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The morphology ofIrish is in some respects typical of anIndo-European language.Nouns are declined fornumber andcase, and verbs forperson and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or femininegender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for anInsular Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence ofinflected prepositions and theinitial consonant mutations. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of theverb–subject–object word order.^[1]

Word order in Irish is of the form VSO (verb–subject–object) so that, for example, "He hit me" isBhuail [hit-past tense]sé [he]mé [me].

One distinctive aspect of Irish is the distinction betweenis, thecopula (known in Irish asan chopail), andtá.Is describes identity or quality in a permanence sense, while temporary aspects are described bytá. This is similar to the difference between the verbsser andestar inSpanish andPortuguese (seeRomance copula), although this is not an exact match;is andtá are cognate respectively with the Spanishes andestá.

Examples are:

• Is fear é. "He is a man." (SpanishEs un hombre, Portuguese(Ele) é um homem)
• Is duine fuar é. "He is cold (a cold-hearted person)." (SpanishEs frío, Portuguese(Ele) é frio)
• Tá sé/Tomás fuar. "He/Thomas is cold" (= feels cold) (Alt.Tá fuacht air [= "Cold is on him"]). (SpanishTiene frío – in this case Spanish usestener (to have) instead ofestar (to be), Portuguese(Ele) está com frio)
• Tá sé ina chodladh. "He is asleep." (SpanishÉl está durmiendo, PortugueseEle está a dormir)
• Is duine maith é. "He is good (a good person)." (SpanishEs bueno, Portuguese(Ele) é bom)
• Tá sé go maith. "He is well." (SpanishEstá bien, Portuguese(Ele) está bem)

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Irish is aninflected language, having fourcases:ainmneach (nominative andaccusative),gairmeach (vocative),ginideach (genitive) andtabharthach (prepositional). The prepositional case is called the dative by convention.

Irish nouns aremasculine or feminine. To a certain degree the gender difference is indicated by specific word endings,-án and-ín being masculine and-óg feminine. While the neuter has mostly disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is seen in various place names in Ireland.

The Irishdefinite article has two forms:an andna.An may causelenition,eclipsis, or neither.Na may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition withna is with the genitive singular of the wordcéad meaningfirst.An is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular,an with lenition is used with masculine nouns,na with feminine nouns. In the dative singular,an may cause lenition or eclipsis depending on the preposition preceding it and on regional norms (in Ulster usage, lenition is standard with all prepositions, while in other regions eclipsis is used with many).Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.

Names of countries usually take the definite article in the nominative:An Fhrainc "France",an Bhrasaíl "Brazil",an tSeapáin "Japan". Exceptions to this includeÉire "Ireland",Albain "Scotland" andSasana "England".

There is noindefinite article in Irish; the word appears by itself, for example:Tá peann agam. – "I have a pen",Tá madra sa seomra. – "There's a dog in the room".

When two definite noun phrases appear as part of a genitive construction (equivalent tothe X of the Y in English), only the noun phrase in the genitive takes the article. CompareÁrasan Uachtaráin orTeitheamhna nIarlaí to Englishthe residence ofthe President,the flight ofthe Earls.

Irish adjectives always follow the noun. The adjective is influenced by the case, number and gender of the noun preceding it.

• An cailín beag "The small girl" – masculine singular nominative
• An bhean bhocht "The poor woman" – feminine singular nominative
• Na buachaillí óga "The young boys" – masculine plural nominative

Adjectives in Irish have two morphological degrees ofcomparison: the positive (Irish:bunchéim), e.g.Tá an buachaillcairdiúil "the boy is friendly", and thecomparative (breischéim), e.g.Tá an cailínníos cairdiúla ná an buachaill "the girl is nicer than the boy". Asuperlative (sárchéim) sense is rendered by the comparative in a relative clause, e.g.Is é Seán an páisteis cairdiúla den triúr "Seán is the nicest child of the three".

Irish adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

An adverb can be created from an adjective by addinggo before it, e.g.go mall,go tapaidh,go maith, etc. If the adjective begins with a vowel,⟨h⟩ is added before it, e.g.go hálainn,go híseal,go háirithe, etc.

Adverbs can often be created from nouns by putting a preposition before them, e.g.ar bith,de ghnáth,faoi dheireadh, etc.

Other categories of adverbs include the following:

Adverbs that describe relation to time, e.g.uaireanta,anois,cheana, etc.

Adverbs that describe relation to place, e.g.ann,abhaile,amuigh, etc.

Adverbs used in questions, e.g.cathain?,conas?,cá?, etc.

Adverbs used for negation, e.g.ní,nach,nár, etc.

Other adverbs, e.g.áfach,chomh maith,ach oiread, etc.

There are two conjugations and 11 irregular verbs.Tenses ormoods are formed by inflecting thestem, and in thepast andhabitual past tenses and theconditional mood also by leniting any initial consonant. The inflected tense and mood forms are: present indicative, present habitual indicative (differs from present only in the verbbí "to be"), future, past indicative, past habitual indicative, conditional, imperative, present subjunctive, and past subjunctive. Verbs also have averbal noun and pastparticiple, andprogressive constructions similar to those using the English present participle may be formed from the verbal noun and an appropriate tense ofbí. Examples of tense conjugations: (all third person forms without subject pronoun):

• 1st conjugation:Fág "to leave" –d'fhág (past) –fágann (present) –fágfaidh (future) –d'fhágfadh (conditional) –d'fhágadh (habitual past) –fága (subjunctive) –fágadh (imperative)
• 2nd conjugation:Ceannaigh "to buy" –cheannaigh (past) –ceannaíonn (present) –ceannóidh (future) –cheannódh (conditional) –cheannaíodh (habitual past) –ceannaí (subjunctive) –ceannaíodh (imperative)
• Irregular:Téigh "to go" –chuaigh (past) –téann (present) –rachaidh (future) –rachadh (conditional) –théadh (habitual past) –té (subjunctive) –téadh (imperative)

In addition to the passive voice, there is theimpersonal form of the verb, termed thesaorbhriathar or "autonomous verb", which serves a similar function (the most literal translation is "You/One/They...[e.g. say, are, do]").

