The Simple Sentence
by Myles Dillon
All Irish nouns are either masculine or feminine, as in French. The gender is important, as the rules for aspiration vary according to the gender. When the noun is nominative-accusative singular, the article prefixes t- to masculine nouns beginning with a vowel and aspirates feminine nouns beginning with a consonant. The article is an, gen. sg. fem. and nom. pl. masc. and fem., na. Thus an bad "the boat", an t-uisce "the water", an bhean "the woman".
There is no indefinite article: fear "a man", bean "a woman", uisce "water".
THE FIRST DECLENSION.
Most masculine nouns ending in a broad consonant form the genitive singular and nominative plural by changing the broad consonant to slender, inserting the glide-vowel i: an bad "the boat"; an bháid "of the boat"; pl. na báid "the boats"; an garsún "the boy"; an gharsúin "of the boy"; na garsúin "the boys". Note that the plural of an is na. When the final consonant is ch, it is changed to gh in the gen. sg. and nom. pl. When the vowel of the final syllable is short, there is a change of vowel as in "man, men". By this change ea becomes i. Thus coileach "cock", pl. coiligh; fear "man", pl. fir. In mac "son", pl. mic, the a becomes i. Some nouns add -e for the nom. pl.: doras "door", pl. doirse; bóthar "road", pl. bóithre; solas "light", pl. soilse, with syncope of the second syllable, see p. 12.THE FOURTH DECLENSION
Most nouns ending in a vowel form the plural in -í, and have the same form for nominative and genitive in both singular and plural.| Singular | English | Genitive | Nom. Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| bád | boat | báid | báid |
| bainne | milk | bainne | -- |
| bosca | box | bosca | boscaí |
| bóthar | road | bóthair | bóithre |
| buidéal | bottle | buidéil | buidéil |
| cat | cat | cait | cait |
| ceann | head | cinn | cinn |
| dinnéir | dinner | dinnéir | dinnéir |
| doras | door | dorais | doirse |
| fear | man | fir | fir |
| focal | word | focail | focail |
| gadhar | dog | gadhair | gadhair |
| garsún | boy | garsúin | garsúin |
| gort | tillage-field | goirt | goirt |
| leabhar | book | leabhair | leabhair |
| paipear | paper | paipeir | paipeir |
| sagart | priest | sagairt | sagairt |
The verb stands first in its clause. Eng. "the man is here" is tá an fear anso (lit. "is the man here"). In English when the verb comes first we have a question, but in Irish there is a special particle an (ecl.) to mark the question, and, strange to say, a different verb is used for "is" in questions and in the negative. The word is fuil which with ní "not" is contracted to níl "is not". The interrogative is an bhfuil? and the negative interrogative ná full? "is not?" Tá is the independent, or absolute, form of the verb, and fuil is the dependent form.
Note that there are no words in Irish for "yes" and "no". The verb in the question must be repeated in the answer: An bhfuil sí ann? Tá. "Is he there?" "Yes".
THE SECOND DECLENSION.
Most feminine nouns ending in a broad consonant form the genitive singular by adding -e and the nominative-accusative plural by adding -a: cloch "stone", an chloch "the stone", gen. na cloiche, nom. pl. na clocha. Note that the gen. sg. of the feminine article is na, and that it does not aspirate: it prefixes h- to an initial vowel. The -e of the gen. sg. changes a preceding ia to éi, and other changes are as for the masculine nouns. In nouns of more than one syllable, a -ch becomes -gh- before the -e, and the resulting -(a)ighe is pronounced -í, and is now so written (see p. 10).| Singular | English | Genitive | Nom. Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| baintreach | widow | baintrighe, baintrí | baintreacha |
| bréag | lie, falsehood | bréige | bréaga |
| bróg | shoe | bróige | bróga |
| cearc | hen | circe | cearca |
| ciall | sense | céille | -- |
| clann | children (coll.), family | clainne | clanna |
| cluas | ear | cluaise | cluasa |
| cos | leg, foot | coise | cosa |
| deoch | drink | dighe, dí | deocha |
| fuinneog | window | fuinneoige | fuinneoga |
| grian | sun | gréine | -- |
| lámh | hand | láimhe | lámha |
| muc | pig | muice | muca |
| póg | kiss | póige | póga |
| scian | knife | scine | sceana |
| Feminine nouns ending in a slender consonant commonly form a "weak" plural by adding -eanna: | |||
| áit | place | áite | áiteanna |
| ceist | question | ceiste | ceisteanna |
| páirc | field | páirce | páirceanna |
| scoil | school | scoile | scoileanna |
| sráid | street | sráide | sráideanna |
Some, however, form the plural in -e: pingin "penny", pl. pingine; scilling "shilling", pl. scillinge; seachtain "week", pl. seachtaine; (See also ch.18.) súil "eye", pl. súile. Im "butter", g. ime is masculine, nom.-acc. sg. an t-im.
scine/sceana is an exception.
The Irish for "very" is a particle ana- which aspirates the following consonant and is joined to it with a hyphen in writing; but it is fully stressed: ana-bheag "very small", ana-chiúin "very quiet", ana-dhorcha "very dark", an-óg "very young", ana-shalach "very dirty". Before vowels the form is an-, and an- is the form in Northern Irish in all positions.
Note that the feminine pronoun sí is used when referring to a feminine noun.
