How do I know if a word is masculine or feminine in Irish?
One other little guideline: Nouns are almost always masculine if they end in the diminutive suffix -ín or -án (even if the root word is feminine!).
What words are feminine in Irish?
Irish Feminine
| English Feminine | Irish Feminine |
|---|---|
| bull | tarbh |
| cow | bó |
| boy | buachaill |
| girl | cailín |
Does Gaelic have gendered words?
Gaelic nouns and pronouns belong to one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine. Nouns with neuter gender in Old Gaelic were redistributed between the masculine and feminine.
What’s the difference between an and Na in Irish?
The definite article is an (“un”) in front of masculine singular nouns ONLY. In front of feminine singular nouns and all plural nouns, it’s na (“nuh”) .
What is Tuiseal Ginideach?
An Tuiseal Ginideach means The Genitive Case. This means sentences such as: Hata an fhir – The man’s hat Cois farraige – Seaside Bean an tí – The woman of the house At Junior Cert level, you just need to be aware of this even though it comes up in part B of the grammar section.
What is the difference between Beag and bheag?
It does not refer to the gender of an animal or a person. The adjective beag, meaning small, lenites with feminine nouns to create bheag. Lenition means softening and it often means a change in the spelling of a word, by adding an ‘h’ after the first consonant.
What does na mean in Gaelic?
In Gaelic, however, when the noun is plural the definite article changes to na or na h-. Na is used when the noun following it begins with a consonant, eg na faoileagan (the seagulls) or na daoine (the people).
What is genitive in Irish?
In Modern Irish, the genitive noun following a verbal noun is often described as the “object of the verbal noun,” but in the study of Early Modern Irish, both the verbal noun and the noun(s) following it are analyzed in terms of the genitive.
What does Buachaill mean in Irish?
boy
Noun. buachaill m (genitive singular buachalla, nominative plural buachaillí) boy; young, unmarried man synonym ▲ partial Synonym: garsún “pre-pubescent boy”
What is a creag?
creag f (genitive singular creige, plural creagan) rock, crag. cliff. precipice.
What does Bally in Irish mean?
place of
Bally is an extremely common prefix to town names in Ireland, and is derived from the Gaelic phrase ‘Baile na’, meaning ‘place of’. It is not quite right to translate it ‘town of’, as there were few, if any, towns in Ireland at the time these names were formed.
What does Dheagh Slainte mean?
to your good health
The Irish spell it Slàinte Mhaith. The phrase translates to “Good health” in both dialects, and if you want to respond to this using Scots Gaelic, you would say, “do dheagh shlainte” meaning “to your good health.”
What is lenition in Gaelic?
From Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki. Lenition is an initial consonant mutation which “weakens” (cf. Latin lenis ‘weak’) the sound of the consonant at the beginning of a word. It is used to mark certain morphological contrasts and to mark inflection.