Irish verbs

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Irish verb forms are constructed either synthetically or analytically.

Synthetic forms are those which express the information about person and number in the ending: e.g. molaim 'I praise', where the ending -aim stands for "1st person singular present". In this case, a pronoun is not allowed: *molaim mé is ungrammatical.

Analytic forms are those whose endings contain no information about person and number, and a pronoun is necessary: e.g. molann sibh 'you (pl.) praise', where the ending -ann expresses only the present tense, and the pronoun sibh 'you' (pl.) must accompany it in order to express "2nd person plural".

In addition to the three persons, Irish also has an impersonal form (also called the "autonomous" form), which is used in forming passives and can conveniently be translated with "one" or "someone" as the subject. Shown below are the distribution of synthetic and analytic forms in the standard language; in the dialects, other patterns may be found.

See Irish orthography for a discussion of how verb endings are pronounced.

Regular Verbs

There are two conjugation classes of regular verbs, as illustrated below. Note that in the "historical" tenses (the imperfect, preterite, and conditional), a consonant-initial stem undergoes lenition, while a vowel-initial stem is prefixed by d'. A stem beginning with f plus vowel takes both, e.g. fan 'wait', d'fhan sé 'he waited'. (Exception: the preterite impersonal neither undergoes lenition nor receives d'.)

1st Conjugation

Present

In the present tense of the 1st conjugation, endings are added directly to the root. Only the 1st person singular and plural and the impersonal have synthetic endings. Otherwise the analytic ending -(e)ann is used in combination with a pronoun.

	Endings	'praise'	'understand'
1sg	-(a)im	molaim	tuigim
1pl	-(a)imid	molaimid	tuigimid
Impersonal	-t(e)ar	moltar	tuigtear
Analytic	-(e)ann	molann	tuigeann

Forms like molann muid and tuigeann muid instead molaimid or tuigimid are frequently encountered but do not technically belong to the standard language. On the other hand, Munster Irish uses molair and molaid instead of molann tú and molann siad.

Imperfect (habitual past)

Synthetic endings are used except in the 3rd person singular, 2nd person plural, and impersonal. Otherwise the analytic form is used in conjunction with a pronoun.

	Endings	'used to praise'	'used to understand'
1sg	-(a)inn	mholainn	thuiginn
2sg	-t(e)á	mholtá	thuigteá
1pl	-(a)imis	mholaimis	thuigimis
3pl	-(a)idís	mholaidís	thuigidís
Impersonal	-t(a)í	mholtaí	thuigtí
Analytic	-(e)adh	mholadh	thuigeadh

Preterite

The analytic form, used together with a pronoun for all persons except the 1st person plural and the impersonal, has a zero ending.

	Endings	'praised'	'understood'
1pl	-(e)amar	mholamar	thuigeamar
Impersonal	-(e)adh	moladh	tuigeadh
Analytic	-	mhol	thuig

Future

The future stem is formed by adding f (pronounced [h] except in the impersonal) to the root. Synthetic endings exist only for the 1st person plural and impersonal.

	Endings	'will praise'	'will understand'
1pl	-f(a)imid	molfaimid	tuigfimid
Impersonal	-f(e)ar	molfar	tuigfear
Analytic	-f(a)idh	molfaidh	tuigfidh

Conditional

The conditional is formed by taking the stem of the future tense (f, pronounced [h] except in the 2nd person singular and the impersonal) and adding endings similar to the imperfect.

	Endings	'would praise'	'would understand'
1sg	-f(a)inn	mholfainn	thuigfinn
2sg	-f(e)á	mholfá	thuigfeá
1pl	-f(a)imis	mholfaimis	thuigfimis
3pl	-f(a)idís	mholfaidís	thuigfidís
Impersonal	-f(a)í	mholfaí	thuigfí
Analytic	-f(e)adh	mholfadh	thuigfeadh

Imperative

Singular: simple root	Plural: root + -(a)igí
mol! 'praise!' (sg.)	molaigí! 'praise!' (pl.)
tuig! 'understand!' (sg.)	tuigigí! 'understand!' (pl.)

2nd Conjugation

Present

In the 2nd conjugation, the present stem ends in -(a)í-, to which are added the synthetic or analytic endings. Roots ending in a slender consonant (e.g. inis 'to tell') undergo syncope before the addition of -í-.

• The root beannaigh 'to bless' has the present tense stem beannaí- 'to bless'
• The root inis has the present tense stem insí- 'to tell'

The endings are the same as in the 1st conjugation, but without the -(a)i- vowel found there.

