B

Basic Grammar

This section contains a brief outline of some of the more basic facets of Gaelic grammar. It should not be studied in detail by the faint-hearted ‘dipper’ who could be put off by the seeming complexity of the rules.

Once these rules are learned, however, Gaelic deviates very little into the irregularities and inconsistencies which can be experienced in the learning of other languages.

For ease of reference some grammatical lists have been given in the main body of the book, where particularly relevant. The localities of these lists, and of examples illustrating grammatical points, are given in this section.

1 WORD ORDER

In Gaelic, the verb comes at the beginning of the sentence, whether a question or a statement. The Question form of the verb is not the same as the statement form as is the case in English.

e.g. The houseis small =Tha an taigh beag (lit. is + the house + small)

Is the house small? =A bheil an taigh beag? (lit. is? + the house + small)

The word order of a simple sentence, therefore, isverb + subject + object

e.g. The boy hit the dog = Bhuail an gille an cù (hit + the boy + the dog)

The dog bit the boy = Bhìd an cù an gille (bit + the dog + the boy)

Adjectivesfollow the nouns they qua