Christian Brothers

“ But when we say tá sé ’na ḟear we convey a very different idea. We mean that the person of whom we are speaking is no longer a boy, he has now reached manhood. If anyone were speaking to you of a person as if he were a mere boy, and you wished to correct him, you should use the phrase tá sé ’na ḟear.
(d) When the indefinite noun after the verb “to be” in English is qualified by an adjective, the verb is or tá may be used according to the idea we wish to convey. ”

“ When the noun in genitive case has the force of an adjective, it is not preceded by the article, but its initial consonant is subject to precisely the same rules, with regard to aspiration and eclipsis, as if it were a simple adjective, i.e., it is aspirated if the governing noun be nominative or accusative singular feminine, or genitive singular masculine. ”

“ It must not, however, be understood that there is a "y sound" in the Irish consonant. The peculiar sound of the Irish consonants when followed by a slender vowel is fairly well represented by the corresponding English consonant + an English "y sound." In some parts of the country this "y sound" is not heard. The y is only suggestive, and is never heard as a distinct sound. ”

“ In Irish there is a special form of the verb for this purpose. As it has no subject expressed it is sometimes called the Indefinite form of the verb as it forms a complete sentence in itself it is also called the Autonomous or Independent form.
An English verb cannot stand without its subject. For example, “walks,” “walked,” etc., express nothing. The English verbs cannot alone make complete sense. The Autonomous form of Irish verbs can stand alone. The word “Buailtear” is a complete sentence. It means that “the action of striking takes place.” The Autonomous form stands without a subject ”

“ A compound noun formed of two or more nouns, each in the nominative case, has its declension determined by the last noun. Its gender also is that of the last noun, unless the first noun-part be such as requires a different gender. ”

“ The termination ÍN, meaning “small” or “little,” may be added to almost every Irish noun. Whenever the final consonant is broad it must be made slender (as the ín always remains unaltered) , the vowels undergoing the same changes as in the formation of the genitive singular, but Ċ is not changed into Ġ (see pars. 60 and 78) .
If the noun ends in E, drop the E and add ÍN; but if the noun ends in A, drop the A and attenuate the preceding consonant; then add ÍN.
páisde páisdín Nóra Nóirín mála máilín
459. ”

“ In recent times we often find such sentences as “Is é an maiġistir,” “Is é an fear,” &c., for “It is the master,” “It is the man,” in which the last é, the subject of the sentence, is omitted.
Translation of the English Secondary Tenses.
594. The English Present Perfect Tense is translated by means of the Present Tense of the verb tá, followed by d’ éis (or tar éis) and the verbal noun. ”

“ The long vowels are marked by means of an acute accent ( ́) placed over the vowel, as mór (big) pronounced like the English word more; a short vowel has no accent, as mol (praise) , pronounced like mul in the English word mulberry. Carefully distinguish between the terms "broad vowel" and "long vowel." The broad vowels (a, o, u) are not always long vowels, neither are the slender vowels (e, i) always short. ”

“ The verbal noun in each of the above is dative case, governed by the preposition ag.
576. When the English present participle governs an objective case, the object if a noun will follow the verbal noun in Irish and will be in the genitive case.
577. If the object of the English present participle be a personal pronoun we cannot translate as in the above sentences, because the pronouns have no genitive case; hence instead of using the personal pronouns we must employ the possessive adjectives. Possessive adjectives must always precede the nouns which they qualify. ”

“ If the compound is formed of a noun in the nominative form followed by a genitive noun, the first is the principal noun, and determines the declension and gender; the second qualifies the first, and generally remains unaltered, and the aspiration of the initial consonant in this case depends on the gender of the first noun. See par. 21 (f) .
We will give here a few examples of the two chief kinds of compound nouns. It is usual to employ a hyphen between the nouns in Class A, but not in Class B.
464. ”

