How dates are written in Irish

The everyday written form is refreshingly familiar: day number, month name, year: 18 Iúil 2027 for 18 July 2027. Swap the English month for the Irish one and the date is done, which is exactly what this site’s print composer does.

The pattern

Numerals stay numerals, the year stays the year, and the month comes from the fixed list of twelve standard names: see the months in Irish, each with its pronunciation and its dictionary source. A wedding date, a christening date or an established-in year on a family print needs nothing more.

Why our toggle is deterministic

When you press as Gaeilge in the composer, the site substitutes the month name from that reviewed list. “18 July 2027” becomes 18 Iúil 2027, and it changes nothing else. No machine translation, no guessing at grammar: text it does not recognise passes through untouched, because a date on a printed keepsake is no place for a model’s best attempt.

Fuller forms exist

Formal Irish can spell a date out in words, with ordinals and the article, the way English can write “the eighteenth of July”. Those fuller forms involve real grammar, lenition after the article among them, and this site deliberately does not generate them: our sourced-only rule covers dates too. The numeral pattern above is standard, correct, and safe to engrave; keep every fada in the month name when you do.