This section deals with very simple words to form the most basic kinds of sentences. They tend to describe things but also show some basic ideas in word order.
hese summaries are from notebooks I created in the 1990s when I first started working though Myles Dillon's Teach yourself Irish.They were meant to pull apart the different points of Dillon's text which seemed rather dense and compacted, and to make those points more obvious and in plainer English. In 1999, I had a website on xoom.com before the host was dissolved by its parent company, NBC internet, the following year. These notes were the basis of that project and I received good remarks from the Gaeilge-B email listserv. It has been revised and republished on various sites since that time as I have sought to find a permanent home for this material. People still ask me grammatical questions and I find myself pulling these notes out again, so I am reposting them here now, in hope that they will continue be useful. —Eagarthóir.
A sentence is constructed in the following order:
| He put a glass on the table. | |||
| do chuir sé gloine ar an mbord. | |||
| (past)put | he | glass | on the table |
| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. |
| The men break the stones on the road. | |||
| Briseann na fir clocha ar an mbóthar. | |||
| break | the men | stones | on the road |
| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. |
The noun is a word that expresses the name of a person place or thing and it has three qualities: gender, number and case.
Case concerns the form and function of the noun in the sentence. The cases are nominative-accusative, dative, genetive and vocative. Nominative-accusative and dative are sometimes put together as "common form". Nominative-accusative concerns the subject and direct object of the sentence. Dative concerns the indirect object or the object of a preposition. Genetive concerns posession. Vocative concerns a person or object being addressed.
Number determines whether a noun is singular or plural.
Gender determines whether a noun is masculine or feminine. There is no absolute rule for determining gender and must be learned with each noun.
Some general principles may help.
endings that tend to be masculine
| -án | cupán | cup |
| -ín | cailín | girl |
| -úr | gasúr | child |
| -ún | náisiún | nation |
| -as | doras | door |
| -(ái)ste | páiste | child |
| -aire | cabaire | prattler |
| -eara | feilméara | farmer |
| -aí | scéalaí | storyteller |
| -adh | moladh | praise |
endings that tend to be feminine
| -ó(i)g/-eo(i)g | fuinneoig | window |
| -áil | candáil | auctioning |
| -aíl | feadaíl | whistling |
| -seach | cláirseach | harp |
| -ach | báisteach | rain |
| -acht | Gaeltacht | Irish Speaking area |
There is no indefinite article such as a or an. Thus, cailín may mean either "girl" or "a girl" depending on the context.
The definite article (such as "the") is an . The plural and genitive feminine form of an is na .
The article an prefixes a t- to masculine nouns that begin with a vowel and are in the nominative-accusative singular.
The article lenites feminine nouns of the same case and number.
| an bád | an t-uisce | an bhean |
| an fear | an t-úlla | an chloch |
The article likewise prefixes a t- to feminine nouns that begin with an s followed by a vowel or l, n, r. The s is not pronounced.
| an tsráid | an tsúil | an tsláinte |
| an tsniog | an tseachtain | an tslí |
s is never lenited in groups sc-, sm-, sp-, st-.
Initial d and t are rarely lenited after d, n, t, l, s.
| an deoch | an tine | an téad |
| an scian | an smig | an spúnóga |
| an deirfiúir | an scuab | an stoirm |
All masculine nouns use the pronoun sé. (he)
All feminine nouns use the pronoun sí. (she)
The verb tá is used to mean "to be" or "is". Tá is the independent or absolute form of the verb. To ask a question or make a negative sentence another form is used. This form of tá is fuil. Fuil is called the dependent form because it requires an additional particle to be used.
The particle for questions is an.
The particle for negations is ní.
The particle for negative questions is ná.
An eclipses the verb that follows.
Hence an bhfuil?
Ní lenites the verb that follows but ní fhuil is usually contracted to níl.
| Tá Níl | Caít sí an bhean etc. | anso. | |
| An | bhfuil | ||
| Ná | fuil | ||
Statement
| Tá Cáit anso. | Cáit is here. |
| Tá fear agus páiste anso. | A man and a child are here. |
| Tá mé anso. | I am here. |
Negation
| Níl Cáit anso. | Cáit is not here. |
Questions
| An bhfuil Cáit anso? | Is Cáit here? |
| Ná fuil sí anso? | Isnt she here? |
In a sentence with tá but no adjective or adverb., the adverb ann is used to suggest that "there is" something or that something exists.
| Tá fear ann. | There is a man. |
Tá is not used to link nouns and pronouns.
| Tá mé anso. | Is mé Máirtín |
| I am here | I am Martin. |
There is no word for "yes" or "no" and so, questions are answered by repeating the verb.
| An bhfuil Cáit anso? | Tá. | yes. |
| Ná fuil sí anso? | Níl. | no. |
The plural of these responses are Táid (they are) and Nílid (they are not).
