The Regular Verb
by Myles Dillon
Y ou have seen that the verb "to be" is irregular in Irish, as it is in English. Most Irish verbs are regular. There are two conjugations, of which only the first need now concern us. There are five tenses, present, imperfect, past, future, conditional. The stem may end in a broad or slender con- sonant, and to it are added endings for each person of each tense. Here are the endings of the present and past tenses: Present Past Sg. l-im PL l-imid Sg. l-as PL l-amair 2- ir 2-ann 2 -is 2-abhair 3- ann 3 -id 3- 3-adar Now if the stem is slender, a broad glide is required before broad endings; if the stem is broad, a slender glide is required before slender endings. The 1 sg. pres. could be stated as -(a)im, the 1 sg. past as -{e)as. These facts should help to give you a grasp of the system, both of spelling and pro- nunciation; for in each of these endings the vowel-sound is simply the "murmured" vowel of the final syllable in Eng. "ribbon", "villain" etc., duly modified by the consonants which surround it. If you watch your broad and slender consonants, the unstressed vowel must come right. And the quality of the consonants is always marked by the vowels which surround it. Now let us take two verbs, one with a broad stem and one with a slender: 31 32 IRISH dunaim "I shut" Present Sg.i 2 3 dunaim ( dunair \ Hi'mann til dunann se, si do do do P1.1 dunaimid do 2 dunann sibh do 3 dunaid do Past dhunas dhunais dhun se, si ( dhunabhair 1 dhun sibh Sg.i 2 3 P1.1 2 3 buailim "I strike" Present buailim do ( buailir 1 buaileann tu buaileann se, si do do Past bhuaileas bhuailis bhuail se, si buailimid buaileann sibh do buailid do bhuaileamair ( bhuaileabhair 1 bhuail sibh do bhuaileadar Note that the 2 and 3 sg. and 2 pi. of every tense may take the common form of the tense with a personal pronoun. This form, originally 3 sg., may also occur in the 3 pi. (dunann siad "they shut") and it is the form used with a noun subject. The past, imperfect and conditional take the particle do (asp.): it is frequently omitted in conversa- tion, when the verb begins with a consonant, as the aspira- tion suffices, but it is never omitted before a vowel. Before vowels andfh- (which is silent), the o of do is dropped: (do) bhuail se "he struck", d'ol se "he drank", d'jheach se "he looked". LESSON II 33 The negative and interrogative particles are rd (asp.) and an (eel.) respectively (see p. 26), but with the past tense the forms are nior (asp.) and ar (asp.), and do is dropped: ni bhualim "I do not strike", an mbuailim "do I strike?", nior bhuaileas (dhunas) "I did not strike (shut)", ar bhuaileas (dhunas) "did I strike (shut)?". The following list should be learned: caillim / lose diolaim / sell, pay caithim / spend, use dunaim / shut ceilim I conceal fagaimi/eaue creidim / believe fanaim / wait, stay crudhaim, cruim / milk feachaim / look cuirim I put iarraim J request leighim, leim / read scriobhaim / write lionaim I fill stadaim / stop muinim / teach suidhim, suim / sit nighim, nim / wash titim I fall olaim / drink tuigim/ understand rithim J run Exercise 5 Put the following into the plural, past tense, thus: leim : do leamair cuireann se : do chuireadar stadann tu : do stadabhair caillir; cuireann si; creidim; lionann tu; diolann se; fanaim; scriobhair; tuigeann se. Exercise 6 Put the following into the present: Do dhiolabhair; d'iarradar; d'fheachais; do chailleamair; dothitse; domhuinsibh; dostadamair; dothuigeas. VOCABULARY ceilim (kelim) / conceal focal (fokal) m. word firinne (feeringi) f. truth gadhar (gayar) m. dog 34 IRISH garsun (gor-soon) m. boy glanaim (glonim) I clean litir f. letter paipear (paa-per) m. paper sagart (sogart) m. priest uisce (ishgi) m. water Exercise 7 Translate into Irish: A. 1. We read the books. 2. The boy drinks the milk. 3. They do not understand. 4. You (pi.) fall. 5. I spend the money. 6. You (sg.) clean the knife. 7. They shut the door, but they do not shut the window. 8. Do you (pi.) understand? 9. Does he believe? 10. No. 11. He writes a letter. 12. He conceals the truth. B. 1. They understood the words. 2. Did the priest believe the boys? 3. You lost the money. 4. Did he strike the dog? 5. We filled the bottles. 6. Did the boys drink the water? 7. No, but they drank milk. 8. Did you (sg.) read the paper? 9. The priests read the books. .