Ar fheabhas! Bhí mé ag smaoineamh ort. - - -
Excellent! I was thinking of you / about you. (Hmm. Nice
line!)
An raibh anois - - - Were you then! (Is she teasing
him?) |
| |
| Here I would like to remind you how to ask questions in the past
tense, an aimsir chaite, and to answer in the positive (say
"Yes!") and the negative (say "No!"). |
| |
| Before that let me explain urú ( eclipse ) and séimhiú
( lenition, aspiration ) |
| |
| Urú |
| Briefly urú is where the sound of the initial consonant
changes but the spelling puts the letter representing the change
before the original letter which is retained. These consonants and
the vowels take an urú: |
| b |
c |
d |
f |
g |
p |
t |
a |
o |
u |
i |
e |
| mb |
gc |
nd |
bhf |
ng |
bp |
dt |
n-a |
n-o |
n-u |
n-i |
n-e |
|
| |
| Séimhiú |
| Séimhiú ( lenition ) is where a h
is placed after the consonant to change the sound (sometimes a t
is placed before s and this is also a form of séimhiú): |
| b |
c |
d |
f |
g |
m |
p |
s |
s |
t |
| bh |
ch |
dh |
fh |
gh |
mh |
ph |
sh |
(ts) |
th |
|
| |
|
Questions
and Negatives in the Past Tense
|
| |
| Irregular Verbs |
| With the six irregular verbs listed
in the last page use an + urú + dependent form (fuair,
faca, deachaigh, dearna, dúirt, and raibh)
to ask questions and ní + (urú / séimhiú
/ nothing) + (fuair, faca, deachaigh, dearna, dúirt,
and raibh) to express the negative i.e. ní bhfuair
/ ní fhaca / ní dheachaigh / ní dhearna
/ ní dúirt / ní raibh. See them also here.
|
| |
| Regular verbs |
| For all other
verbs in the past tense use ar for questions and níor
for the negative. Retain the séimhiú of
the initial consonant of the past tense but drop the d' before
a,o,u,i,e, and fh.... Use the positive or negative
of the verb itself without the pronoun to say "yes" or
"no". |
Ar chuir tú . . . ?
Did you put |
Chuir
Yes. I did (put) |
Níor chuir
No. I did not (put) |
Ar ith tú?
Did you eat? |
D'ith.
Yes. I ate. |
Níor ith.
No. I did not eat. |
Ar fhág tú?
Did you leave? |
D'fhág.
Yes. I left. |
Níor fhág.
No. I did not leave. |
|
| Yes! and No! |
| Learners quickly learn that "Is ea!" (Pronounced:
" 'Sea" ) is commonly
used for "Yes!" and "Ní hea!"
for "No!". Since "ea" is a very
useful "neutral" pronoun (i.e. not masculine not feminine)
it can refer to almost anything - especially a long question to
which a reply such as "That is so!" would do as
a reply in English. Unfortunately learners do not realise that "is"
is also a verb (a defective verb known as an
chopail) and follows the rules above for every other verb.
To say "Yes" and "No" try and identify the verb
in the question and use it in the answer -- without a personal pronoun. |
| |
| That's most of the past tense. There's a little more to come!
Revise the past
tense. |
| |
