Language/Irish/Grammar/Imperative-Mood

Introduction

Verbs in Irish fall into 3 categories:

• First conjugation
• Second conjugation
• Irregular verbs (coming soon)

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

Characteristics:

• Most first-conjugation verbs have one-syllable stems.
• The exceptions are a few verbs with two syllables, including English loans, with the suffix -áil.

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

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 2. 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.

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 3. 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’.

Second Conjugation

Characteristics:

• The second verb class differs from the first in having mostly two-syllable imperative stems and long vowels in the endings.
• The second syllable of the imperative singular in this class of verbs often ends in igh, which is dropped when endings are added.
• To conform to the broad/slender rule, the unpronounced letter a is added between the suffix and a verb ending in a broad consonant.

General case

Singular	Plural	English
éirigh	éirígí	rise
imigh	imígí	go, depart
socraigh	socraígí	settle, arrange
ceannaigh	ceannaígí	buy

Table 1. Examples of second conjugation verbs in imperative.

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

Note both long í's in -ígí, contrasting with the first conjugation which ends in (a)igí. This long í make a difference in pronounciation and it makes up for the loss of the igh or other ending.

The l,r,n rule

If the second syllable (sometimes the first) ends in either l, r, or n, an unstressed short vowel in the second syllable is omitted when an ending is added, unless loss of the vowel would produce a difficult-to-pronounce sequence of consonants (as in foghlaim - foghlmaígi is unpronounceable!).

Singular	Plural	English
oscail	osclaígí	open
imir	imrígí	play
inis	insígí	tell
foghlaim	foghlaimígí	learn

Table 1. Examples of second conjugation verbs in imperative.

Conclusion

These rules can seem complicated at first, but they actually turn out to be quite logical as you progress in learning Irish. It may seem complicated here, but the very same rules apply to the present tense and more. That's for a future lesson.

Have you read this far? Good, because I have some orders for all of you reading this:

Anois, suigí síos, osclaígí bhur cóipleabhair agus scríobhaigí nótaí.

I like giving orders. Don't you? Now you can do it in Irish.

Ansin nígí bhur lámha, ithigí bhur lón agus rithigí amhaile!

Sources

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