The declension of Irish nouns, the definite article, and the adjectives is discussed on this page. (For pronouns, see Irish morphology.)
Contents
Gender
Nouns in Irish are divided into two genders, masculine and feminine. While gender should be learned when the noun is learned, there are some rules that can be followed:
In general, words ending in a broad consonant are masculine, while words ending in a slender consonant are feminine.
There are some exceptions, mostly dealing with specific endings and suffixes; for example, words ending in -óir/-eoir and -ín (with a slender /ɾʲ/ and /nʲ/ respectively) are masculine, while words ending in -óg/-eog (with a broad /ɡ/) are feminine. This leads to some unexpected gender assignments, such as cailín "girl" (masculine) and gasóg "boy scout" (feminine).
Case
Irish has four cases: common (usually called nominative, but it covers the role of an accusative as well), vocative, genitive, and dative.
Nominative
The nominative is used in the following functions:
- Sentence subject
- Sentence object
- Predicate of the copula
- Object of the prepositions gan "without", go dtí "(up) to" and mar "like, as". gan an t-airgead "without the money" go dtí an t-am "(up) to the time" mar an chearc "like the hen"
Vocative
The vocative is used in direct address, and is always preceded by the particle a, which triggers lenition. (In spoken Irish this particle is often omitted, especially before a vowel sound.) The first declension is the only declension in which the vocative is distinct from the nominative.
Genitive
The genitive indicates possession and material of composition:
The object of a verbal noun also requires the genitive:
The object of a compound preposition is in the genitive. Formally, these prepositions are actually prepositional phrases.
Dative
The dative is used with the object of most simple prepositions except gan and go dtí. In the standard language, the dative of a noun is identical to the nominative, but some dialects have distinct datives in the second and fifth declensions. Even in the standard language, Éire "Ireland" has a distinct dative: Éirinn.
Declension
There are five recognized declensions in Irish. The makeup of the declensions depends on three factors:
- the gender of the noun
- the formation of the genitive singular
- relation of genitive singular to nominative plural
The following chart describes the characteristics of each declension class:
First
The first declension is made up of masculine nouns. The nominative singular ends in a broad consonant, which is made slender in the genitive singular. The most common formation of the plural has the opposite pattern: the nominative ends in a slender consonant, the genitive in a broad consonant (these plurals are known as weak plurals in comparison with strong plurals which maintain the identical form for all cases in the plural). The dative is identical to the nominative in both numbers, although an obsolete dative plural in -aibh is still sometimes encountered in old-fashioned literary style.
When /x/ in the gen. sing. and nom. pl. of a polysyllabic word is made slender, it also becomes voiced, thus:
Some nouns undergo a vowel change before the slender consonant of the genitive singular/nominative plural:
Many words of this declension form the plural with one of the endings -(a)í, -ta, -tha, -anna. These are known as "strong plural" endings, which means the plural is identical in all cases in the standard language. Some examples:
Some nouns have a weak plural (a plural where the genitive is different from the nominative, and is identical to the form of the nominative singular) in -a:
Other strong plural formations are found in:
Second
The second declension is made up of mostly feminine nouns, and features a nominative singular form that can end in either a broad or a slender consonant. The genitive singular ends in a slender consonant followed by -e. The most common plural form has a broad consonant followed by -a in the nominative, and a broad consonant alone in the genitive. The vocative is the same as the nominative, as is the dative in the standard language.
In Connacht Irish and Waterford Irish it is often the case that all nouns of the second declension in the nom. sg. end with a slender consonant (e.g. bróig "a shoe").
In some Munster varieties as well as the old literary language, the dative singular is distinct and ends in a slender consonant alone (in effect the dative sg. is formed by dropping the -e from the genitive sg.), e.g. i mo bhróig "in my shoe". (Historically, nominative forms like bróig are descended from the old dative.)
When /x/ in the gen. sing. is made slender, it is also voiced, so /x/ > /ç/ > /j/. /əjə/ becomes /iː/, and is written -(a)í.
Polysyllabic words that end with a slender consonant take a weak plural in -í:
Many words in this declension form a strong plural with one of the endings -t(h)a,-te, -(e)acha or -eanna:
Other strong plural formations are found in:
Third
The third declension is made up of masculine and feminine nouns. It is characterized by the genitive singular in -a. The majority of nouns in this class form the plural in -(a)í. The final consonant of the stem may be broad or slender: it retains its quality in the plural, but is always broad in the genitive singular.
