Language/Irish/Grammar/Adjectives

Irish Grammar - Adjectives

Hi Irish learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will cover the basics of Adjectives in the Irish language. Adjectives modify or describe a noun, and it's essential to understand how to use them correctly to expand your vocabulary and express yourself more clearly in Irish. Adjectives can be used to convey different meanings such as beauty, quality, size, color, etc.

Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Irish Prepositional Pronouns, Imperative Mood, Negation & Personal pronouns.

What's an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes a noun, expressing a quality of the thing named, as beautiful, red, long, etc. Adjectives are mutable, which means they change depending on the noun's gender, case, singular or plural, and initial letter.

Irish adjectives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and definiteness. There are two types of adjectives in Irish: attribute and predicate adjectives. Predicate adjectives are adjectives that follow a copula, and attribute adjectives come before the noun, they modify.

Let's look at some examples in the table below:

Irish	Pronunciation	English
madra deas	m/'ad-r-'a d'as	cute dog
seanfhear óg	'shan-'ar 'oge	young old man
bád mór	b/'ad m/'or	big boat
cailín bhreá	'kol-'een vra:/	pretty girl
teach anseo	'tokh 'anso/	house here

In the first sentence, "madra deas" means "cute dog". "Madra" is the noun for dog, and "deas" is the adjective that modifies the dog by describing its appearance.

In the second sentence, "seanfhear óg" means "young old man." It's a great example of how adjectives can change depending on the gender and the number of the noun they modify. Also, note that the adjective comes before the noun in Irish.

In the third sentence, "bád mór" means "big boat." We can see how these adjectives change according to gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular or plural).

In the fourth sentence, "cailín bhreá" means "pretty girl." In Irish, we use a different form for the adjective depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, or even if it's singular or plural.

Finally, in the last sentence, "teach anseo" means "house here." Here we see how the adjective comes before the noun.

Comparatives and Superlatives

In Irish, as in English, adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. We use the comparative form when we want to compare two things, and the superlative form is used when we want to compare three or more things.

The comparative form has two ways of expressing "more" or "less": "níos" and "le". "Níos" is used for adjectives, and "le" is used for adverbs. Let's look at some examples below:

Irish	English
Is breá liom bainne níos fearr ná uachtar.	I prefer milk more than cream.
Tá an carr níos costasaí ná an rothar.	The car is more expensive than the bike.
Tá Seán ag rith níos láidre ná mé.	John runs faster than me.

We use the superlative form when we want to express the highest or the lowest degree of something. The most common way to form superlatives is by using the adjective in its genitive form, preceded by the article. The word "ba" often comes before the superlative form. Let's look at some examples below:

Irish	English
Is fearr liom an chuid is mó de na leabhair sin.	I like most of those books.
Tá an scéal ba mhó agus ba uafásach riamh scríofa agat.	You have written the biggest and the worst story ever.
Tá an fear ba chúngtaí é Seán i mo mhéidse.	John is the most honest man I know.

Note that "ba" indicates the superlative degree of the adjective. We use "is" to indicate comparative degree.

Forming Adjectives

In Irish, it's possible to form adjectives from nouns. We can create an adjective by adding "-ach" or "-eacht" endings to a noun. Here are some examples:

Irish	Pronunciation	English
olc	'ol-k	bad -- from olc (evil)
míthuiscinteach	m/'ih-his'k'in-t/'oh-axt	mistrustful -- from míthuiscint (distrust)
fíor-aimsir	'feer-'im-shir	actual -- from aimsir (time/weather)
barrógach	'bor-'ro:/g-ax	hugging -- from barróg (hug)

We can also turn verbs into adjectives by adding "-te" to the present tense form of the verb. Let's look at some examples below:

Irish	Pronunciation	English
beirthe	'ber-h/'e	carried -- from beir (carry)
úsáidte	'oo-'sawd/'e	used -- from úsáid (use)
scríobhte	'shkreev/'e	written -- from scríobh (write)
léite	'l'e-t/'e	read -- from léigh (read)

In addition to that, there are some irregular adjectives, and it's necessary to memorize them. Some common examples of the irregular adjectives in Irish are below:

Irish	English
maith	good
olc	bad
breá	nice
deas	pretty
iomaíocht	competition

Dialogue

Here is a short dialogue that may help you understand the use of adjectives in the Irish language:

- Person 1: Tá an bia blasta sa chistin inniu. (The food is tasty in the kitchen today.)

- Person 2: Is cuimhin liom an bia sa chistin sin. Bhí sé an-deas. (I remember the food in that kitchen. It was very nice.)

- Person 1: Tá an aimsir go hálainn inniu, nach bhfuil? (The weather is beautiful today, don't you think?)

- Person 2: Tá sé go hiontach. Is breá liom an ghrian na mara. (It's fantastic. I love the sea sun.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, adjectives play an essential role in Irish language grammar. We have seen that adjectives can take different forms and that they agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and definiteness. We should also know that there are various ways to form adjectives in Irish, and some adjectives are irregular. To improve your Irish Grammar, you can also use the Polyglot Club website. Find native speakers and ask them any questions! Try to incorporate some of the vocabulary and sentence structures we have learned today into your next conversation. You can also find more information about Irish adjectives by studying with an experienced teacher.

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Great work on completing this lesson! Take a moment to investigate these connected pages: Irish Modal Verbs (need, want, must, can), Questions, Plurals & How to Use Be.

Other Lessons

• Imperative Mood
• Negation
• Questions
• How to Use Be
• Pronouns
• Plurals
• Future Tense
• Conditional Mood
• Irish Modal Verbs (need, want, must, can)

Sources

• Appendix:Irish adjectives - Wiktionary
• Irish grammar - Wikipedia