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- As with many European languages, all nouns in Irish are either grammatically “masculine” or “feminine.” Thus Irish doesn’t have a single, neuter, word corresponding to the English “it.” Instead, you use “sé” for “it” if the word is grammatically masculine, and “sí” if the word is grammatically feminine:
www.bitesize.irish/blog/i-me-he-him/
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What does gender mean in Irish?
This tutorial is all about understanding gender of nouns in the Irish language. We'll be exploring how to distinguish between masculine and feminine words in Irish, and learning useful rules to help you identify the gender of words with confidence.
- Subjects and Objects
- Subjective Forms in Irish
- Objective Forms in Irish
- Yours, Mine, Ours
- Practice Makes Perfect!
Just like a noun, a pronoun can be the subject of a verb:
Mary is eating./She is eating. Joe runs every day./Heruns every day. The ball fell off the shelf./It fell off the shelf.
It can also be the object of the verb:
Joe saw Mary eating./Joe saw her eating. I see Joe run every day./I see him run every day. They pushed the ball off the shelf./They pushed it off the shelf. The fancy grammatical term for these, if you’re curious, is “the subjective form” and “the objective form.” A pronoun takes a subjective form if it’s the subject of the sentence and an objective form if it’s the object of the sentence.
In Irish, the objective forms of pronouns are:
Mé (may): I Chonaic mé Máire aréir: Isaw Máire last night. Tú (too): You (singular) An bhfaca tú Máire aréir? Did you see Máire last night? Sé (shay): He Chonaic sé Máire aréir. Hesaw Máire last night. Sí (shee): She An bhfaca sí Máire aréir? Did she see Máire last night? Muid* (mwij) : We Chonaic muid Máire aréir. We saw Máire last night. Sibh (shiv): You (plural) An bhfaca sibh Máire aréir? Did you see Máire last night? Siad (SHEE-ud): They Chonaic siad Máire aréir. Theysaw Máire last night...
Wait! What about “it”?
As with many European languages, all nouns in Irish are either grammatically “masculine” or “feminine.”Thus Irish doesn’t have a single, neuter, word corresponding to the English “it.” Instead, you use “sé” for “it” if the word is grammatically masculine, and “sí” if the word is grammatically feminine: Bhuail an carr an balla: The car hit the wall./Bhuail sé an balla. Ithit the wall. Bhí an obair deacair. The work was difficult./Bhí sí deacair. It was difficult.
As in English, some Irish pronouns take on a slightly different form when they’re the object of the verb: Tú (too) becomes Thú (hoo) Sé (shay) becomes é (ay) (this corresponds to the English “him”) Sí (shee) becomes í (ee) (this corresponds to the English “her”) Siad (SHEE-ud) becomes iad (EE-ud) (this corresponds to the English “them”) Some exampl...
A pronoun form that Irish lacks is the “possessive pronoun”:
Whose car is that? It’s mine. That desk over there is yours. Those cookies are ours. Instead, Irish uses a special emphatic form of a prepositional pronoun, using the preposition “le” (with), to take the place of the possessive pronoun. If you haven’t encountered prepositonal pronouns yet, or if you just want to refresh your memory, check out the July 25 blog post Prepositions in Irish. A brief summary: A prepositional pronoun combines a preposition with a pronoun to create a word that may me...
Here’s how it works:
Le + mé + emphatic ending = liomsa (LYUM-suh): mine Le + tú + emphatic ending = leatsa (LYAT-suh): yours Le + sé + emphatic ending = leisean (LEH-shan): his Le + sí + emphatic ending = léise (LAY-ee-sheh): hers Le + sinn* + emphatic ending = linne (LIN-yeh): ours Le + sibh + emphatic ending = libhse (LIV-sheh): yours Le + siad + emphatic ending = leosan (LYOH-ssan): theirs * “Sinn” rather than “muid” is used here, because it’s the older form of “we.” Some examples: Cé leis an carr seo? Is lio...
This all may seem a bit complicated, but really Irish pronouns are no more difficult to sort out than those of other languages. With a little practice, you’ll be surprised at just how quickly this all becomes very natural! Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla would be proud! “‘Cause sayin’ all those nouns over and over can really wear you down!” (you did watch...
Oct 13, 2012 · For example, the Irish word cailín (girl) is grammatically masculine, and the Irish word stáil (stallion) is grammatically feminine. Gender affects how the noun will behave in certain grammatical situations, as well as the effect it will have on the words around it.
Jul 20, 2013 · Because of this, you need to use the pronouns corresponding to he/she or him/her, even when speaking of inanimate objects. For example: Is carr é: “It’s a car.” I use the masculine pronoun é (“he”), because carr (automobile) is grammatically masculine. Is cláirseach í: It’s a harp.”
Feb 9, 2017 · Masculine words. Definite article beginning with a consonant: no change (an pobal) Definite article beginning with a vowel: t-prefix (an t-uisce) Adjectives: no change (fear bocht) Genitive case: noun, an, then second noun with séimhiú and, in most cases, a slightly different spelling (Oifig an Phoist) Note:
Learners will find lots of examples of Irish nouns gender identify using the Masculine or Feminine Noun Rule of Thumb.
Irish is an inflected language, having four cases: ainmneach (nominative and accusative), gairmeach (vocative), ginideach (genitive) and tabharthach (prepositional). The prepositional case is called the dative by convention. Irish nouns are masculine or feminine.