The concept of "very" is marked with the prefix ana- (or an- before vowels) The consonant that follows ana- is lenited. The hyphen is used in spelling and both the prefix and the qualified word receive equal stress.
hence we get:
| beag | ana-bheag | ciúin | ana-chiúin |
| dorcha | ana-dhorcha | óg | an-óg |
ana- however is unique to the south. Most other dialects use an- for every case. An- lenites all consonants except those that do not lenite or do not lenite after n.
| fuar | an-fhuar | te | an-te |
| fliuch | an-fhliuch | tirim | an-tirim |
| dorcha | an-dorcha | geal | an-gheal |
| mór | an-mhór | beag | an-bheag |
| sean | an-sean | deas | an-deas |
| luath | an-luath | salach | an-salach |
The genitive is formed by making that final broad consonant slender. Usually this change is performed by inserting the letter i.
The article an lenites all masculine words in the genitive singular. The plural of an is na.
| garsún | garsúin | an gharsúin |
| bád | báid | an bháid |
| cat | cait | an chait |
| gadhar | gadhair | an ghadhair |
Some nouns however may take more significant vowel changes (similar to German: Gans / Gänse).
-ch at the end of the word usually becomes -gh.
short ea or a in the last syllable becomes i.
| coileach | coiligh | an choiligh |
| fear | fir | an fhir |
| mac | mic | an mhic |
| sionnach | sionnaigh | an tsionnaigh |
| ceann | cinn | an chinn |
Other possible vowel changes that occur when making a broad consonant slender are as follows:
| á→ ái | bás | báis |
| ea→ i | fear | fir |
| éa→ éi | éan | éin |
| ia→ éi | iasc | éisc |
| ia→ iai | rian | riain |
| ío→ í | íol | íl |
| ea→ei+e | sceach | sceiche |
| io→ i+e | fionn | finne |
| iu→ i+e | fliuch | fliche |
Most first declension nouns have the same form for the plural as for the genitive. However some two-syllable nouns add e to the genitive form and drop the second syllable.
| bóthar | bóthair | bóithre |
| solas | solais | soilse |
| doras | dorais | doirse |
| buidéal | buidéil | buidéil |
| cat | cait | cait |
| focal | focail | focail |
The second declension includes feminine nouns that end with a broad consonant.
The genitive is formed by making the noun slender, as was done in the first declension, and then adding -e to the end. In addition to the possible vowel changes mentioned in the first declension, ia often becomes éi.
| bróg | bróige |
| muc | muice |
| lámh | láimhe |
| ciall | céille |
| grian | gréine |
The plural is formed by adding an -a to the original form.
| bróg | bróga |
| muc | muca |
| lámh | lámha |
| clann | clanna |
In nouns of more than one syllable, a final -ch becomes -gh as well as the added -e. -(a)ighe is pronounced í and is spelled that way due to the 1948 spelling revision.
| baintreach | baintrighe/baintrí | baintreacha |
| deoch | dighe/dí | deocha |
| cailleach | caillighe/caillí | cailleacha |
| cloch | cloiche | clocha |
deoch behaves this way, although, technically it only has one syllable. cloch bhaves as is usually the case with one syllable words. Note also that the forms for the feminine noun scia are exceptional.
| scian | scine | sceana |
Although the article an lenites the singular feminine noun in the nominative-accusative case, the article for the genitive singular feminine is na and it does not lenite. Na will however prefix an h- to nouns that begin with vowels.
| cloch | an chloch na cloiche na clocha |
| adharc | an adharc na hadhairce na hadharca |
| bróg | an bhróg na bróige na bróga |
Some feminine nouns that end in a slender consonant are also grouped in the second declension. These nouns however have different endings for the plural. Some end in -eanna and others end in -e.
| áit | áite | áiteanna |
| ceist | ceiste | ceisteanna |
| páirc | páirce | páirceanna |
| scoil | scoile | scoileanna |
| sráid | sráide | sráideanna |
| pingin | pingine | pingine |
| scilling | scillinge | scillinge |
| seachtain | seachtaine | seachtaine |
| súil | súile | súile |
pingin, scilling and seachtain only have the -e ending when preceded by numbers, otherwise the plural is -í.
| pinginí | scillingí | seachtainí |
Naturally for those nouns ending with -e in the plural, the plural is the same as the genitive. Since these nouns are already slender, nothing needs to be inserted to make it match the -e. Caol le caol agus leathan le leathan.
| gender | final letter | genitive | plural | |
| first | m | broad con. | slender -i- | same as gen/ syncope +-e |
| second | f | cons. | -e | -a (-e, eanna) |
| fourth | m,f | vowel | no change | -í |
Most nouns of either the masculine or the feminine gender that end in a vowel are part of the fourth declension.
The genitive form does not change from the nominative. the plural form adds -í
| bosca | bosca | boscaí |
| bata | bata | bataí |
| paíste | paíste | paístí |
| fáilte | fáilte | fáiltí |
| trua | trua | truaí |
