Irish grammar
This article discusses the grammar of the Irish language.
The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for an Insular Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.
Syntax
Word order in Irish is of the form VSO so that, for example, "He hit me" is Bhuail sé mé .One distinctive aspect of Irish is the distinction between is, the copula, and tá. Is describes identity or quality in a permanence sense, while temporary aspects are described by tá. This is similar to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is not an exact match; is and tá are cognate respectively with the Spanish es and está.
Examples are:
- Is fear é. "He is a man."
- Is duine fuar é. "He is cold."
- Tá sé/Tomás fuar. "He/Thomas is cold" . instead of 'estar', Portuguese
- Tá sé ina chodladh. "He is asleep."
- Is duine maith é. "He is good."
- Tá sé go maith. "He is well."
Nouns
Irish nouns are masculine or feminine. To a certain degree the gender difference is indicated by specific word endings, -án and -ín being masculine and -óg feminine. While the neuter has mostly disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is seen in various place names in Ireland.
Articles
The Irish definite article has two forms: an and na. An may cause lenition, eclipsis, or neither. Na may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition with na is with the genitive singular of the word céad meaning first. An is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular, an with lenition is used with masculine nouns, na with feminine nouns. In the dative singular, an may cause lenition or eclipsis depending on the preposition preceding it and on regional norms. Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.There is no indefinite article in Irish; the word appears by itself, for example: Tá peann agam. - "I have a pen", Tá madra sa seomra. - "There's a dog in the room".
Adjectives
Irish adjectives always follow the noun. The adjective is influenced by the case, number and gender of the noun preceding it.- An cailín beag
- An bhean bhocht
- Na buachaillí óga
Verbs
There are two conjugations and 11 irregular verbs. Tenses or moods are formed by inflecting the stem, and in the past and habitual past tenses and the conditional mood also by leniting any initial consonant. The inflected tense and mood forms are: present indicative, present habitual indicative, future, past indicative, past habitual indicative, conditional, imperative, present subjunctive, and past subjunctive. Verbs also have a verbal noun and past participle, and progressive constructions similar to those using the English present participle may be formed from the verbal noun and an appropriate tense of bí. Examples of tense conjugations: :- 1st conjugation: Fág "to leave" – d'fhág – fágann – fágfaidh – d'fhágfadh – d'fhágadh – fága – fágadh
- 2nd conjugation: Ceannaigh "to buy" – cheannaigh – ceannaíonn – ceannóidh – cheannódh – cheannaíodh – ceannaí – ceannaíodh
- Irregular: Téigh "to go" – chuaigh – téann – rachaidh – rachadh – théadh – té – téadh
Verbs can be conjugated either synthetically or analytically. However, the official standard generally prescribes the analytic form in most person-tense combinations, and the synthetic in only some cases, such as the first person plural. The analytic forms are also generally preferred in the western and northern dialects, except in answer to what would in English be "yes/no" questions, while Munster Irish prefers the synthetic forms. For example, the following are the standard form, synthetic form and analytical form of the past tense of rith "to run":
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns in Irish do not inflect for case, but there are three different sets of pronouns used: conjunctive forms, disjunctive forms, and emphatic formsConjunctive forms
The normal word order in Irish is verb–subject–object. The forms of the subject pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive:| Person | Singular | Plural |
| 1st | mé | |
| 2nd | tú | sibh |
| 3rd | masc. sé fem. sí | siad |
The form muid in the 1st person plural is not used in the standard language, but is very common in western and northern dialects. The standard and southern dialects have no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural, using the synthetic verb ending -imíd instead.
Irish has no T–V distinction, i.e. it does not differentiate between formal and familiar forms of second person pronouns. The difference between tú and sibh is purely one of number.
There is no equivalent to the English "it", either "sé" or "sí" are used depending on whether the thing the speaker is referring to is a masculine noun or a feminine noun. The exception is the pronoun ea, used in impersonal copula phrases, particularly in the phrases is ea "yes", "so", "that is so", ní hea, nach ea? "is that not so?", an ea "Is that so?", fear is ea é "it's a man", and so on.
Disjunctive forms
If a pronoun is not the subject or if a subject pronoun does not follow the verb, the so-called disjunctive forms are used:| Person | Singular | Plural |
| 1st | mé | sinn, muid |
| 2nd | thú | sibh |
| 3rd | masc. é; fem. í | iad |
In Munster dialects the form thú is either archaic or is only found after words ending in a vowel.
