Module 4: Grammar

1. More on the present tense of the verb

Let me stress again that the simple sentence, whether positive, negative or question, starts with the verb. In the previous lessons we have come across two verbs corresponding to English 'to be' in its personal forms. One is 'tá' and the other one is 'bíonn'. The difference in meaning is that 'tá' describes a thing which is happening at the moment and is of temporary character. 'Bíonn' refers to something habitually and usually happening. So, 'tá an bus ag teacht' refers to the coming of the bus at the moment the speaker makes this statement. 'Bíonn an bus ag teacht' in itself is somewhat deficient in meaning as it refers to a recurring event and one would expect a further description like 'every day at three o' clock' or something like that.

Instead of forming every statement describing a habitual event with bíonn you can of course use the habitual form of the verb describing the action. So, instead of using bíonn + ag teacht you can use tagann. This is the habitual form of 'ag teacht' and is described in lesson 3, grammar section. Now, every other verb, like 'buy, cost, talk, see, hear, go, search etc.' has also a present tense form. This form corresponds to 'bíonn' , not to 'tá'. The endings of all verbs in the present tense thus correspond to the endings for bíonn, tagann or cosnaíonn as shown in lesson 3, grammar section.

In our lesson text outside the dialog we come across certain 'stage directions' which tell us what Sarah does or doesn't do, e.g. Sarah speaks to Eibhlín - labhrann. Labhrann (speaks) and, further down, téann (goes) forms their present tense like tagann which we looked at earlier in the grammar section of lesson 3. The difference between these verbs and verbs like cosnaíonn is the long í - sound in the middle of the word which appears in 'cosnaíonn' but not in the others. As we go along you will get a feel for the way the present tense is formed. With some words there are dialectal differences and while both forms might be grammatically correct it would be unlikely that both forms would be used in the one dialect area. In the following tables you find a summary of the habitual present tense endings for verbs of the 1st and the 2nd conjugations. Please refer back to Grammar of lesson 3, point 2 where we hinted at the difference between verbs whose basic form have one syllable (like 'tar' = come) and those whose basic forms have two syllables (like 'cosnaigh' = cost) (another similar example is 'ceannaigh' = to buy)..

Example 1: tar = come
Listen éist
person	hab. present tense ending 1st conjugation	example	English meaning
1st singular	-(a)im	tagaim	I come
2nd singular	(e)ann tú	tagann tú	you come
3rd singular	-(e)ann sé / sí	tagann sé / sí	he/she comes
1st plural	-(a)imid	tagaimid	we come
2nd plural	-(e)ann sibh	tagann sibh	you (pl) come
3rd plural	-(a)nn siad	tagann siad	they come
passive	-t(e)ar	tagtar	impersonal "it is come"

Example 2: ceannaigh = buy
Listen éist
person	hab. present tense ending 2nd conjugation	example	English meaning
1st singular	-(a)ím	ceannaím	I buy
2nd singular	(a)íonn tú	ceannaíonn tú	you buy
3rd singular	-(a)íonn sé / sí	ceannaíonn sé / sí	he / she buys
1st plural	-(a)ímid	ceannaímid	we buy
2nd plural	-(a)íonn sibh	ceannaíonn sibh	you (pl) buy
3rd plural	-(a)íonn siad	ceannaíonn siad	they buy
passive	-(a)ítear	ceannaítear	impersonal "it is bought"

2. The past tense of 'tá', 'níl', an bhfuil?

'If you want to describe a temporary action or happening which happened yesterday or last month or last year etc, and where you would use tá in the present tense, you have to replace tá (or any of its personal forms as described in lessons 1 to 3) with bhí. The rest of the sentence doesn't change. If you say in English 'I am learning Irish' you'd say 'Tá mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge' but if you said 'I was learning Irish' you'd say 'Bhí mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge'. Passive form: bhíothas. If you wanted to say 'it was being worked on it would be

'bhíothas ag obair air'.

Now, the dependent (or negative) form of bhí doesn't look a bit like the independent (or positive form). You would call this verb therefore 'irregular'. However, you'll have no difficulty getting used to this irregularity for the simple reason that these verbs are so essential to communication and are so frequently used that you will remember them quickly:

Passive form: ní rabhthas. If you wanted to say 'it was not being worked on it would be

'ní rabhthas ag obair air.'

To form a question about something which happened in the past, we just have to replace ní with the question particle an:

Passive form: an rabhthas. If you wanted to say 'was it being worked on' it would be

'an rabhthas ag obair air?

Other dependent forms, e.g. "after that" which is in Irish go are just like above, just replace the first element an and keep the relevant form of raibh.