The Glance Card

Side 2 contains a list of long verbs with the same logic applied as explained for Side 1. In addition, you will find the prepositional pronouns, an important concept in the Irish grammar.

 

Please note: The scope of this document is not to explain the different prepositional pronoun uses.

 

The items in the triangular boxes are the actual prepositions

Refer to the list below for their main meaning (or their idea - in italics)

• ar - on
• ag - at, have
• do - to
• le - with, ownership
• ó - from, wanting
• de - to, off
• as - out of, from
• faoi - under
• chuig - to
• roimh - before
• i - in
• thar - over, across
• idir - between

 

The boxes below show the prepositional pronoun, that is the word that is formed when amalgamating the preposition with the pronoun (i.e. me, you).

to look up 'on me', go to the column of 'ar', and the column of 'mé' and you get orm

 

The ag column stands for at, but also ownership. If you want to look up the different forms of I, You, He, She, We, You (plural), They + have, you would go through the column like the following:

Example sentence: ___ have/ has a house. (lit. A house is at me/ you/ etc)

Tá teach agam. I have a house.

Tá teach agat. You have a house

Tá teach aige. He has a house

Tá teach aici. She has a house

Tá teach againn. We have a house

Tá teach agaibh. You have a house.

Tá teach acu. They have a house.

 

To the right of each of the two tables of prepositional pronouns you will find the possessive adjectives for quick reference.

mo - my

do - your

a - his

a - her

ár - our

bhur - your (plural)

a - their

 

This is not in your glance card!:

Note that three of these possessive adjectives are 'a' (his, her, their). The difference in their use is in how you form the noun following the adjective.

To distinguish between his horse, her horse and their horse you will need to do the following:

his requires lenition:

a chapall

For her there is no mutation (except for vowels where a h- prefix is required):

a capall

their ecplises the noun:

a gcapall

 

 

The principles of using long verb (see also Introduction) are identical to using short verbs. Use the explanations as outlined for Side 1.

 

Note how the long verbs have slightly different endings.

 

Any verbs (long or short) ending in –igh will have the igh removed before adding an ending. This is because the –igh became a silent consonant cluster when they devised the spelling reform about 60 year ago. But it can still be seen (and of course heard) as a long I sound right through the present tense and also in the first person plural of the past tense.

 

Underlined letters (column 1)

The underlining seen in the first column on side 2 refers to syncopation, namely the removal of “surplus” vowels when a verb ending is added to the stem for these particular type 2 verbs.

 

The bottom section on Side 2 gives you the words for interrogative cues, question words, such as

• cá - where
• cé - which
• conas - how etc

 

Note the colour coding on the question forms of 'to be', i.e. Where (An raibh ...?), Are (An mbíonn ...?), Will (An mbeidh ...?) as introduced in the main section of the table.

Special form of cá

Note how cá is followed by the dependent form of a verb (where it exists), followed by an urú (eclipsis):

The examples show this with the verb bí used in the past present and future.

Where were - cá raibh..?

Where are - cá mbíonn ..?

Where will be - cá mbeidh ..?

NOTE: You would normally have cár + séimhiú in the past tense but bí is one of those verbs that does not take the r-forms in the past and also has a separate dependent form in the past.