	Endings	'bless'	'tell'
1sg	-(a)ím	beannaím	insím
1pl	-(a)ímid	beannaímid	insímid
Impersonal	-(a)ítear	beannaítear	insítear
Analytic	-(a)íonn	beannaíonn	insíonn

Imperfect (habitual past)

The endings of the imperfect (again the same as in the 1st conjugation, but without the -(a)i- vowel) are added to the present stem.

	Endings	'used to bless'	'used to tell'
1sg	-(a)ínn	bheannaínn	d'insínn
2sg	-(a)íteá	bheannaíteá	d'insíteá
1pl	-(a)ímis	bheannaímis	d'insímis
3pl	-(a)ídís	bheannaídís	d'insídís
Impersonal	-(a)ítí	bheannaítí	d'insítí
Analytic	-(a)íodh	bheannaíodh	d'insíodh

Preterite

As in the first conjugation, the bare root is used as the analytic form. The synthetic forms of the 1st plural and the impersonal attach

their ending to the present stem.

	Endings	'blessed'	'told'
1pl	-(a)íomar	bheannaíomar	d'insíomar
Impersonal	-(a)íodh	beannaíodh	insíodhn
Analytic	-	bheannaigh	d'inis

Future

The future stem consists of the root followed by the suffix -ó-/-eo-. This -ó-/-eo- replaces the -(a)í- of the present

tense. The endings are almost as in the 1st conjugation. Synthetic endings are found only in the 1st person plural and the impersonal.

	Endings	'will bless'	'will tell'
1pl	-óimid/-eoimid	beannóimid	inseoimid
Impersonal	-ófar/-eofar	beannófar	inseofar
Analytic	-óidh/-eoidh	beannóidh	inseoidh

Conditional

As in the 1st conjugation, the conditional is formed by adding endings similar to those of the imperfect to the future stem.

Imperative

Irregular verbs

There are eleven irregular verbs in Irish. Most of them are characterized by suppletion, that is, different roots are used to form different tenses. Analytic forms are indicated by the symbol +. The preterites of many irregular verbs take the nonpreterite forms of preverbal particles, e.g. an (interrogative particle) and ní (negative particle), instead of ar (pret. interrogative particle) and níor (pret. negative particle). Some verbs have different independent and dependent forms in certain tenses; the independent forms are used when no particle precedes the verb, and also after má 'if' (open conditional) and the direct relative particle a, while the dependent forms are used after all other particles.

abair 'to say'

The d- in this verb is not lenited.

beir 'to carry'

bí 'to be'

* The negative particle ní lenites fuil to fhuil; the two are then fused to form níl +; cf. also nílim, nílimid, and níltear.

clois/cluin 'to hear'

déan 'to do, to make'

faigh 'to receive, to find'

The f- in this verb is eclipsed rather than lenited after ní.

feic 'to see'

ith 'to eat'

tabhair 'to give, to bring'

tar 'to come'

téigh 'to go'

Verbal nouns

Formation of the verbal noun

Irish has no infinitive and uses instead the verbal noun. The verbal noun can be formed using different strategies (mostly suffixes). The most common of these are:

Suffix -adh

• bog 'soften' : bogadh
• bris 'break' : briseadh

Suffix -áil

• fág 'leave' : fágáil
• tóg 'take': tógáil

Suffix -ú

• ardaigh 'lift' : ardú
• bailigh 'collect': bailiú

Suffix -amh

• caith 'spend' : caitheamh
• déan 'do' : déanamh

Suffix -t

• cosain 'defend' : cosaint
• bain 'pull' : baint

Suffix -úint

• lean 'follow' : leanúint
• oil 'nourish' : oiliúint

Slender consonant is made broad

• coisc 'prevent' : cosc
• cuir 'place' : cur

Suffix -ach

• ceannaigh 'buy' : ceannach
• clúdaigh 'cover' : clúdach

No change to root

• ól 'drink' : ól
• scríobh 'write' : scríobh

Suffix -cht

• dúisigh 'awake' : dúiseacht
• imigh 'go away' : imeacht

Suffix -e

• rinc 'dance' : rince
• ith 'eat' : ithe

Usage of the verbal noun

The verbal noun is used as the infinitive would be used in English.

D'iarr sé orm imeacht. 'He asked me to go.'

B'fhearr liom fanacht. 'I would rather stay.'

