Irish grammar

Nouns

Irish is an inflected language, having four cases: ainmneach (nominative and accusative), gairmeach (vocative), ginideach (genitive) and tabharthach (prepositional). The prepositional case is called the dative by convention.

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 (in Ulster usage, lenition is standard with all prepositions, while in other regions eclipsis is used with many). Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.

Names of countries usually take the definite article in the nominative: An Fhrainc "France", an Bhrasaíl "Brazil", an tSeapáin "Japan". Exceptions to this include Éire "Ireland", Albain "Scotland" and Sasana "England".

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".

When two definite noun phrases appear as part of a genitive construction (equivalent to the X of the Y in English), only the noun phrase in the genitive takes the article. Compare Áras an Uachtaráin or Teitheamh na nIarlaí to English the residence of the President, the flight of the Earls.

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 "The small girl" – masculine singular nominative
• An bhean bhocht "The poor woman" – feminine singular nominative
• Na buachaillí óga "The young boys" – masculine plural nominative

Adjectives in Irish have two morphological degrees of comparison: the positive (Irish: bunchéim), e.g. Tá an buachaill cairdiúil "the boy is friendly", and the comparative (breischéim), e.g. Tá an cailín níos cairdiúla ná an buachaill "the girl is nicer than the boy". A superlative (sárchéim) sense is rendered by the comparative in a relative clause, e.g. Is é Seán an páiste is cairdiúla den triúr "Seán is the nicest child of the three".

Adverbs

Irish adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

An adverb can be created from an adjective by adding go before it, e.g. go mall, go tapaidh, go maith, etc. If the adjective begins with a vowel, ⟨h⟩ is added before it, e.g. go hálainn, go híseal, go háirithe, etc.

Adverbs can often be created from nouns by putting a preposition before them, e.g. ar bith, de ghnáth, faoi dheireadh, etc.

Other categories of adverbs include the following:

Adverbs that describe relation to time, e.g. uaireanta, anois, cheana, etc.

Adverbs that describe relation to place, e.g. ann, abhaile, amuigh, etc.

Adverbs used in questions, e.g. cathain?, conas?, cá?, etc.

Adverbs used for negation, e.g. ní, nach, nár, etc.

Other adverbs, e.g. áfach, chomh maith, ach oiread, etc.

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 (differs from present only in the verb bí "to be"), 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: (all third person forms without subject pronoun):

• 1st conjugation: Fág "to leave" – d'fhág (past) – fágann (present) – fágfaidh (future) – d'fhágfadh (conditional) – d'fhágadh (habitual past) – fága (subjunctive) – fágadh (imperative)
• 2nd conjugation: Ceannaigh "to buy" – cheannaigh (past) – ceannaíonn (present) – ceannóidh (future) – cheannódh (conditional) – cheannaíodh (habitual past) – ceannaí (subjunctive) – ceannaíodh (imperative)
• Irregular: Téigh "to go" – chuaigh (past) – téann (present) – rachaidh (future) – rachadh (conditional) – théadh (habitual past) – té (subjunctive) – téadh (imperative)

In addition to the passive voice, there is the impersonal form of the verb, termed the saorbhriathar or "autonomous verb", which serves a similar function (the most literal translation is "You/One/They...[e.g. say, are, do]").

Verbs can be conjugated either synthetically (with the personal pronoun included in the verb inflection) or analytically (with the verb inflected for tense only and a separate subject). 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 forms (which may be used either conjunctively or disjunctively)

Conjunctive forms

The normal word order in Irish is verb–subject–object (VSO). The forms of the subject pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive.

The form muid in the 1st person plural has only recently been approved for use in the official standard, 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 (alternatively -imid) 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 (> sea) "yes", "so", "that is so", ní hea (the opposite of is ea), nach ea? "is that not so?", an ea (Kerry am b'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 (as in a verbless clause, or as the subject of the copula, where the pronoun stands at the end of the sentence), the so-called disjunctive forms are used:

In Munster dialects the form thú is either (a) archaic (replaced by tú) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel.

Standard

Buailim thú ("I hit you", present tense), Bhuail mé thú ("I hit you", past tense)

Dialect type (a)

Buailim tú, Bhuail mé tú

Dialect type (b)

Buailim tú, Bhuail mé thú

Intensive forms

Irish also has intensive pronouns, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.

The word féin ( or ) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.

Rinne mé féin é. "I did it myself."

Ar ghortaigh tú thú féin? "Did you hurt yourself?"

Sinn Féin is thus "We Ourselves"

Prepositional pronouns

As the object of a preposition, a pronoun is fused with the preposition; one speaks here of "inflected" prepositions, or, as they are more commonly termed, prepositional pronouns.

Possessive pronouns

The possessive determiners cause different initial consonant mutations.

Notes

1. ^L= causes lenition on the next word.
2. ^H= adds h- to the next vowel sound.
3. ^E= causes eclipsis of the next word.

These forms (especially a and ár) can also blend with certain prepositions:

The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case:

• Tá sé ag plé a rothair. "He's discussing his bicycle" (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)

Similarly, if the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, then it is a possessive pronoun:

• Tá sé á phlé. "He's discussing it." (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)

More examples:

• 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 (pl.)."
• Tá sibh á bpógadh. "You (pl.) are kissing them."

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce a question, e.g. the words who, what, which. The Irish equivalents are:

• cé "who?, which?"
• cad or céard "what?"
• cén "which?"

Examples:

• 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 (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?")
• Céard a dúirt tú? "What did you say?"
• Cén t-ainm atá ort? "What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?")
• Cén aois tú? "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")

Numbers

There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.

Disjunctive numbers

Disjunctive 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".

Conjunctive numbers

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers

Nonhuman conjunctive 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 (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:

Tá cúig chapall agam; tá ceann acu breoite. "I have five horses; one of them is sick."

Human conjunctive numbers

Human conjunctive numbers are used to count nouns that refer to human beings, e.g. páiste 'child'

"One" as a pronoun is rendered with duine (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:

Tá cúigear páistí agam; tá duine acu breoite. "I have five children; one of them is sick."

Tá seisear sa seomra. "Six people are in the room."

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: trí pháiste déag, fiche páiste, etc.

Phonology

A notable feature of Irish phonology is that consonants (except ) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarized, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalized, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate).

Diphthongs: , , , .