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| Chuir Seán glao gutháin . . . John phoned
Angela. Too late. |
| Note glao - - a call is the noun although most students
use the verbal noun (ag) glaoch - - calling
here. Wrongly I believe. |
| guthán - - a telephone; glao gutháin
- - a call of telephone, a telephone call. This is
the ubiquitous tuiseal
ginideach - - the genitive case is dealt with in
detail elsewhere in these notes. |
| It is intended that this lesson give further practice on the past
tense with question and answer forms and the "persons". |
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| Grammar point: NA PEARSAIN (THE PERSONS)
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| Na Forainmneacha Pearsanta (The Personal Pronouns) |
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These are the personal pronouns. mé, tú, sé
/ sí, sinn / muid, sibh, siad. or as object of a verb
mé, thú, é / í, sinn / muid, sibh,
iad
Some have two forms, one for the subject of a verb and another
for the object of a verb. In some dialects the verb and the personal
pronouns combine to form one word: Chuireas = Chuir
mé = I put for example. When you read dialogue
in literature you are likely to meet some of these but there is
no need to worry about them here unless you want to learn a particular
dialect. I am presenting the more regular Standard Irish "An
Caighdeán Oifigiúil" here. It is the simplified
regularised version used in most schools and in written narrative
prose. It draws on all dialects but satisfies none completely.
It is acceptable everywhere.
Singular: mé - - I, tú -
- you, sé - - he, sí - -
she
Plural: sinn / muid - - we (watch out for
the special forms with verbs in the past tense where the pronoun
actually combines with the verb: "chuireamar"
- we put for example.), sibh - - you (plural
- - which is probably why we Irish use ye, yiz, youse,
yewez etc in common spoken English. In Irish we have different
forms for "you" singular and "you"
plural.) and siad - - they.
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Ainmneach
Subject
|
Cuspóir
Object |
Aistriúchán
Translation |
| mé |
mé |
I / me |
| tú |
thú |
You (singular) |
| sé / sí |
é / í |
he / she / it (masc / fem) |
| sinn / muid |
sinn /muid |
We / Us |
| sibh |
sibh |
You (plural) |
| siad |
iad |
They / Them |
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| Note on sé / sí -- é
/ í |
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sé - é refer to males,
masculine nouns, or to obviously masculine things such as
"stail" (a stallion) which is feminine
in grammatical gender. |
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sí - í refer to females,
feminine nouns, and to obviously feminine things such as "cailín"
(a girl) which is masculine in grammatical gender.
A masculine noun such as "bád" (a
boat) is frequently referred to with feminine pronouns
to convey the speakers attachment to and affection for the
craft. There is no rule for such usage. |
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| Note on sinn / muid |
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These are interchangeable throughout most of the country
with muid more common in the West and North. In Munster
dialects the personal pronoun is generally combined with
the verb: Chuireas, (I put) Chuiris, (You
put), Chuir sé / sí, (He
/ She put), Chuireamar (sometimes Chuireamair),
(We put) Chuireabhair, (You put),
Chuireadar, (They put). These forms
are very much alive throughout the whole country on occasion.
In some dialects they are regarded as "Canúint
na Mumhan" (The Munster Dialect) and seldom
used.
When you have a good grasp of the basic essentials of
the language as presented in the Standard Language you should
then delve deeper into a dialect of your choice in order
to speak the language with a good blas or accent.
If your parents or neighbours or classroom teacher speak
a particular dialect you should count yourself fortunate
and try and imitate what they say and how they say it. Never,
never, never, never, say to an Irish speaking informant
"That is not what is in my book" or "That
is not what it says on the web site" or "My child's
teacher doesn't say it like that" or "Of course,
that's Donegal Irish". These are all put downs and
will give offence and lose you the assistance of a valuable
source of spoken Irish. All the dialects are equally valuable
and you can learn from them all.
Irish is a language rich in vocabulary, structure, and
idiom, with many different ways of expressing the same idea.
Regard your informant as an oracle and listen and learn.
Do not try to teach him / her your Irish. We say "an
t-uan ag múineadh méiligh dá máthair"
for a situation like this. ("The lamb teaching its
mother to bleat.") When you actually speak the
language of course you are free to use your own personal
dialect and reveal what you have learnt. You will find that
everyone will be most impressed and will probably chime
in with their own play on the words you have used. Don't
mind such teasing. Learn from it.
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