Would it not be "...chun saoil..."?

Is the singular better than the plural after a number? I thought you could use both. Or is there a specific rule for each number?

In Connemara (and in CO), the singular of most nouns is used after a number. The presence of the number itself is enough for the listener to infer the plural.

The exceptions tend to be units of measurement, which use either the plural noun or a special counting form. This makes sense in that many units tended to come from common nouns and so a distinction was useful:

trí chloch "three stones"
trí clocha "three stone(weight)"
sé shlat "six rods"
sé slata "six yards"


You might be right, but we'd better wait for someone else to confirm. Genitives do strange things in Irish when more than a single word is involved.

In light of the above perhaps:

Seacht gcéim chun saol níos fearr a chleachtadh
"Seven steps to living a better life."

Or perhaps:

Seacht gcéim chun do shaol a chleachtadh i gcothromaíocht cuí
"Seven steps to living your life in better balance."

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Go raibh maith agaibh

Seacht gcéim chun saoil níos fearr. - "Seven steps to a better life." but

Seacht gcéim chun saol níos fearr a chleachtadh.(Nominative instead of genitive - well, in the CO at any rate.)
"Seven steps to living a better life."



Slí maireachtála I would have thought. I don't see any reason for lhenition here either (though I think I know why you did).

If you couldn't use the idea of 'a balanced (life) - cothrom' as it would seem strange in Irish, would it make any more sense if you used the word stuama here?

I thought so at first and then I got confused by FGB's example chun an fhírinne, na fírinne a rá, implying both were possible.

But now I see Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí states:



Would that also make it:

chun saoil níos fearr "for a better life" (genitive)
chun maireachtáil níos fearr "to live better" (nominative)

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).