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The verb – An briathar
The Irish verbs can be divided into two groups, verbs with only one syllable, e.g íth – eat or ól – drink and verbs with more than one syllable, e.g ceannaigh – buy, and the verbs can be divided into different temporal forms;
FUTURE - PRESENT - PAST
- future
- punctual
- habitual
- preterite
- imperfect
Present
Divided into habitual and non-habitual present, however only the verb bí – to be has two different forms to show these differences, tá and bí, as well as the copula „is“ which is not seen as a verb in it self, but merely as a particle. Hence the phrase „tá mé múinteoir“ is incorrect, because here one has to use „is“, „is múinteoir mé“ or „is mise múinteoir“ (I am a teacher). The copula and how it is to be used will be thoroughly explained later on.
Past
There is only one inhabitual form for the past tense in Irish, used to to describe a punctual action in the past, and is mostly used in story tellings – hence the phrase „chonaic an fear brat ildathach ina luí lena hais“ from the story an mhaighdean-mhara can be translated as not only „the man saw a shawl of many colours lying beside her“, but also as „the man had seen...“ or „the man has seen...“
Examples:
- Chuaighgo, past tense lenited Tadhgname na Cuaicheof Cuckoo prep gó Londainto London ar aonach lá(one) (a) day
One day Tadhg of the Cuckoo went to London
The habitual past is used to show a non-punctual action, as in the phrase;
Examples:
- Martainn? Dhéanfadh sé an obar go dona - Martin? He always worked badly
Future
Used when a statement takes place in the future or when a wish is asked. After the word „ma“, „if“ the present habitual form is used instead.
In order to make nouns into verbs one can add on of the following suffixes;
- 1. -ú
- 2. -adh
- 3. -t
Irregular verbs
There are only 11 irregular verbs in the Gaelic language, however, those are fairly common words, and need to be learnt by heart. (Tú: you, -im: indicates first person singular)
abair (say)
Present An ndéir tú? Deirim/Ní deirim
Past An ndúirt tú? Dúírt/Ní dúirt
future An ndéarfaidh tú? Déarfaidh/Ní dhéarfaidh
beir (catch, give birth to)
present An mbeireann tú? Beirim/Ní bheirim
past Ar rug tú? Rug/Níor rug
future An mbéarfaidh tú? Béarfaidh/Ní bhéarfaidh
clois (hear)
present An gcloiseann tú? Cloisim/Ní chloisim
past Ar chuala tú? Chuala/Níor chuala
future An gcloisfidh tú? Cloisfidh/Ní chloisfidh
déan (make, do)
present An ndéanann tú? Déanaim/Ní dhéanaim
past An ndearna tú? Rinne/Ní dhearna
future An ndéanfaidh tú? Déanfaidh/Ní dhéanfaidh
faigh (get)
present An bhfaigheann tú? Faighim/Ní fhaighim
past An bhfuair tú? Fuair/Ní bhfuair
future An bhfaighfaidh tú? Gheobhaidh/Ní bhfaighidh
feic (see)
present An bhfeiceann tú? Feicim (Chím in Ulster)/Ní fheicim
past An bhfaca tú? Chonaic/Ní fhaca
future An bhfeicfidh tú? Feicfidh (Chífidh in Ulster)/Ní fheicfidh
ith (eat)
present An itheann tú? Ithim /Ní ithim
past Ar ith tú? D'ith/Níor ith
future An íosfaidh tú? Íosfaidh/Ní íosfaidh
tabhair (give)
present An dtugann tú? Tugaim /Ní thugaim
past Ar thug tú? Thug/Níor thug
future An dtabharfaidh tú? Tabharfaidh/Ní thabharfaidh
tar (come)
present An dtagann tú? Tagaim /Ní thagaim
past Ar tháinig tú? Tháinig/Níor tháinig
future An dtiocfaidh tú? Tiocfaidh/Ní thiocfaidh
téigh (go)
present An dtéann tú? Téim /Ní théim
past An ndeachaigh tú? Chuaigh/Ní dheachaigh
future An rachfaidh tú? Rachfaidh/Ní rachfaidh
bí (be)
present An bhfuil tú? Tá (or Táim)/Níl (or Nílim)
past An raibh tú? Bhí/Ní raibh
future An mbeidh tú? Beidh/Ní bheidh
The copula – an chopail
The copula connects the subject and the predicate, and occurs only if a noun, pronoun or an adjective is the predicate.
The copula work as follow according to the rule present in front of a consonant/ in front of a vowel and past in front of a consonant/ in front of a vowel;
affirmative is is ba b‘
negative ní / cha ní h / chan níor / char níorbh / charbh
affirmative question an an ar arbh
negative question nach nach nár nárbh
The copula is further used:
To show identity; is mac léinn mé, here is can be omitted, mac léinn mé – I am a student,
As a modal verb with the prepositions le, e.g. ba mhaith liom an leabhar Harry Potter agus an órchloch sa Ghaeilge – I would like to have the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher‘s stone in Irish
Adjectives showing equivalence – is math sin – that is good! This phrase is one of the most used loan phrases in Scottish English, smashin‘! can be heard whenever someone expresses his or her liking of something.
Comparative use, an bhean ba mó – the woman that was the biggest
To show origin and ownership with the preposition as, de and le. Is as an t-Sulainn mé – I am from Sweden, ba leis an cú – the dog belonged to him
The copula is also used but not seen in questions containing interrogatives – có as atá tú – where are you from?
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