Verbs can be conjugated eithersynthetically (with thepersonal pronoun included in the verb inflection) oranalytically (with the verb inflected for tense only and a separate subject). However, the official standard generally prescribes the analytic form in most person-tense combinations, and the synthetic in only some cases, such as the first person plural. The analytic forms are also generally preferred in the western and northern dialects, except in answer to what would in English be "yes/no" questions, whileMunster Irish prefers the synthetic forms. For example, the following are the standard form, synthetic form and analytical form of the past tense ofrith "to run":

Personal pronouns in Irish do not inflect for case, but there are three different sets of pronouns used: conjunctive forms, disjunctive forms, and emphatic forms (which may be used either conjunctively or disjunctively)

The normalword order in Irish is verb–subject–object (VSO). The forms of thesubject pronoun directly following the verb are calledconjunctive.

The formmuid in the 1st person plural has only recently been approved for use in the official standard, but is very common in western and northern dialects. The standard and southern dialects have no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural, using the synthetic verb ending-imíd (alternatively-imid) instead.

Irish has noT–V distinction, i.e. it does not differentiate between formal and familiar forms of second person pronouns. The difference betweentú andsibh is purely one of number.

There is no equivalent to the English "it". Eithersé orsí are used depending on whether the thing the speaker is referring to is a masculine noun or a feminine noun. The exception is the pronounea, used in impersonal copula phrases, particularly in the phrasesis ea (>sea) "yes", "so", "that is so",ní hea (the opposite ofis ea),nach ea? "is that not so?",an ea (Kerryam b'ea) "Is that so?",fear is ea é "it's a man", and so on.

If a pronoun is not the subject or if a subject pronoun does not follow the verb (as in averbless clause, or as the subject of the copula, where the pronoun stands at the end of the sentence), the so-calleddisjunctive forms are used:

In Munster dialects the formthú is either (a) archaic (replaced bytú) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel.

Standard

Buailim thú ("I hit you", present tense),Bhuail mé thú ("I hit you", past tense)

Dialect type (a)

Buailim tú,Bhuail mé tú

Dialect type (b)

Buailim tú,Bhuail mé thú

Irish also hasintensive pronouns, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.

The wordféin (/heːnʲ/ or/fʲeːnʲ/) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.

Rinne mé féin é. "I did it myself."

Ar ghortaigh tú thú féin? "Did you hurt yourself?"

Sinn Féin is thus "We Ourselves"

As the object of a preposition, a pronoun is fused with the preposition; one speaks here of "inflected" prepositions, or, as they are more commonly termed,prepositional pronouns.

The possessive determiners cause different initial consonant mutations.

Notes

1. ^L= causeslenition on the next word.
2. ^H= adds h- to the next vowel sound.
3. ^E= causeseclipsis of the next word.

These forms (especiallya andár) can also blend with certain prepositions:

The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case:

• Tá sé ag plé a rothair. "He's discussing his bicycle" (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)

Similarly, if the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, then it is a possessive pronoun:

• Tá séá phlé. "He's discussing it." (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)

More examples:

• Tá sído mo bhualadh. "She's hitting me."
• Tá siaddo do phlé. "They are discussing you."
• Tá séá pógadh. "He's kissing her."
• Tá túdár mbualadh. "You're hitting us."
• Tá médo bhur bplé. "I'm discussing you (pl.)."
• Tá sibhá bpógadh. "You (pl.) are kissing them."

Interrogative pronouns introduce a question, e.g. the wordswho, what, which. The Irish equivalents are:

• cé "who?, which?"
• cad orcéard "what?"
• cén "which?"

Examples:

• Cé a rinne é? "Who did it?"
• Cé a chonaic tú? "Who did you see?"
• Cé ar thug tú an leabhar dó? "Who did you give the book to?"
• Cad atá ort? "What's wrong (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?")
• Céard a dúirt tú? "What did you say?"
• Cén t-ainm atá ort? "What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?")
• Cén aois tú? "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")

There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.

Disjunctive numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms likebus a trí déag "bus 13" orseomra a dó "room 2".

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g.capall "horse"

"One" as apronoun is rendered withceann (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:

Tá cúig chapall agam; tá ceann acu breoite. "I have five horses; one of them is sick."

Human conjunctive numbers are used to count nouns that refer to human beings, e.g.páiste 'child'

"One" as a pronoun is rendered withduine (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:

Tá cúigear páistí agam; tá duine acu breoite. "I have five children; one of them is sick."

Tá seisear sa seomra. "Six people are in the room."

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers:trí pháiste déag,fiche páiste, etc.

A notable feature of Irish phonology is that consonants (except/h/) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarized, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalized, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate).

Diphthongs:/iə/,/uə/,/əi/,/əu/.

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