“ The demonstrative adjectives are so [10] , this; sin, [11] that; and úd, that or yonder.
so is frequently written seo when the vowel or consonant preceding it is slender.
These words come after the nouns they qualify, and should the noun be followed by any qualifying adjectives, so, sin or úd comes after the last qualifying adjective.
It is not enough to say fear so or bean sin for “this man” or “that woman.” The noun must always be preceded by the article. “This man” is an fear so; “these men,” na fir seo; an ḃean so, this woman; an ḃean sin, that woman. ”

“ This form of the Irish verb has a full conjugation through all the moods and tenses, active and passive voices; but has only one form for each tense. All verbs in Irish, with the single exception of the assertive verb is, have this form of conjugation. Is can have no Autonomous form, because it has no meaning by itself. ”

“ The English phrase “have to” usually means “must” and is translated like the above: as, I have to go home now. Caiṫfiḋ mé dul a ḃaile anois.
The English verb “must,” expressing duty or necessity, has no past tense of its own. The English past tense of it would be “had to;” as, “I had to go away then.” The Irish translation is as follows:—
The English verb “must” may also express a supposition; as in the phrase “You must be tired.” The simplest translation of this is “Ní fuláir go ḃfuil tuirse ort,” or, “Ní fuláir nó tá tuirse ort.” ”

“ The Genitive case corresponds to the English possessive case. English nouns in the possessive case or in the objective case, preceded by the preposition "of," are usually translated into Irish by the genitive case.
The Dative case is the case governed by prepositions.
The Vocative corresponds to the English nominative of address. It is always used in addressing a person or persons. It is preceded by the sign a, although "O" may not appear before the English word; but this a is not usually pronounced before a vowel or ḟ. ”

“ The passive voice has no synthetic form to denote persons or numbers; the personal pronouns, therefore, must be always expressed, and placed after the verb; and, by a strange peculiarity of the language, they are always ‘in the accusative form.’
“For this reason some Irish scholars have considered the passive Irish verb to be a form of the active verb, expressing the action in an indefinite manner ”

“ In such constructions the verb tá must be followed by the preposition i or a, and a suitable possessive adjective.
(c) The difference between tá and is is well exemplified by the two sentences is fear é and tá sé ’na ḟear, both meaning “He is a man.” If we see a figure approach us in the dark, and after looking closely at it we discover it to be a man, our correct phraseology would then be, is fear é. ”

“ Heteroclite nouns are those which belong to more than one declension. The following are the chief nouns of this class. We give only the genitive case in the singular, as the other cases present no difficulty. The irregular nominative plurals only are given:—
All abstract nouns ending in eas or as may belong either to the 1st or 3rd declension; as aoiḃneas, pleasure, gen. aoiḃnis or aoiḃneasa. Being abstract nouns they are seldom used in the plural. ”

“ Whenever, in a word of two or more syllables an unaccented vowel or digraph occurs in the last syllable between a liquid (l, m, n, r) and any other consonant, or between two liquids, the unaccented vowel or digraph is elided whenever the word is lengthened by a grammatical inflection beginning with a vowel. ”

“ In Irish the adjective agrees with the noun which it qualifies in gender, number, and case.
There are four declensions of adjectives. Adjectives are declined very much like nouns; the great difference is that they never [1] take the termination iḃ in the dative plural (though formerly they did) . ”

“ Broadening is the process of making a slender consonant broad. This is often done by placing a u immediately before the slender consonant, or an a after it; thus the verbal noun of derived verbs ending in iġ is formed by adding aḋ: before adding the aḋ the ġ must be made broad ”

“ All masculine nouns ending in a broad consonant are not of the first declension.
54. The genitive singular is formed by attenuating the nominative. In most nouns of the 1st declension this is done by simply placing an i after the last broad vowel of the nominative.
Example.
56. In words of more than one syllable, if the nominative ends in aċ or eaċ, the genitive singular is formed by changing aċ or eaċ into aiġ or iġ respectively. With a few exceptions, the nominative plural of these nouns is like the genitive singular. The other cases are quite regular. ”

