Prepositions made easier
Tricky one. They are very old words/forms. It's been a long time since they were first formed and they involve things, like the Old Irish accusative, which have been dead for a long time. So, there's no foolproof way of giving you a simple guide which tells you how you can just form them on the spot.
However, there are a few pointers that we can give you.
Broadly speaking, you can group modern Gaelic preposition into 5 categories - Regular, Mostly Regular, 3rd Person S, Labial in Root, and Decidedly Weird. We have grouped them this way because this allows you to learn them in groups and perhaps memorise some of rules. We'll also explain their history further down and historical explanation may also help some of you to understand these pesky little buggers.
Regular
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
ag- | -(a)m | agam |
ag- | -(a)d | agad |
ag- | slenderisation & -e | aige |
ag- | slenderisation, hardening & -e | aice |
ag- | -(a)inn | againn |
ag- | -(a)ibh | agaibh |
ag- | harden & -a | aca |
Following the same pattern:
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
thug- | -(a)m | (th)ugam |
thug- | -(a)d | (th)ugad |
thug- | slenderisation & -e | (th)uige |
thug- | slenderisation, hardening & -e | (th)uice |
thug- | -(a)inn | (th)ugainn |
thug- | -(a)ibh | (th)ugaibh |
thug- | harden & -a | (th)uca |
The variants ugam, ugad... and chugam, chugad... follow the same pattern.
Mostly Regular
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
ann- | -(a)m | annam |
ann- | -(a)d/t | annad |
ann- | same as root | ann |
ann- | slenderise, -(t)e | innte |
ann- | -(a)inn | annainn |
ann- | -(a)ibh | annaibh |
ann- | -(t)a | annta |
Following the same pattern:
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
ann- dhì- |
-(a)m | orm dhìom |
ann- dhì- |
-(a)d/t | ort dhìot |
ann- dhì- |
same as root | air (irr.) dheth |
ann- dhì- |
slenderise, -(t)e | oirre (irr.) dhith |
ann- dhì- |
-(a)inn | oirnn dhinn |
ann- dhì- |
-(a)ibh | oirbh dhibh |
ann- dhì- |
-(t)a | orra dhiubh |
The most striking feature of this group is that it uses the root form for the 3rd person singular masculine. The other bit to watch out for with air is that the root slenderises in the plural. And we get innte because the root used to be int-. But more of the history later.
The prepositions in brackets are other/older spellings of these that are still kicking about. They fit the paradigm much better, although GOC abolished them, so non-nonchalantly. <sigh>
3rd Person s
The next group is also fairly regular, but different because the 3rd person singular masculine adds an -s to the root:
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
as- le- ri- thar- |
-(a)m | asam leam rium tharam |
as- le- ri- thar- |
-(a)d/t | asad leat riut tharad |
as- le- ri- thair- |
ROOT + [ʃ] | (irr.) ás leis ris thairis |
as- le- ri- thair- |
slenderise, -the/-te | aiste (irr.) leatha (cf Irish léi) rithe thairte |
as- le- ri- thar- |
-(a)inn | asainn leinn r(u)inn tharainn |
as- le- ri- thar- |
-(a)ibh | asaibh leibh r(u)ibh tharaibh |
as- le- ri- thar- |
-(t)a/-(th)a | asta leotha riutha tharta |
As you can see, this bunch is mostly regular except for ás, which has [s] instead of the expected [ʃ]. Historically, the root of ás was ás, not á, so you would have said tha mi ás Alba, thoir ás a' bhogsa e. But at some point, the -s was re-interpreted as the -s that appears in the other prepositions, like le > leis. Thus, the "new root" á was born which led to the pattern tha mi á Alba and thoir ás a' bhogsa e. The pronunciation of aiste is /aʃtʃə/ because -s was organic and it followed the normal rules on palatalisation. The 3rd person singular feminine, leatha, is a bit weird. However, the older Irish form, léithe, fits the paradigm perfectly - not that that's any consolation to us. Again, i gets inserted so the caol ri caol rule isn't broken.
Labial in Root
Almost there. There next group we decided to call Labial in Root because they - surprise - all contain a labial (b, m, f):
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
tromh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
-(a)m | tromham romham uam fodham umam |
tromh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
-(a)d/t | tromhad romhad uat fodhad umad |
troimh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
slenderise + e | troimhe roimhe (irr.) uaithe (irr.) fodha uime |
troimh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
slenderise, -pe | troimhpe roimhpe uaipe foidhpe uimpe |
tromh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
-(a)inn | tromhainn romhainn uainn fodhainn umainn |
tromh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
-(a)ibh | tromhaibh romhaibh uaibh fodhaibh umaibh |
tromh- romh- ua- fodh- um- |
-pa | tromhpa romhpa uapa fodhpa umpa |
Note: bho follows the same pattern, just with bh- at the beginning i.e. buam, bhuat etc
Nothing much to add about this group really. As you'll see later on, that weird -p- isn't part of the ending but rather a very old part of the root that crops up, now and then.
Decidedly weird
To finish this off first we need to take a look at the Decidedly Weird Group - luckily there's only one preposition - unfortunately it's also perhaps the most common one:
Root | Analysed preposition | Full form |
---|---|---|
dh- | -omh | dhomh |
dh- | -ut | dhut |
dh- | -a | dha |
dh- | -i | dhi |
dh- | -uinn | dhuinn |
dh- | -uibh | dhuibh |
dh- | -aibh | dhaibh |
As you can see, compared to the other ones, do is really weird. Historical notes aside, unfortunately, there isn't much else we can add that might help you, except a general note perhaps. For adults, learning a new language invariably involves learning stuff by heart. If you were doing Basque you'd have to cope with over 12.000 forms for the two verbs 'to be' and 'to have' alone. So, learning the few irregular verbs of Gaelic and these few prepositions really isn't that bad. It's worthwhile putting in the effort because they are REALLY common. Having to pause before coming out with the correct conjugated preposition does mark you as a learner!
On to the history then for the curious minds ...
Roimhearan |
᚛ á - aig - air - ann an - de ⁊ a - do ⁊ a - eadar - fo - gu - le - mu - o ⁊ bho - os ⁊ fos - ri - tro - thar ᚜ |