Irish conjugation


Irish verb forms are constructed either synthetically or analytically.
Synthetic forms 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: for a discussion of how verb endings are pronounced.

Regular verbs

There are two conjugation classes of regular verbs, as illustrated below. Forms in italics are not part of the standard language. The suffixes shown change depending on whether the word ends in a palatalized or non-palatalized consonant, with the shortest form shown in the examples.
Note that in the "historical" tenses, 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". The preterite impersonal, e.g., fanadh "one waited", neither undergoes lenition nor receives d’. The -f- in future and conditional stems is pronounced /h/; except in the conditional 2nd person singular and the impersonal, where it remains /f/.

1st conjugation

2nd conjugation

Second stem verbs take the same base suffixes as first conjugation verbs, but add the infix in -í- , or -o-/-ó-.
Roots ending in a slender consonant undergo syncope before the addition of -í-.

Irregular verbs

There are eleven irregular verbs in Standard Irish; individual dialects have a few more. 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 and ní, instead of ar and níor. 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" and the direct relative particle a, while the dependent forms are used after all other particles.

"to say"

The d- in this verb's independent forms is not lenited, and the dependent forms are slightly archaic.

"to bear"

"to be"

If a noun phrase is in the predicate, then forms of the particle "is" are used rather than anything below.

"to hear"

Clois is used in southern and south-central Irish, whereas cluin is used in northern and north-central varieties.

"to do, to make"

"to find, to get"

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

"to see"

"to eat"

, "to give, to bring, (to be named)"

The meaning "to be named" is often found in writings and can therefore be considered as strange for learners. When meaning "to be named" the verbform is usually followed by the preposition "ar", which is also inflected due to the person it is connected with. e.g.:

, "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. The most common of these are:
The verbal noun is used as the infinitive would be used in English.
A progressive can be expressed with the preposition ag and is equivalent to the English present participle.
A perfect tense can be formed with either of the compound prepositions tar éis or i ndiaidh and the verbal noun.

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. This is still seen in the Standard Language in said tenses, prefixed to verbs beginning with vowels, e.g., D'ól mé meaning "I drank":
To negate a statement, the particle ní is used, which causes lenition; a d’ before a vowel or lenited f is omitted:
In the preterite, the particle níor is used. There is lenition but no d’.
To pose a simple yes/no question, the particle an is used, which causes eclipsis. In the preterite ar is used. The prefix d’ is omitted:
These particles are also used to introduce an indirect question:
To pose a negative yes/no question, the particle nach is used, which causes eclipsis :
To pose a wh-question, one of the interrogative particles cá, cad a/céard a, cathain a, cé a, conas a etc. is used.
The subjunctive covers the idea of wishing something and so appears in some famous Irish proverbs and blessings. It is considered an old-fashioned tense for daily speech but still appears often in print.
The subjunctive is normally formed from "Go" plus the subjunctive form of the verb, plus the subject, plus the thing being wished for. For instance, the subjunctive form of "teigh" is "té":
Again, the subjunctive of "tabhair" is "tuga":
In the third example, the wish is also a curse, like this one from Tory Island in Donegal:
The subjunctive is generally formed by taking the present indicative tense of the verb and adding on the appropriate subjunctive ending depending on broad or slender, and first or second conjugation. For example, the present tense first person singular of bog ' is bog mé and its subjunctive in the same person is boga mé:
1st Conjugation:
mol 'mola mémola túmola sé/símolaimidmola sibhmola siad
bris 'brise mébrise túbrise sé/síbrisimidbrise sibhbrise siad

2nd Conjugation:
beannaigh 'beannaí mébeannaí túbeannaí sé/síbeannaímidbeannaí sibhbeannaí siad
bailigh 'bailí mébailí túbailí sé/síbailímidbailí sibhbailí siad

E.g., "go mbeannaí Dia thú"—May God bless you.
There is also some irregularity in certain verbs in the subjunctive. The verb bí ' is the most irregular verb in Irish :
Present Indicativetá mé/táimtá tútá sé/sítá muid/táimidtá sibhtá siad
Present Subjunctiveraibh méraibh túraibh sé/sírabhaimidraibh sibhraibh siad

The Irish phrase for "thank you"—go raibh maith agat—uses the subjunctive of "bí" and literally means "may there be good at-you".
Some verbs do not follow the conjugation of the subjunctive exactly as above. The irregularities apply to verbs whose stem ends already in a stressed vowel, and the rules of Irish orthography and pronunciation mean that it cannot take another:
Present IndicativePresent Subjunctive
téigh 'téann túté tú
sáigh 'sánn túsá tú
luigh luíonn túluí tú
*feoigh feonn túfeo tú

It is important to note that when the subjunctive is used in English, it may not be used in Irish, and another tense might be used instead: