Scottish Gaelic/Grammar

< Scottish Gaelic

The imperative mood

When issuing a command, such as in the sentence 'eat your food!' or 'write me a story!' the word order in Gaelic is similar to the word order in English. Some examples would be:

eat your food!
ith! - eat!; do - your, thy; bhiadh - food;
drink the milk!
òl! - drink!; am - the; bainne - milk;
write that!
sgrìobh! - write!; sin - that;
write a story!
sgrìobh! - write!; sgeul - a story;
write me a story!
sgrìobh! - write; mi - me; sgeul - a story;

Articles

In Gaelic, the definite article (i.e. the word for 'the') can take the form an, am, nan, a' or na. For example:

the book
an - the; leabhar - book;
the milk
am - the; bainne - milk;
the hands
na - the; lamhan - hands;
the girl
a' - the; caileag - girl;

The word 'an' is used for many singular nouns unless they begin with the letters 'b', 'm' or 'p', in which case the word 'am' is often used. The word 'na' tends to be used in the plural but note that 'plural' in Gaelic means three or more.

There is no indefinite article (i.e. there is no word for 'a') either in the singular or in the plural. For example 'taigh' can mean 'house' or 'a house'. This is not a problem, really, when we consider that in English the indefinite article is omitted in the plural without really causing any confusion. For example 'houses' is the plural of 'house' or 'a house'. Here are some examples:

there is a chair in the room
tha - is; cathair - a chair; anns an - in the; seòmar - room;
John has a book, John is in possession of a book
tha - is; leabhar - a book; aig - at; Iain - John;

Adjectives

Adjectives usually come after nouns. For instance 'leabhar mòr' means 'large book' or 'a large book' (leabhar - book; mòr - large).

Where a word is, for grammatical purposes, feminine, the adjective is modified at the beginning, often by placing an 'h' after the first letter of the adjective. For instance:

a big boy
balach - boy; mòr - big;
a big girl
nighean - girl; mhòr - big;

This addition of the letter 'h' immediately after the first letter tends to happen to adjectives beginning with the letters 'b', 'c', 'd', 'f', 'g', 'm', 'p', 's' or 't'

The verb 'to be'

James is tired (i.e. present tense)
James was tired (i.e. past tense)
James will be tired (i.e. future tense)
James is not tired (i.e. present tense, negative)
James was not tired (i.e. past tense, negative)
James will not be tired (i.e. future tense, negative)
is James tired? (i.e. present tense, question)
was James tired? (i.e. past tense, question)
will James be tired? (i.e. future tense, question)
is James not tired? (i.e. present tense, negative question)
was James not tired? (i.e. past tense, negative question)
will James not be tired? (i.e. future tense, negative question)
James is playing (i.e. present tense)
James was playing (i.e. past tense)
James will be playing (i.e. future tense)
It is James that is the physician (i.e. present tense)
It is James that was the physician (i.e. past tense)

Expressing 'to have'

There is no actual verb which translates as 'to have'. To say that a person has something we say that the something is 'at' the person. For instance, to say that John has a cup we say literally that 'a cup is at John'. For example

John has a cup (literally 'a cup is at John')
Anne has a house (literally 'a house is at Anne')
Anna put down the cup belonging to Iain (literally 'Anna put down the cup at Iain')
Iain did not have a cup (literally 'a cup was not at Iain')

Expressing 'to own'

There is no actual verb which translates as 'to own'. To say that a person owns something we say that the something is 'with' the person. For instance, to say that John owns a house we say literally that 'a house is with John'. For example

John owns a house (literally 'a house is with John')
Anne owns a football (literally 'a football is with Anne')

Forming the present, past and future tense in regular verbs

The verb "cuir" is an example of a regular verb. The word "cuir" is the verb in the imperative mood, so "cuir!" means "put!". "cuir sios sin!" means "put that down!" ("sios" = "down", "sin" = "that"). To form the present tense we might say "tha X a' cuir" which literally means "X is a-putting" ("tha" = "is", "a' cuir" = "putting" or "a-putting"). To form the past tense (for verbs starting with "c" or "b", "d", "f", "m, "p", "s" or "t") we add the letter "h" after the first letter. To fom the future tense we add "idh" or "aidh" to the end of the word. Here are some examples:-

Anna is putting milk in the cup
Anna put (did put) milk in the cup
Anna will put milk in the cup
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