THE FOURTH DECLENSION.
106. The 4th declension includes (1) personal nouns in aire, aiḋe, uiḋe, aiġe (sometimes spelled aiḋ, uiḋ, aiġ), which are all masculine; (2) diminutives in ín (said to be all masculine); (3) abstract derivatives formed from the gen. sing. feminine of adjectives (all feminine), as gile, brightness, from geal; féile, generosity, from fial; áilne, beauty, from áluinn, &c.; (4) all nouns ending in vowels, and which do not belong to the 5th declension. To assist the student a list of the most important nouns of the 5th declension is given in the Appendix IV.
107. This declension differs from all others in having all the cases of the singular exactly alike.
108. The nominative plural is usually formed by adding í, iḋe or aḋa.
109. The genitive plural is like the nom. pl., but eaḋ is frequently added in other grammars. There is no necessity whatever for this, because both cases are pronounced alike.
110. Nouns of more than one syllable ending in a form their nom. plural in aiḋe, or aí, as mála, a bag, pl. málaiḋe, or málaí; cóta, a coat, pl. cótaiḋe, or cótaí.
