Scottish Gaelic/Grammar

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:


 * ith do bhiadh! -
 * eat your food!
 * ith! - eat!; do - your, thy; bhiadh - food;


 * &ograve;l am bainne!
 * drink the milk!
 * &ograve;l! - drink!; am - the; bainne - milk;


 * sgr&igrave;obh sin!
 * write that!
 * sgr&igrave;obh! - write!; sin - that;


 * sgr&igrave;obh sgeul!
 * write a story!
 * sgr&igrave;obh! - write!; sgeul - a story;


 * sgr&igrave;obh mi sgeul!
 * write me a story!
 * sgr&igrave;obh! - 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:


 * an leabhar
 * the book
 * an - the; leabhar - book;


 * am bainne
 * the milk
 * am - the; bainne - milk;


 * na lamhan
 * the hands
 * na - the; lamhan - hands;


 * a' chaileag
 * 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:


 * tha cathair anns an se&ograve;mar
 * there is a chair in the room
 * tha - is; cathair - a chair; anns an - in the; se&ograve;mar - room;


 * tha leabhar aig Iain
 * 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 m&ograve;r' means 'large book' or 'a large book' (leabhar - book; m&ograve;r - 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:


 * balach m&ograve;r
 * a big boy
 * balach - boy; m&ograve;r - big;


 * nighean mh&ograve;r
 * a big girl
 * nighean - girl; mh&ograve;r - 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'

 * tha Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James is tired (i.e. present tense)


 * bha Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James was tired (i.e. past tense)


 * bidh Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James will be tired (i.e. future tense)


 * chan eil Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James is not tired (i.e. present tense, negative)


 * cha robh Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James was not tired (i.e. past tense, negative)


 * cha bhi Seumas sg&igrave;th
 * James will not be tired (i.e. future tense, negative)


 * am bheil Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * is James tired? (i.e. present tense, question)


 * an robh Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * was James tired? (i.e. past tense, question)


 * am bidh Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * will James be tired? (i.e. future tense, question)


 * nach eil Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * is James not tired? (i.e. present tense, negative question)


 * nach robh Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * was James not tired? (i.e. past tense, negative question)


 * nach bi Seumas sg&igrave;th?
 * will James not be tired? (i.e. future tense, negative question)


 * tha Seumas a' cluich
 * James is playing (i.e. present tense)


 * bha Seumas a' cluich
 * James was playing (i.e. past tense)


 * bidh Seumas a' cluich
 * James will be playing (i.e. future tense)


 * Is e Seumas an lighiche
 * It is James that is the physician (i.e. present tense)


 * Bu e Seumas an lighiche
 * 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


 * tha cupan aig Iain
 * John has a cup (literally 'a cup is at John')


 * tha taigh aig Anna
 * Anne has a house (literally 'a house is at Anne')


 * chuir Anna sios an cupan aig Iain
 * Anna put down the cup belonging to Iain (literally 'Anna put down the cup at Iain')


 * cha robh cupan aig 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


 * tha taigh le Iain
 * John owns a house (literally 'a house is with John')


 * tha ball-coise le Anna
 * 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:-


 * tha Anna a' cuir bainne anns an copan
 * Anna is putting milk in the cup


 * chuir Anna bainne anns an copan
 * Anna put (did put) milk in the cup


 * cuiridh Anna bainne anns an copan
 * Anna will put milk in the cup