Duolingo Irish Course Summary

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Basics 1

updated 2018-10-25

Fáilte | Welcome!

Welcome to Duolingo's Irish course! In this course you will learn the

official standard (an Caighdeán Oifigiúil) of Irish. But note, this is

a written, and not a spoken standard. Irish is spoken in three main

dialects, corresponding to three Irish provinces of Munster (south),

Ulster (north), and Connacht (west). The audio in this course was

recorded by a native speaker of the Connacht dialect.

So what makes Irish different? What might challenge you as you try to

learn? Well, tonnes of things! To be honest, even the basics of Irish

are very different from what you're probably used to.

The best advice we can give is that with Irish, learning things off by

heart and trying to base your learning on grammar will only get you so

far. It's a very irregular language, and most rules that try to

generalise come with many exceptions.

Just take it as slowly as you need to, and nothing should challenge you

very much. There is a really good article about some of the more

fascinating peculiarities here:

https://multikulti.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/10-reasons-why-irish-is-an-

absolutely-awesome-language/

We'll also address a couple below. So let's get started then!

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Intro

The Irish alphabet is short and sweet:

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u

The vowels can take an added accent, the fada (pronounced 'foddah'):

á é í ó ú

The fada lengthens and alters the sound on the vowel.

The rest of the English alphabet, j k q v w x y z, especially v, is

gradually being naturalised into Irish due to the many loanwords we

take in.

Learn how to type accented letters here:

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4278237

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Word Order

Most English sentences use the "Subject-Verb-Object" word order. For

example, in the sentence He eats food, he is the subject, eats is the

verb, and food is the object.

In Irish, a slightly different word order is used: "V-S-O". Here is the

same sentence in Irish: Itheann sé bia. The verb in this sentence is

itheann (a form of the verb to eat), the subject is sé (he), and the

object is bia (food).

In summary: Irish sentences start with their verbs!

Ithim bia | I eat food

Itheann an fear bia | The man eats food

Ólann sí bainne | She drinks milk

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To be, or not to be...

Irish makes it interesting when you want to say what something "is",

because you need to choose the right version of the verb "to be"! There

are two versions. called bí and an chopail.

Bí is Irish for to be, and is one of only eleven irregular verbs in

the whole language. That's handy!

Notes: tá + mé (I) = táim, tá + muid (we) = táimid. These contractions

are called the synthetic form.

An chopail (the copula) is a defective verb with its own funky

grammar. It doesn't even follow the normal word order rules! The

word you are talking about goes in the middle.

The copula is for when you're introducing something or someone, like

"Is bean í" (She is a woman) or "Is úll é" (It is an apple). Bí is for

when you're describing something or someone, like "Tá sí ard" (She is

tall) or "Tá sé blasta" (It is tasty). You'll learn the basics of both

here, and later you'll learn some more about each of them!

Basics 2

updated 2018-10-25

Buntús 2 | Basics 2

You're still here. That's wonderful! We'll start with a strange but

important little rule:

"Caol le caol agus leathan le leathan."

This is the golden rule of Irish spelling and it is important for all

sorts of things all the time. It's actually quite a consistent and

well-observed rule across Irish, which is very rare. You should get

very used to it, to the point that a word which doesn't follow the rule

will stand out to you.

The phrase literally means "slender with slender and broad with broad",

and it refers to vowels in a word.

Slender vs broad is a way to group the vowels in two distinct groups:

The rule says that the vowels on either side of any consonant should

match: they should both be slender, or both be broad. It's actually an

important rule, because certain consonants, especially s and t will

change their sound appreciably depending on whether they are slender or

broad.

To see if the stem of a verb is broad or slender, look at the last

vowel in that stem.

For example, take the verbs dún and bris. The last vowel in dún is

broad, so you would use broad endings when conjugating this verb.

Similarly you would use slender endings when conjugating bris.

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A bit about Verbs

We do have two present tenses in Irish, which function just like in

English. Let's start with the present habitual. This describes what one

does on a regular basis, not what one is doing right now. Verbs in

Irish are split into three main groups: the first conjugation, the

second conjugation and the irregular verbs.

