Irish grammar

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:One source 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 (verb–subject–object) so that, for example, "He hit me" is [hit-past tense] [he] [me].

One distinctive aspect of Irish is the distinction between , the copula (known in Irish as ), and . describes identity or quality in a permanence sense, while temporary aspects are described by . This is similar to the difference between the verbs and in Spanish and Portuguese (see Romance copula), although this is not an exact match; and are cognate respectively with the Spanish and .

Examples are:

• "He is a man." (Spanish , Portuguese )
• "He is cold (a cold-hearted person)." (Spanish , Portuguese )
• "He/Thomas is cold" (= feels cold) (Alt. [= "Cold is on him"]). (Spanish – in this case Spanish uses (to have) instead of (to be), Portuguese )
• "He is asleep." (Spanish , Portuguese )
• "He is good (a good person)." (Spanish , Portuguese )
• "He is well." (Spanish , Portuguese )

Nouns

Irish is an inflected language, having four cases: (nominative and accusative), (vocative), (genitive) and (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, and being masculine and feminine. While the neuter has mostly disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is seen in various place names in Ireland.

Articles

Irish definite article

Definite article	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	T	L	H
Genitive	L	H	E
Dative	1	2	H

The Irish definite article has two forms: and . may cause lenition, eclipsis, or neither. may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition with is with the genitive singular of the word meaning first. is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular, with lenition is used with masculine nouns, with feminine nouns. In the dative singular, 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). 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: "France", "Brazil", "Japan". Exceptions to this include "Ireland", "Scotland" and "England".

There is no indefinite article in Irish; the word appears by itself, for example: – "I have a pen", – "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 or 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.

• "The small girl" – masculine singular nominative
• "The poor woman" – feminine singular nominative
• "The young boys" – masculine plural nominative

Adjectives in Irish have two morphological degrees of comparison: the positive (Template:Langx), e.g. "the boy is friendly", and the comparative (), e.g. "the girl is nicer than the boy". A superlative () sense is rendered by the comparative in a relative clause, e.g. "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 before it, e.g. , , , etc. If the adjective begins with a vowel, Template:Vr is added before it, e.g. , , , etc.

Adverbs can often be created from nouns by putting a preposition before them, e.g. , , , etc.

Other categories of adverbs include the following:

Adverbs that describe relation to time, e.g. , , , etc.

Adverbs that describe relation to place, e.g. , , , etc.

Adverbs used in questions, e.g. , , , etc.

Adverbs used for negation, e.g. , , , etc.

Other adverbs, e.g. , , , 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 "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 . Examples of tense conjugations: (all third person forms without subject pronoun):

• 1st conjugation: "to leave" – (past) – (present) – (future) – (conditional) – (habitual past) – (subjunctive) – (imperative)
• 2nd conjugation: "to buy" – (past) – (present) – (future) – (conditional) – (habitual past) – (subjunctive) – (imperative)
• Irregular: "to go" – (past) – (present) – (future) – (conditional) – (habitual past) – (subjunctive) – (imperative)

In addition to the passive voice, there is the impersonal form of the verb, termed the 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 "to run":

Person	Standard	Synthetic	Analytic
1st sing
2nd sing
3rd sing
1st plural			/
2nd plural
3rd plural
Impersonal

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)

Irish personal pronouns

Simple pronouns		Singular		Plural
		Conjunctive	Disjunctive	Conjunctive	Disjunctive
1st person
2nd person
3rd person	Masculine
	Feminine
Intensive pronouns		Singular		Plural
		Conjunctive	Disjunctive	Conjunctive	Disjunctive
1st person
2nd person
3rd person	Masculine
	Feminine

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 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 (alternatively ) 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 and is purely one of number.

There is no equivalent to the English "it". Either or 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 , used in impersonal copula phrases, particularly in the phrases (> ) "yes", "so", "that is so", (the opposite of ), "is that not so?", (Kerry ) "Is that so?", "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 is either (a) archaic (replaced by ) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel.

Standard

("I hit you", present tense), ("I hit you", past tense)

Dialect type (a)

,

Dialect type (b)

,

Intensive forms

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

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

"I did it myself."

"Did you hurt yourself?"

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.

Irish prepositional pronouns

Prepositional pronouns		Singular				Plural
		1st person	2nd person	3rd person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person
				Masculine	Feminine
"at"	Simple
	Emphatic
"on"	Simple
	Emphatic
"from, out of"	Simple
	Emphatic
"to(wards)"	Simple
	Emphatic
"of, from"	Simple
	Emphatic
"to, for"	Simple
	Emphatic
"about, under"	Simple
	Emphatic
"in"	Simple
	Emphatic
"between"	Simple	—
	Emphatic
"with"	Simple
	Emphatic
"since"	Simple
	Emphatic
"before, in front of"	Simple
	Emphatic
"over, beyond, past"	Simple					tharainn
	Emphatic					tharainne
"through"	Simple
	Emphatic
"around"	Simple
	Emphatic

Possessive pronouns

The possessive determiners cause different initial consonant mutations.

Irish possessive pronoun

Possessive determiners		Singular	Plural
1st person		L	E
2nd person		L	E
3rd person	Masculine	L	E
	Feminine	H

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 and ) can also blend with certain prepositions:

Irish possessive pronoun contractions

Preposition	Possessive pronoun
	"my"	"your"	"his, her(s), their(s)"	"our(s)"
"from"
"to, for"
"about, under"	—	—
"in"
"with"
"from"
"through"	—	—

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

• "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:

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

More examples:

• "She's hitting me."
• "They are discussing you."
• "He's kissing her."
• "You're hitting us."
• "I'm discussing you (pl.)."
• "You (pl.) are kissing them."

Interrogative pronouns

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

• "who?, which?"
• or "what?"
• "which?"

Examples:

• "Who did it?"
• "Who did you see?"
• "Who did you give the book to?"
• "What's wrong (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?")
• "What did you say?"
• "What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?")
• "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")

Numbers

Irish numbers

Value	Cardinal			Ordinal
	Disjunctive	Conjunctive
		Nonhuman	Human
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
20
21
22
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1000

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 13" or "room 2".

Conjunctive numbers

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g. "horse"

"One" as a pronoun is rendered with (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:

"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. 'child'

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

"I have five children; one of them is sick."

"Six people are in the room."

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: , , 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).

Consonant phonemes

		Labial					Coronal				Dorsal		Glottal
		Bilabial		Labio- velar	Labio- dental		Dental	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
		broad	slender	broad	broad	slender	broad	broad	slender	slender	slender	broad
Plosives	voiceless
	voiced
Fricative/ Approximant	voiceless
	voiced
Nasal
Tap
Lateral

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid		(only unstressed)
Open-mid
Open

Diphthongs: , , , .