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I would say “cúig cinn” (without the séimhiú)

Oh, yes, of course.
I’ll correct it above.

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Táim ag foghlaim uimhreacha anois, agus tá ceisteanna agum (iontas mór, ná fuil é?).

If the number is not followed by a noun, but you are not counting, per se, does the “a” need to precede it? Mar shampla, if someone asks “Cé mhéad?” and the answer was simply a standalone “5” would you say “cúig” nó “a cúig”?

None of them.
“Five” as an answer to “Cé mhéad?” is cúig cinn or cúigear.
It is impossible to use “cúig” or “a chúig” alone.

TYI says that numbers 3-6 can be followed by an aspirated singular noun, but if the plural is used, there is no aspiration. Am I understanding correctly that it is entirely optional whether you use a singular or a plural noun?

Lastly, is “cheithre” a Munster thing, or a “TYI is old” thing? Elsewhere I see “ceithre.”

GRMA

In Conamara it is cheithre, too (and chúig iirc). And probably so in other dialects. Ceithre is the standard form.
Standard Irish uses only singular nouns with numbers (except for a few nouns in plural, e.g. trí huibhe, ceithre huaire, cúig pingine, sé bliana, seacht gcinn, etc.).
The usage may differ in dialects.

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Is focail eile é “seod”.
Siod é a scríobhtar freisin, nó sid é i nGaeilge na Mumhan.

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Hello everyone! Could somebody explain me the grammar points of this sentence?

táim ag smaoineamh ar a dhéanaí is atá sé = I’m thinking of how late it is (buntùs cainte less. 110).

is = agus?

go raibh maith agaibh

is = agus, yes.

déanaí is an abstract noun (= lit. “lateness“)

The structure of such phrases is: a + abstract noun of degree (+ agus) + direct relative clause
first a = generalised masculine possessive pronoun “his”/”its”
agus/is is optional.

This phrase is used in the sense of “how …” or “as … as“

a dhéanaí is atá sé = how late it is.
(literary: “its lateness and that-is he“)

other examples:
a fheabhas (is) atá sí = how good she is
agus a óige (is) atá sé = regarding how young he is
a laghad Béarla (agus) ab fhéidir = as little English as possible

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present -> past
is ea -> dob ea (= ba ea, b’ea, ab ea)
is áil liom -> dob áil liom (= b’áil, ab áil)
is ionadh leis -> dob ionadh leis (b’ionadh, ab ionadh)

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MacBain’s [url=http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/index.html]”An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language”[/url]:

gràdh
love, Irish grádh, Early Irish grád: *grâdo-, *grâ-dho-, root @grâ; Latin gra@-tus, English grateful; Sanskrit gûrdháya, praise; Greek @Ggéras, honour.

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Lá Bealtaine = 1 May
Gregorian calendar is our normal calendar
1 May 2012 in Gregorian calendar is 18 April in Julian calendar
1 May 2012 in Julian calendar is 14 May in Gregorian calendar

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Thank you for the feedback. But I am confused as to why the genitive is required. It was my understanding that it is not the use of a possessive pronoun which triggers the use of the genitive, but whether there is a noun governing another noun. Or have I misunderstood something?

“I rith” (= “during”) is a preposition which is governing the genitive case because it contains a noun.
The governing noun is rith (an rith = the run, the course)
i rith mo ratha = lit. “in course of my prosperity”

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Would someone be kind enough to tell me what is wrong with this, le do thoil?

Má tá tú as láthair i rith mo streachailt, ná bí ag súil a bheith chur i láthair i rith mo rath.

GRMA

chur is superfluous.
But le is missing: “ná bí ag súil le bheith …”
Alternatively go is necessary: “ná bí ag súil go mbeidh tú …”

And genitive of streachailt is streachailte, and gen. of rath is ratha.

Má tá tú as láthair i rith mo streachailte, ná bí ag súil le bheith i láthair i rith mo ratha.

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I know that beidh is the future tense of “to be”, and I always though that’s what I was using when saying that I want to be fluent. It must have escaped my attention that the word being used is actually bheith as in – ba mhaith liom beith liofa. A quick look up on the online Irish dictionary listed the meaning of this as “existence” which I suppose could be said of the verb “to be”. So is this the same word in another form or a different word altogether?

beith, usually lenited bheith is the verbal noun (= to be, being) of bí (= be!), beidh (= will be), bhí (= was), tá ( = is), etc. ….
It is the same relation as “cuirfidh” and “cur” or “déanfaidh” and “déanamh”

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An níos fearr é a rá

Dála an scéil:
“An fearr a rá …” (gan “níos” agus gan “é”, ceapaim)
Nó: “An bhfuil sé níos fearr a rá …”

Agus sa teidil: “Cé acu is fearr?”
(ní gá “níos” a úsáid leis an gcopail)

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An níos fearr é a rá “Táim ag ithe mo lón,” nó “Tá mo lón a ithe agam.” An bhfuil sé seo faoi cúrsaí canúint?

Táim ag ithe mo lóin = I am eating my lunch.
Tá mo lón á ithe agam = My lunch is being eaten by me.

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In late Latin language at the time of the adoption of Latin alphabet for the Irish language there was no /h/ sound. The letter H was mute in Latin.
According to David Stifter’s Old Irish for Beginners the letter H was “empty” in the earliest sources of Old Irish which means that it stood for nothing (except in the digraphs ch, ph, th). The letter h was mute and used at the beginning of words before vowels just to make the word look bigger, eg hi /i/ = “in”.
H-Prefix was usually not written: a ech /a hex/ = her horse (a heach in Modern Irish), inna Éirenn /ina he:rÉ™n/ = of Ireland (na hÉireann).
in later texts the letter h did represent the sound /h/ though instances of cases like hi for /i/ also occured frequently

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Hmm, broad ch -> slender gh is quite common (eg. genitive forms like bealach -> bealaigh) without any further voicing triggers.

but this is in an ending so it is caused by declension ; in -òchaidh it can’t, because it’s a verb and it isn’t at the very end.

Both are caused by inflection. I don’t see a real difference.
I think there is a general voicing of -ich (>-igh) as the underlying pattern of both.

I think it is because few consonants become devoiced without any reason in Irish. And anyway the evolution -òchaidh < -òghfaidh is what I was taught at the university. And it looks like a good explanation to me.

Interesting. I should read the chapters about f-future and é-future (éa, eó) in Stair na Gaeilge again.
I am not aware of any mixing of both future forms prior to the devoicing of -igh to -óch-.

Then why do they say “neosfaidh” with both a long o and an f in the south, and why the conditional impersonal is in -òfaì in the 2nd conjugation?
You definitely can have the long ò and the f. Of course it isn’t as old as Old Irish but it did happened later since it exists now.

There is béarfaidh and déarfaidh with both éa (old é-future) and f (f-future), too.
It is a later contamination, a mixing of both future forms (Classical Irish still béaraidh and adéara)
It is because éa-future had become an exception, as well as neos- had become an exception (all of them now seen rather as exceptional “different roots” than as a mean of future inflection)

But there was -óchaidh already in Classical Irish with no trace of mixing with f-future at this time (so far … I should read SnG again)
There was -óchthaí and -óchthá (iirc) instead of -ófaí and -ófá in Classical Irish.

BTW: Why do you use an accent grave?

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