Breton/Level 1/Lesson 3

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Sentence structure
English is an adjective-noun-language.

This means the Adjective (Describing Word) comes before the Noun (Subject) and the Noun, before the verb (doing)

Eg.

The big  man   went  to Brittany. (adj.) (noun) (verb)

Breton on the other hand is a noun-adjective-language, which means that the noun comes before the adjective.

Eg.

An      den       bras      a zo aet  da Vreizh. (article) (noun)  (adjective)  (verb)    da Vreizh. Literally: The man big went to Brittany.

Articles
Definite articles:

al    before "l" an    before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels ar    before other letters

Example:


 * al levr  (the book)
 * an nor   (the door - note that "dor" mutes into "nor" after the article : "dor", "an nor")
 * ar paotr (the boy)

Undefinite articles:

ul    before "l" un    before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels ur    before other letters

Pronunciation : ul = eul, un = eun, ur = eur.

Example:


 * ul levr  (a book)
 * un nor   (a door - note that "dor" mutes into "nor" after the article : "dor", "un nor")
 * ur paotr (a boy)

Combination:

"e" (in) is contracted with the article (al, an, ar) to give:

el    before "l" en    before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels er    before other letters

Exercises
Write the following sentences with the correct grammar.

The man is big.

(Words : an (the), a zo (is), den (man), braz (big) )

The new church is beautiful.

(Words : an, a zo, iliz (church), nevez (new), brav (beautiful)

The big man went into the church, thereafter, to the old town hall.

(Words : an (the), da (to), ebarzh (into), goude se (after that, thereafter), kozh (old), nevez (new), den (man), braz (big), Ti-Ker (Town Hall), a zo aet (went) )

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