Language/Irish/Grammar/Imperative-Mood

Introduction

Verbs in Irish fall into 3 categories:

• First conjugation
• Second conjugation
• Irregular verbs

Background

Imperative

To understand Irish verbs and how they conjugate, first let's have a look at the imperative and the different ways to say "you". In English, we don't use "thou" any more, so the word "you" is technically the second person plural and singular at the same time (like tu and vous) in French, being both formal and informal. In Irish, things are a little different. We have no formality.

1. To address one person, use the pronoun tú
   • Imperative is the dictionary form of the verb
2. To address 2 or more people, use the pronoun sibh
   • Imperative is formed from the dictionary form of the verb, adding an ending, for the first conjugation, (a)igí - see examples below.

Note: Just like in English, in Irish the imperative is never used with a subject pronoun.

Broad and Slender agreement rule

This rule applies everywhere in Irish except for composite words.

• Rule: "broad with broad, slender with slender"
• Broad vowels: a, o, u
• Slender vowels: i, e
• Description: the immediate vowel on either side of a consonant or consonant cluster must be in agreement of vowel type.
• Example:
  • Seas = stand! (to one person)
  • Seasaigí = stand! (to many people)
  • Seasigí is not possible, because the middle 's' has a broad to the left, a slender to the right.
• Exception: anseo (it is a composite word. Meaning: here)

Conjugations

First conjugation

General case:

Singular	Plural	English
lig	ligigí	let, allow
rith	rithigí	run
feic	feicigí	see
seas	seasaigí	stand
glan	glanaigí	clean
dún	dúnaigí	close
scríobh	scríobhaigí	write

Table 1. Examples of first conjugation verbs in imperative.

Remember the singular form, as presented above, is the "dictionary form".

Note the broad/slender rule in effect above

Some additional rules apply:

2. Verbs with final sound as vowel

Verbs pronounced with a final vowel are written with -igh in the singular; this is dropped when the plural imperative (or any other) ending is added. If the vowel is i, it becomes long í when the igh is dropped (cf. nigh).

Singular	Plural	English
brúigh	brúigí	press, push
dóigh	dóigí	burn
léigh	léigí	read
nigh	nígí	wash

Table 1. Examples of first conjugation verbs in imperative with final sound as vowel Note this applies to verbs that have a final SOUND as a vowel, but there may be (silent) consonants at the end.

3. Broadening of two-syllable verbs

Two-syllable verbs (and occasionally one-syllable ones) broaden the last consonant before a suffix (spelled by dropping the preceding i).

Singular	Plural	English
sábháil	sábhálaigí	save
péinteáil	péinteálaigí	paint
taispeáin	taispeánaigí	show
siúil	siúlaigí	walk

Table 1. Examples of first conjugation two-syllable verbs in imperative Exception a few exceptions retain the slender consonant when endings are added; the most common such verb is tiomáin/tiomáinigí ‘drive’.

Sources

1. Book: Teach yourself Irish grammar
2. Book: Basic Irish: A grammar and workbook
3. Google