Estonian to Irish: two people, two items and twice as many are different counts
Kaks does not identify what kind of count is intended
EKI’s kaks entry gives Peres on kaks last, a statement about two children in a family. It also includes a comparison in which there are twice as many girls as boys. Both contain the numeral two, but one supplies a headcount and the other a ratio. An Irish translation should not turn the comparison into a claim that exactly two girls are present.
An original Estonian class report can therefore require different interpretations of the same numeral. Two pupils arriving is an exact count; a class with twice as many of one group gives a relationship between quantities. The Irish personal numeral is relevant to counting people, but it cannot substitute for the multiplication relationship merely because people occur in the source.
Beirt counts two people without making them a team
Foras na Gaeilge describes beirt as a personal numeral before nouns denoting people. Its current usage note explicitly covers both people together and people counted separately. An original Estonian report of two independent applicants need not acquire an implication that they applied jointly just because the Irish construction uses beirt.
The older bilingual dictionary illustrates beirt mhúinteoirí for two teachers and beirt de na páistí for two of the children. These attested examples also distinguish naming the counted category from selecting two members of an already identified group. A source report about two children in one family and one about two of the children attending a particular event are not automatically identical.
If an Estonian sentence identifies a subset, preserve that subset relationship. If it simply introduces two people, do not imply an earlier larger group unless the source establishes one. The numeral gives the size; the surrounding construction identifies which people are being counted.
Do not overcorrect every nonhuman reference
The modern Irish dictionary also records referential uses of beirt for things and animals. It illustrates beirt de na scéalta, referring to two of the stories. This means that a blanket rule declaring every nonhuman occurrence impossible would be misleading. The personal-numeral use before a human noun and a referential use selecting things must be distinguished.
For an original Estonian discussion comparing stories, the absence of human participants does not by itself prove that an Irish beirt construction is erroneous. Examine whether it is a referential selection of two items and whether the complete target construction matches the intended relationship. This is a narrower, more useful check than replacing the word wherever the referent is not a person.
EKI’s examples also place kaks in clock readings and durations. Those expressions introduce another distinction: two o’clock is not two people, and two hours is not a pair of stories. A translation that preserves the numeral while changing the kind of count will still mislead.
For this direction, identify the quantity’s function first—headcount, subset, ratio, clock time or duration. Then assess the Irish construction in that specific use. Beirt can preserve a human pair without inventing cooperation, and its documented referential extensions should be recognised without treating it as the universal rendering of every Estonian kaks.
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