Feminine nouns in -áint and -úint lose their t in the gen. sg.; those in -irt have -th- instead of -t- in the gen. sg.
Many words in this declension form the plural with one of the endings -anna or -acha:
Some words in Munster Irish also have a separate dative form:
Fourth
The fourth declension is made up of masculine and feminine nouns. It is characterized by a genitive singular that is identical in form to the nominative/vocative/dative singular. The singular may end in a vowel or a consonant (usually the diminutive suffix -ín). The most common plural ending is -(a)í.
Many words of this declension form the plural with the following endings -tha/-t(h)e, -((e)a)nna or -((e)a)cha:
Other strong plural formations are found in:
One noun in this class has a weak plural:
Fifth
The fifth declension is made up mostly of feminine nouns and is characterized by a genitive singular that ends in a broad consonant that has been added to the nominative/vocative/dative singular. The most common plural is weak, formed by adding -a to the genitive singular.
In some Munster Irish varieties as well as the old literary language, the dative singular is distinct and ends in a slender consonant (in effect the dative sg. is formed by palatalizing the genitive sg.), for example, do phearsain "to a person", ón gcathraigh "from the city". In Éire, Éireann "Ireland" the dative Éirinn is still used in the standard language.
Some words form the genitive singular by changing the final consonant of the nominative singular to broad. The plural is then strong -eacha.
Other strong plural formations are found in:
Some nouns have weak plurals; here the genitive singular and genitive plural have the same form:
Verbal nouns
The most productive verbal nouns end with -(e)adh (1st conjugation) or -(i)ú (2nd conjugation). These originally belonged to the third declension, but synchronically are best regarded as separate declensions.
The 1st conjugation verbal noun in -(e)adh has a genitive singular in -te/-ta and a plural in -t(a)í.
The 2nd conjugation verbal noun in -(i)ú has a genitive singular in -(a)ithe and a plural in -(u)ithe. These endings are pronounced the same regardless of the spelling distinction.
Irregular nouns
The following nouns are declined irregularly:
Articles
The definite article has two forms in Irish: an and na. Their distribution depends on whether the noun is singular or plural, the case of the noun, and the initial sound of the noun. Each entry of the table gives an example of a noun starting with a consonant and one of a noun starting with a vowel.
Dative (i) is used with all prepositions in Ulster usage; in Munster and the standard language it is used only with den "from the", don "to the", and sa(n) "in the" but there are also Munster dialects in which only sa(n) triggers lenition and den and don eclipse, like it is the case with every other article-preposition compound. In Connacht den and don lenite as well, whereas sa(n) eclipses. Dative (ii) is used outside Ulster with other prepositions.
The article never lenites a following t or d, and an s is lenited to ts (pronounced [t̪ˠ, tʲ]) rather than the usual sh.
It does, however, eclipse t and d in the Munster dialects and forms like "ag an ndoras" instead of the usual pattern "ag an doras", which is used in all other dialects, do occur.
There is no indefinite article in Irish, so depending on context cat can mean "cat" or "a cat".
Adjectives
Almost all adjectives in Irish can be used either predicatively or attributively. A predicative adjective is one that forms a part of the predicate, like red in the sentence The car is red. An attributive adjective directly modifies a noun, as in the red car.
A predicate adjective in Irish does not inflect:
A predicate adjective expressing a value judgment is often preceded by the particle go. This particle attaches a h to a following vowel.
In Ulster, go is not generally used in these cases.
An attributive adjective mostly follows the noun and is inflected:
There are three classes of declension of adjectives in Irish, which correspond to the first four declensions of nouns:
Fourth declension
This declension does not inflect.
Irregular adjectives
Comparative
Irish adjectives have a comparative form equivalent to the comparative and to the superlative in English. The comparative does not undergo inflexion and is the same as the feminine singular genitive in regular and many irregular adjectives.
Syntax of comparison
There are two constructions to express the comparative:
1) Copula + comparative form + subject + ná ("than") + predicate. The preterite of the copula causes lenition, while the present tense does not.
2) níos/ní ba/ní b’ + comparative + ná + predicate. Níos is used if the sentence is in the present or future tense.
Ní ba/ní b’, which triggers lenition, is used if the sentence is in the past tense. Ní b’ is used before words starting with vowels and ní ba before those starting with consonants.
A superlative is expressed as a relative clause: noun + is/ba/ab + comparative form.