;Standard:Buailim thú, Bhuail mé thú
;Dialect type :Buailim tú, Bhuail mé tú
;Dialect type :Buailim tú, Bhuail mé thú
Intensive forms
Irish also has intensive pronouns, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.| Person | Singular | Plural |
| 1st | mise | muidne, sinne |
| 2nd | tusa | sibhse |
| 3rd | masc. eisean fem. ise | iadsan |
The forms thusa, eisean and ise are disjunctive forms, while tusa, seisean and sise are conjunctive forms.
The word féin "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.
Possessive determiners
The possessive determiners cause different initial consonant mutations.mo "my" lenites; m’ precedes vowels
do "your " lenites; d’ precedes vowels
a "his" lenites
a "her" takes the radical of a consonant and adds an h to a vowel
ár "our" eclipses
bhur "your " eclipses
a "their" eclipses
The forms a and ár can also blend with certain prepositions:
| de & do | dá chara "from/to his friend" dá feirm "from/to her farm" dár n-athair "from/to our father" dá n-athair "from/to their father" |
| faoi | faoina chara "about his friend" faoinár n-athair "about our father" |
| i | ina feirm "in her farm" inár bhfeirm "in our farm" |
| le | lena n-athair "with their father" lenár bpáiste "with our child" |
| ó | óna bhean "from his wife" ónár dtaighde "from our research" |
| trí | trína cos "through her foot" trínár dteach "through our house" |
The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case:
- Tá sé ag plé a rothair. "He's discussing his bicycle"
- Tá sé á phlé. "He's discussing it."
- Tá sí do mo bhualadh. "She's hitting me."
- Tá siad do do phlé. "They are discussing you."
- Tá sé á pógadh. "He's kissing her."
- Tá tú dár mbualadh. "You're hitting us."
- Tá mé do bhur bplé. "I'm discussing you."
- Tá sibh á bpógadh. "You are kissing them."
Interrogative pronouns
- cé "who?, which?"
- cad or céard "what?"
- cén "which?"
- Cé a rinne é? "Who did it?"
- Cé a chonaic tú? "Who did you see?"
- Cé ar thug tú an leabhar dó? "Who did you give the book to?"
- Cad atá ort? "What's wrong ?"
- Céard a dúirt tú? "What did you say?"
- Cén t-ainm atá ort? "What's your name?"
- Cén aois tú? "How old are you?"
Prepositions
| 1 | agam "at me" | againn "at us" |
| 2 | agat "at you " | agaibh "at you " |
| 3 | aige "at him" aici "at her" | acu "at them" |
| 1 | orm | orainn |
| 2 | ort | oraibh |
| 3 | air uirthi | orthu |
| 1 | asam | asainn |
| 2 | asat | asaibh |
| 3 | as aisti | astu |
| 1 | chugam | chugainn |
| 2 | chugat | chugaibh |
| 3 | chuige chuici | chucu |
| 1 | díom | dínn |
| 2 | díot | díbh |
| 3 | de di | díobh |
| 1 | dom | dúinn |
| 2 | duit | daoibh |
| 3 | dó di | dóibh |
| 1 | fúm | fúinn |
| 2 | fút | fúibh |
| 3 | faoi fúithi | fúthu |
| 1 | ionam | ionainn |
| 2 | ionat | ionaibh |
| 3 | ann inti | iontu |
| 1 | idir mé | eadrainn |
| 2 | idir thú | eadraibh |
| 3 | idir é idir í | eatarthu |
| 1 | liom | linn |
| 2 | leat | libh |
| 3 | leis léi | leo |
| 1 | uaim | uainn |
| 2 | uait | uaibh |
| 3 | uaidh uaithi | uathu |
| 1 | romham | romhainn |
| 2 | romhat | romhaibh |
| 3 | roimhe roimpi | rompu |
| 1 | tharam | tharainn |
| 2 | tharat | tharaibh |
| 3 | thairis thairsti | tharstu |
| 1 | tríom | trínn |
| 2 | tríot | tríbh |
| 3 | tríd tríthi | tríothu |
| 1 | umam | umainn |
| 2 | umat | umaibh |
| 3 | uime uimpi | umpu |
Numbers
Cardinal numbers
There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.Disjunctive numbers
These numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms like bus a trí déag "bus 13" or seomra a dó "room 2".Nonhuman conjunctive numbers
These numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g. capall "horse""One" as a pronoun is rendered with ceann when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:
Human conjunctive numbers
These numbers are used to count nouns that refer to human beings, e.g. páiste 'child'"One" as a pronoun is rendered with duine with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:
Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: trí pháiste déag, fiche páiste, etc.
Ordinal numbers
Phonology
A notable feature of Irish phonology is that consonants come in pairs, one "broad" and one "slender".| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Near-close | |||
| Close-mid | |||
| Mid | | ||
| Open-mid | |||
| Open |
Diphthongs:,,,.