A progressive can be expressed with the preposition ag and is equivalent to the English present participle.

Tá Seán ag obair. 'Seán is working.'

Bhí Máire ag caint. 'Máire was speaking.'

A perfect tense can be formed with either of the prepositions tar éis or i ndiaidh and the verbal noun.

Tá sí tar éis baint an fhéir. 'She has (just) cut the grass.' (cf. Hiberno-English 'She is after cutting the grass.')

Bhí sé i ndiaidh ní na gcupán. 'He had (just) washed the cups.' (cf. Hiberno-English 'He was after washing the cups.')

Preverbal particles

Irish uses a number of preverbal particles to modify the meaning of a sentence. In a positive statement, no particle is used and the verb comes first:

• Tuigeann Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán understands Irish.'
• Thuig Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán understood Irish.'
• Thuigfeadh Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán would understand Irish.'

Negative particles

To negate a statement, the particle ní is used, which causes lenition; a d' before a vowel or lenited f is omitted:

• Ní thuigeann Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán doesn't understand Irish.'
• Ní thuigfeadh Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán wouldn't understand Irish.'
• Ní ólfadh Séamas an bainne. 'Séamas would not drink the milk.' (cf. D'ólfadh Séamas an bainne. 'Seán would drink the milk.')
• Ní fhanfadh Úna liom. 'Úna would not wait for me.' (cf. D'fhanfadh Úna liom. 'Úna would wait for me.')

In the preterite, the particle níor is used . There is lenition but no d'.

• Níor thuig Seán Gaeilge. 'Seán didn't understand Irish.'
• Níor ól Séamas an bainne. 'Séamas didn't drink the milk.' (cf. D'ól Séamas an bainne. 'Seán drank the milk.')
• Níor fhan Úna liom. 'Úna didn't wait for me.' (cf. D'fhan Úna liom. 'Úna waited for me.')

(In Ulster, the negative particles cha(n), pret. char are also used)

Interrogative particles

To pose a simple yes/no question, the particle an is used, which causes eclipsis (no eclipsis of vowels, because an already ends with n). In the preterite ar (+ lenition) is used. The prefix d' is omitted:

• An dtuigeann Seán Gaeilge? 'Does Seán understand Irish?'
• An dtuigfeadh Seán Gaeilge? 'Would Seán understand Irish?'
• An ólann Seán bainne? 'Does Seán drink milk?'
• An bhfanfadh Úna liom? 'Would Úna wait for me?'
• Ar thuig Seán Gaeilge? 'Did Seán understand Irish?'
• Ar ól Séamas an bainne? 'Did Séamas drink the milk?'
• Ar fhan Úna liom? 'Did Úna wait for me?'

These particles are also used to introduce an indirect question:

• Níl a fhios agam an dtuigeann Seán Gaeilge. 'I don't know if Seán understands Irish.'
• Ní mé ar ól Séamas an bainne. 'I wonder if Séamas drank the milk.'

Negative interrogative particles

To pose a negative yes/no question, the particle nach is used, which causes eclipsis (in preterite: nár + lenition):

• Nach dtuigeann Seán Gaeilge? 'Doesn't Seán understand Irish?'
• Nach dtuigfeadh Seán Gaeilge? 'Wouldn't Seán understand Irish?'
• Nach n-ólfadh Seán an bainne? 'Wouldn't Seán drink the milk?'
• Nach bhfanfadh Úna liom? 'Wouldn't Úna wait for me?'
• Nár thuig Seán Gaeilge? 'Didn't Seán understand Irish?'
• Nár ól Séamas an bainne? 'Didn't Seán drink the milk?'
• Nár fhan Úna liom? 'Didn't Úna wait for me?'

(In Munster ná is used instead of nach.)

Wh-interrogative particles

To pose a wh-question, one of the interrogative particles cá, cad a/céard a, cathain a, cé a, conas a etc. is used.

• Cá gcuirfidh tú an litir? 'Where will you put the letter?'
• Cad/Céard a cheapfaidh na comharsana? 'What will the neighbors think?'
• Cathain a dhíolfaidh sibh bhur dteach? 'When will you sell your house?'
• Cé a sheasfaidh i m'aice? 'Who will stand next to me?'
• Conas a ghlanfaidh tú an gúna? 'How will you clean the dress?'

See also

• Irish initial mutations
• Irish language
• Irish morphology
• Irish nominals
• Irish orthography
• Irish phonology
• Irish syntax

 

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