“ All these adjectives belong to the third declension.
(d) . There is a fourth class of adjectives formed by the termination DA (ḊA) ; but it is not as large as the three preceding classes. The following are some of the principal ones:—
Compound adjectives are extremely common in Irish, being usually formed by the union of two or more simple adjectives (sometimes of a noun and an adjective) ; but these compound adjectives present no difficulty once the simple adjectives have been mastered. ”

“ In Munster “that.. not” is usually translated by NÁ followed by the dependent form of the verb. NÁ neither aspirates nor eclipses. In the past tense it becomes nár which causes aspiration. Whenever “that ... not” follows a negative (or a virtual negative) phrase, ná go is used (ná gur in the past tense) .
Tá ḟios aige féin ná fuil an ceart aige. He knows himself that he is not right.
Ní deirim (or ḋeirim) ná go ḃfuil an ceart aige. I don’t say that he is not right.
Náċ is used in Munster as a part of the verb is. ”

“ The Possessive Adjective.
519. A possessive adjective can never be used without a noun: as, her father and his, a h‐aṫair agus a aṫair.
520. The possessive adjectives always precede their nouns: as, mo ṁáṫair, my mother.
521. The possessives mo, my; do, thy; and a, his, aspirate the initial of their nouns; ár, our; ḃur, your; and a, their, cause eclipsis: as, a ḋán, his poem; do ṁáṫair, thy mother; a dán, her poem ; a ndán, their poem.
522. If a noun begins with a vowel, mo, my, and do, thy, become m’ and d’ (t or ṫ) ; a, his, has no effect; a, her, prefixes h; and a, their, prefixes n ”

“ For the aspiration and eclipsis of the adjective see par. 149.
495. Since the adjective in English has no inflexion for gender, it is quite a common thing to have one adjective qualifying two or more nouns of different genders. Sometimes in Irish we meet with one adjective qualifying two nouns of different genders or numbers; in such cases the adjective follows the latter noun, and agrees with it alone. However, the more usual method is to use the adjective after each noun: as,
Fear maiṫ agus bean ṁaiṫ. A good man and woman. ”

“ Go dtí, [1] meaning “to” (motion) , is followed by the nominative case.
Ċuaiḋ sé go dtí an teaċ. He went to the house.
(3) The preposition gan, “without," governs the dative in the singular, but the accusative in the plural: as,
603. The words timċeall (around) [2] trasna or treasna (across) , cois (beside) , fad (along) , ċum [3] or ċun (towards) , toisg (owing to) , dála, dálta, and [iomṫúsa] (as to, or concerning) , although really nouns, are used where prepositions are used in English. Being nouns, they are followed by the genitive case. ”

“ Notwithstanding this rule they seem to be all masculine. Cailín, a girl, is masculine, [1] i.e. it suffers the same initial changes as a masculine noun, but the pronoun referring to it is feminine. She is a fine girl, Is breáġ an cailín í (not é) . ”

“ There are not many simple adverbs in Irish, the greater number of adverbs being made up of two or more words. Almost every Irish adjective may become an adverb by having the particle “GO” prefixed to it: as, maiṫ, good; go maiṫ, well ”

“ Whenever go or le comes before any other word beginning with a vowel the letter h is usually inserted: as, ó ṁaidin go h‐oiḋċe, from morning till night; go h‐Albain, to Scotland; le h‐eagla, with fear. (See par. 29.)
608. In Irish certain nouns preceded by prepositions have often the force of English prepositions. As nouns they are, of course, followed by a genitive case, unless a preposition comes between them and the following noun, when the dative case naturally follows. ”

“ There is another very idiomatic way of expressing the numbers above twenty-one, viz., by placing the word fiċead alone after the first numeral:​—​deiċ fiċead, 30: fiċead is really the genitive of fiċe, so that the literal meaning of deiċ fiċead is ten of twenty; deiċ gcapaill fiċead, 30 horses; seaċt mba fiċead, 27 cows.
169. Whenever any numeral less than twenty is used by itself (i.e., not followed immediately by a noun) , the particle a [5] must be used before it. ”