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1. The first conjugation

Basically, these verbs have only one syllable. In the present tense the

ending is, generally, added directly onto the stem. Examples are dún

("close"), ól ("drink"), bris ("break")

Examples:

dúnaim I close

dúnann sé he closes

brisim I break

briseann sé he breaks

ólaimid we drink

Notice how sometimes it takes two words, and sometimes just one. In

present tense verbs, mé and muid are often not used; they can be

incorporated into their verb to make the 'synthetic form'.

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2. The second conjugation

These verbs have more than one syllable. To conjugate and use them

correctly takes a bit more intuition, but you'll be grand!

The words come in two halves for you to identify. They will have a root

and a stem. To conjugate them, you will remove the stem and replace it

with an appropriate ending. There aren't too many endings to learn.

Examples of 2nd-conjugation verbs are bailigh, ceannaigh, oscail, and

inis. Watch how their stems are removed/altered to take the ending:

bailíonn tú you collect

ceannaímid we buy

insím I tell

osclaíonn sibh you open

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3. Irregular verbs

Oh no, a different beast altogether... No hassle, there are only 11 of

these! Some of them appear quite regular most of the time, but all of

them have at least one tense in which they don't obey the standard

rules, so it is necessary to memorise these 11 verbs in all their forms

and tenses! Just to warn you, they are:

abair say

beir bear/carry/bring

bí be

clois hear

déan do/make

feic see

faigh get

ith eat

tabhair give

tar come

téigh go

But seriously, they're not that bad.

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See you in the next skill!

Common Phrases

updated 2018-10-25

Welcome to Phrases!

Hello!

The formal way to greet someone is by saying Dia duit. Literally this

means God to you. Here is something to note:

Dia duit is used when greeting one person.

Dia daoibh is used when greeting more than one person.

The proper response is Dia is Muire duit, which literally means God and

Mary to you.

Dia is Muire duit is used when replying to one person.

Dia is Muire daoibh is used when replying to more than one person.

Note on the Sociology of Ireland: These forms are old, formal, and in

sharp decline. There is a complicated relationship between Ireland and

the Catholic church in recent history, and many younger speakers

consciously avoid the nearly-obsolete religious constructions of yore.

We don't officially teach you this here, because we decided to stick

with The Standard so we have to teach you "dia duit" and so on. Just be

aware you're more likely to hear somebody greet you with a typical

English greeting like "hiya", or even by avoiding a "hello" and just

asking how you are – Conas atá tú? –

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To have

We don't say "have" in Irish, that's way too simple and direct. Instead

the verb bí (be) is used together with the preposition ag (at).

To express that you have something, you say that it is "at you" -

implying that it is close by you, in your possession. If you want to

say Paul has a book, think of this as meaning A book is at Paul, or

There is a book at Paul . The Irish for this is Tá leabhar ag Pól.

When you want to write at followed by a pronoun, the two words join

together to make a "prepositional pronoun". For example, ag and mé

combine to form agam (at me). Here is ag in all its forms:

Examples of bí + ag:

Tá oráiste agam I have an orange

Tá pláta acu They have a plate

Tá cailín ag Pól Paul has a girl/girlfriend

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To speak or to have?

When talking about languages in Irish there are distinct ways to

translate the two meanings of the English "speak".

1) "I speak Irish" would translate as "Labhraím Gaeilge" if "speak" was

referring to the act of speaking the language ("I speak Irish every

day")

2) "I speak Irish" would translate as "Tá Gaeilge agam" (literally "I

have Irish") if "speak" was referring to the ability to speak, or the

knowledge of, the language.

So when you say "I (can) speak [language]", in Irish you literally say

"I have [language]"

See you in the next skill!

Food

updated 2020-06-23

Bain sult as do bhéile!

Let’s dig into the food skill! In this (very important) skill, you will

learn all about how to talk about food.

——

Language Feature

An saghas...

Saghas means ‘sort’, ‘type’ or ‘kind’.

