Briathra Gaeilge is a Verb Subject Object (VSO) language D’ith an buachaill úll (ate boy apple) the verb is at the very beginning of a sentence. English on the other hand is a Subject Verb Object language i.e. The boy ate an apple.
Gaeilge has three verb groups Group 1 - Regular verbs with one syllable roots, i.e. bris, glan, caith, pioc, ól. Group 2 - Regular verbs with roots of more than one syllable, i.e. ceannaigh, bailigh, inis, freagair. Group 3 - Irregular verbs. Gaeilge has 11 irregular verbs: Abair, beir, bí, clois, déan, faigh, feic, ith, tabhair, tar, téigh.
The three main difficulties encountered by English speakers when coming to terms with verbs as used in Gaeilge are:
1. 2.
There isn’t an equivalent to the yes / no answer as is in English. Instead the verb is always repeated in the answer.
Initial consonants are changed according to the tense and whether answers are positive or negative. Séimhiú - where a h is added after the initial consonant changing the sound Urú - where the sound of the initial consonant changes by placing another letter before it:
3.
Gaeilge has two forms of the verb “to be” which can be represented as follows An bhfuil sé fuar? Is it cold? An scannán é? Is it a film?
Tá / Níl It is / It isn’t Is ea / Ní hea It is / It isn’t