Language/Irish/Grammar/Irish-Prepositional-Pronouns

Prepositional pronouns

In Irish, there are often contractions between pronouns and the prepositions. In English, this would be like: on+me -> onme. Of course this is nonsense and we don't use that in English. But in Irish, it is completely logical. And furthermore, there are some special uses to convey certain information. We will discuss that below. First, let's look at the formation.

The basic formation can be like: ar+mé=orm, le+mé=liom, etc. Sometimes the composite will remind you of the elements, but often it looks very different. For example, all the "muid"(we) parts end in -(a)inn, which doesn't look like "muid", but at least is consistant. For siad, there is no such consistency, but often it ends in a u. Unfortunately it is not more simple. This must be learnt, either by rote, or by use. I recommend the lessons of Duolingo for learning this. To that end, the examples I give below reflect those presented in the first preposition lesson of Duolingo.

Here are some basic prepositions and the form when mixed with the basic and frequent pronouns

For a much more complete list, have a look here: [1] (there is also a quiz) Some special uses: Must is expressed with "ar" (on). Literally, we can say I must listen as: tá orm éisteacht (lit. it is on me to swim) Need/want...

Pronoun	Pronoun (Irish)	on	with	at	from	to, toward/s
(none)	(none)	ar	le	ag	ó	chun (chuig)
me	mé	orm	liom	agam	uaim	chugam
you (singular)	tú	ort	leat	agat	uait	chugat
he, it	é	air	leis	aige	uaidh	chuige
she, it	í	uirthi	léi	aici	uaithi	chuici
us	muid	orainn	linn	againn	uainn	chugainn
you (plural)	sibh	oraibh	libh	agaibh	uaibh	chugaibh
them	siad	orthu	leo	acu	uathu	chucu