< Irish
Lessons
Spelling and Pronunciation - Grammar
More Irish language resources can be found at
Wikiversity's Department of Irish Studies
The Article
English has a definite article ("the") and an indefinite article ("a" or "an").
Irish has only a definite article. In situations where "a" or "an" would be used in English, the noun is used with no article.
The definite article has two forms: an and na.
- an is used in front of singular nouns
- na is used in front of plural nouns (and feminine nouns in the genitive case).
Grammatical Changes
The singular definite article "an" may change the noun it is applied to, depending on the first letter and gender of the noun:
| Consonant (b c f g m p) |
Consonant (d n t l r) |
Consonant (s but not sc, sm, sp or st) |
Vowel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | (no change) | (no change) | (no change) | t-/t |
| Feminine | séimhiú | (no change) | t | (no change) |
The plural definite article "na" changes the noun based only on its first letter:
| Consonant | Vowel |
|---|---|
| (no change) | "h" prefix |
This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.