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The most unfamiliar features of the language are the orthography, the initial mutations, and the use of two different verbs for "to be". However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages (as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development).
Like other Indo-European languages, Irish has the usual verb conjugations, but also has different forms for dependent and independent clauses. For example, "John was here" is:
Bhí Seán anseo.
However, to say "I'm sure [that] John was here", requires a different verb tense:
Tá mé cinnte go raibh Seán anseo.
This tense is also used in the interrogative:
An raibh Seán anseo? - "Was John here?"
Another feature of Irish grammar is the use of prepositional pronouns. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which combines with the pronoun "me" (which is mé), to form agam "at me". This is used with the verb bi ("to be"), to form the closest equivalent of the verb "to have".
| Tá leabhar agam. | (ag + mé) | "I have a book." |
| Tá deoch agat. | (ag + tú) | "You have a drink." |
| Tá ríomhaire aige. | (ag + é) | "He has a computer." |
| Tá páiste aici. | (ag + í) | "She has a child." |
| Tá carr againn. | (ag + sinn) | "We have a car." |
| Tá teach agaibh. | (ag + sibh) | "You (plural) have a house." |
| Tá airgead acu | (ag + iad) | "They have money." |
This is similar to the use of the word du in French, which is a compound of de (of) and le (the).
Compare with Breton:
| Ur levr zo ganin | "I have a book." |
| Ur banne zo ganit | "You have a drink." |
| Un urzhiater zo ganti | "He has a computer." |
| Ur bugel zo gantañ | "She has a child." |
| Ur c'harr zo ganomp | "We have a car." |
| Un ti zo ganeoc'h | "You (plural) have a house." |
| Arc'hant zo ganto | "They have money." |
In order to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where, the copula, known in Irish as an chopail is used. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is only a rough approximation. The copula, which in the present tense is is, is usually demonstrative:
When saying "this is", or "that is", seo and sin are used:
One can also add "that is in him/her", especially when using an adjective, when it is desired to emphasise the quality:
This sometimes appears in Hiberno-English, either translated literally as "that is in it", or as "so it is".
The written language looks, to those unfamiliar with it, like a lot of unusual consonantal combinations and vowels everywhere! Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is /uh/ or /ah/ and á is /aw/ in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be /ah/ lengthened.
About the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin or the official translators department, issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. It simplified and standardized the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected.
Examples:
Modern Irish has only one diacritical sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada or simply fada. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc, a sí buailte, or simply buailte a mark of aspiration used over consonantal letters in the pre-Caighdeán orthography, has been ousted by the leniting h, added immediately after the consonantal letter. It can still be seen in use where a 'traditional' style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat-of-arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces, and it has been provided for in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart PDF).
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