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 Introduction to Breton

Breton Basics

Your first steps in Breton

Here are the very first sentences of Breton in this course :

  • Who is it ?
Piv eo ?
Who is ?
  • It's John
Yann eo
John is
  • What does John do?
Petra a ra Yann ?
What does John ?
  • John reads Bremañ (insisting upon the subject : John)
Yann a lenn Bremañ
John reads Bremañ
  • John reads Bremañ (insisting upon the verb : To read)
Lenn    a ra Yann Bremañ
To read does Yann Bremañ


First Breton words


Breton English IPA notation
Piv Who piu
Eo Is eo
Yann John yañn
Petra What petra
Lenn To read len
Bremañ Now (Breton newspaper) bremañ

Verbal group

In the preceding sentences, we have several verbal groups :

  • "eo" : the verb "to be" is used alone in a personal form
  • "a ra" : the verb "to do" is used in a personal form with a verb particle "a" (other verb particles exist "e", "o", etc.)
  • "a lenn" : the verb "to read" is used in a personal form with a verb particle "a" as above
  • "lenn a ra" : the verb "to read" is used in an impersonal form with an auxiliary verb which is in a personal form "a ra"
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