sé
/ʃeː/
The Irish word for "six" is sé.
Use sé for the number six. When you count or tell the time, put a in front of it, as in a sé.
Meaning: cardinal number (num)
How does it change in a sentence?
In counting and telling the time, numbers take the particle a, so six becomes a sé. For six o'clock you say a sé a chlog.
How do you pronounce it?
The IPA is /ʃeː/. It sounds like English "say" but begins with the sh sound of "she".
Did you know?
- Irish has a completely different set of numbers used for counting people than those used for counting objects, though the word for 'six' remains the same in both systems.
- In Irish, the word sé is also a very common pronoun meaning 'he'.
- The word sé descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *swéḱs, making it a distant relative of the English word 'six'.
Examples in context
- Tar anseo ag a sé a chlog go díreach.Come here at precisely six o'clock.a sé a chlog is how you say "six o'clock".Tatoeba #10317818 by koala, translation #1293160 by CK
- A haon, a dó, a trí, a ceathair, a cúig, a sé, a seacht, a hocht, a naoi, a deich.One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.In the count from one to ten, six appears as a sé.Tatoeba #4577022 by Choctaw_Irish, translation #413731 by FeuDRenais
Example conversation
Oisín and Siobhán are counting apples in a bowl.
- OisínCé mhéad ubhal atá ansin, a Siobhán?How many apples are there, Siobhán?
- SiobhánTá sé ubhal sa bowl.There are six apples in the bowl.
- OisínAn bhfuil sé go leor don chruinneach?Are six enough for the gathering?
- SiobhánIs mór an líon é, go think mé.I think it is a large number.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “six” translations and entries sé, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries sé, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