As you might guess, to say ‘sort of’, ‘type of’ or ‘kind of’, we need

to use the genitive case (the ‘of’ form) to say what kind of food we’re

talking about.

——

Language Feature

I’m at the eating of the food

In Irish, this would be Táim ag ithe an bhia. Now, I’m sure you’re

wondering hang on, isn’t bia masculine? Why is there lenition??. Don’t

fret we’re here to explain!

Plurals

updated 2018-10-25

Definite and Indefinite Articles

Let's review Irish articles so you know how to apply your existing

knowledge to plurals.

Indefinite Articles

There are no indefinite articles in Irish. Where in English you would

say a or an before a noun, in Irish you just say the noun itself. For

example, buachaill can mean either boy or a boy.

When it comes to plurals, the Irish system is similar to that in

English. Buachaillí means boys, so no definite article is used in

either language.

Definite Articles

There are two forms of the definite article in Irish.

An is used for singular nouns and is translated as the in English. For

example, an buachaill means the boy*.✝

Na is used for plural nouns and is also translated as the in English.

For example, na buachaillí means the boys.✝

Note

There are two things you should note!

An vs. An: The Irish an (definite article, singluar) should never

be confused with the English an (indefinite article, before vowels,

sometimes the letter h). Be careful with these two!

An = The, Na = The, but An ≠ Na: The two Irish definite articles an

and na both mean the in English, but remember that they have

different uses in Irish.

✝: In the nominative case. The way these articles are used change a bit

in the other cases, but we will deal with these later when we come to

them.

Eclipsis

updated 2018-10-25

Welcome to Eclipsis!

It's time to learn a very peculiarly Celtic feature; initial mutation!

Urú (eclipsis) is where one or two letters are added before a word in

certain situations. This changes the spelling and pronunciation of the

word, but not the meaning. Only some initial letters can be eclipsed:

b, c, d, f, g, p, and t. Words that begin with other letters do not

undergo eclipsis at all.

Here are the extra letters that are added before the word:

Different dialects of Irish have different rules about when eclipsis

should be used. It would be extremely confusing to list them all here!

It is more important to pick a single system and to stick with it for

consistency - so in this course, we will teach the system traditionally

used in Standard Irish.

Eclipsis is used in the following situations:

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1. Possessive Adjectives

Eclipsis occurs where a word comes after ár our, bhur your (plural),

and a their.

Examples:

ár gcailín our girl

a mbuachaill their boy

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2. Numbers

Eclipsis occurs after the numbers seven to 10.

Examples:

seacht gcapall seven horses

naoi dteach nine houses

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3. Preposition + Definite Article

Eclipsis occurs after certain prepositions where they are joined by the

singular definite article an:

Other prepositions used with an (for example, idir an between the) do

not cause eclipsis.

Examples:

ar an mbord on the table

thar an bhfuinneog over the window

An exception to this rule is that the word should not be eclipsed if it

begins with d or t.

Examples:

ag an doras at the door

roimh an teach before the house

If the word begins with s and is feminine, a t is placed in front of it

— except for nouns beginning with sc, sf, sm, sp, st or sv.

Example:

leis an tseanbhean with the old woman

If the word begins with s and is masculine, no change occurs.

Example:

leis an salann with the salt

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4. Other Words

Eclipsis is also added after the words i in, dá if, mura if/unless.

Example:

i mbosca in a box

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Words starting with a vowel

Words that start with a vowel do not technically undergo eclipsis, but

they do get the letter n- added to them wherever other words would be

eclipsed — unless they come after a word that finishes with the letter

n.

Examples:

úll apple

ár n-úll our apple

seacht n-úll seven apples

ar an úll on the apple

A dash is placed between the letter n and the vowel — unless that vowel

is a capital letter.

Examples:

Uachtarán President

ár nUachtarán our President

Some words that start with a vowel are normally preceded by t- when

they follow the word an the. For these words, after preposition +

definite article combinations the t- is left out.

Examples:

an t-ollmhargadh the supermarket

ag an ollmhargadh at the supermarket

That might be a lot of information to process, but it should make sense

once you see it in action. Good luck and see you in the next skill :D

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