contraction

dhá

1. Alternative form of dá

Derived terms

• á

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “dhá”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “dá”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language