Grammar
Past tense
The past tense is known in Irish as an aimsir chaite. It describes an event that has already happened.
Present tense
The present tense describes an event which is currently taking place or a state that currently exists.
Future tense
The future tense describes an event which is will take place in the future or a state that will happen.
The copula
To describe a person’s characteristics in Irish, we use a grammatical construct called the copula. This means that we use the noun and then the adjective, followed by the subject.
Mutations (séimhiú agus urú)
The beginning of a word in Irish can be spelt differently and sound different when it comes after certain words. A letter that makes these changes are known as a séimhiú or an urú.
Prepositions
A preposition is a word that tells you where or when something is in relation to something else.
Verbal nouns
A verbal noun is a noun that is derived from a verb, usually by adding the suffix -ing in English.
Asking questions
Do you know how to ask questions in Irish? Learn some helpful words and phrases and test yourself on others you may already know!
Verb conjugation and identifying verbs
In grammar, when we conjugate a verb, it just means that we change the verb in order for a sentence to make sense. In Irish, regular verbs are categorised into two conjugations.
Personal and prepositional pronouns
A pronoun is a word that we use to take the place of nouns in a sentence, such as I, me, you, he, she, we or they. In Irish, we also have prepositional pronouns.
The possessive
In Irish, we have words that show possession. However, unlike in English, they change the spelling and the sound of the word that comes after them.
