Language/Irish/Grammar/Imperative-Mood

The Imperative Mood in Irish (Gaeilge)

Haileo! Irish Learners! 😃

➡ In today's lesson you will learn how to use the the imperative mood in Irish Gaelic.

Happy learning!

Introduction

The imperative mood in Irish is a lot more expansive than that of English in that it conjugates for all persons and numbers, not just for singular and plural you. This can make it a bit tricky for learners but I'll try my best to explain how it works.

First though, we must know that verbs in Irish fall into 3 categories:

• First conjugation
• Second conjugation
• Irregular verbs (coming soon)

Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Irish Prepositional Pronouns, Irish Modal Verbs (need, want, must, can), Future Tense & Personal pronouns.

Background

Imperative

Before we begin to start learning how to conjugate it we must first learn how the imperative is used in Irish. It's used for:

1. Orders
   • Go home! - Gabh abhaile!
2. Normative statements
   • Let him stand then! - Seasadh sé mar sin!

As you can probably tell this is a bit different to English where we only have imperative forms for the second person, whereas in Irish they're used for every pronoun, including 'autonomous verbs' or 'saorbhriathra', which can be quite confusing at first but through careful repetition and practice you'll learn the forms.

Another use of the imperative is to serve as the dictionary forms of verbs since Irish lacks a true 'infinitive mood'. In this case either the 1st or 2nd person singular imperative will be used depending on the dictionary.

Broad and Slender agreement rule

This rule applies everywhere in Irish except for composite words.

• Rule: "broad with broad, slender with slender"
• Broad vowels: a, o, u
• Slender vowels: i, e
• Description: the immediate vowel on either side of a consonant or consonant cluster must be in agreement of vowel type. This is to mark consonant quality (saoi and sí have different s sounds despite sharing the same oral vowel)
• Example:
  • Seas = stand! (to one person)
  • Seasaigí = stand! (to many people)
  • Seasigí is not possible, because the middle 's' has a broad to the left, a slender to the right.
• Exception: anseo (it is a composite word. Meaning: here)

Conjugations

First conjugation

Characteristics:

• Most first-conjugation verbs have one-syllable stems.
• The exceptions are a few verbs with two syllables, including English loans, with the suffix -áil.

Verb Table

1 SG.	2 SG.	3 SG.	1 PL.	2 PL.	3 PL.	Aut.	English
ligim	lig	ligeadh sé/sí	ligimis	ligigí	ligeadh siad	ligtear	let, allow
rithim	rith	ritheadh sé/sí	rithimis	rithigí	ritheadh siad	ritear	run
feicim	feic	feiceadh sé/sí	feicimis	feicigí	feiceadh siad	feictear	see
seasaim	seas	seasadh sé/sí	seasaimis	seasaigí	seasadh siad	seastar	stand
glanaim	glan	glanadh sé/sí	glanaimis	glanaigí	glanadh siad	glantar	clean
dúnaim	dún	dúnadh sé/sí	dúnaimis	dúnaigí	dúnadh siad	dúntar	close
scríobhaim	scríobh	scríobhadh sé/sí	scríobhaimis	scríobhaigí	scríobhadh siad	scríobhtar	write

Table 1. Examples of first conjugation verbs in imperative.

SG. - Singular, PL. - Plural, Aut. - Autonomous

Remember the 2nd person singular form (2 SG.), as presented above, is the usual "dictionary form".

Note the broad/slender rule in effect above

Note autonomous forms roughly mean "somebody do something" or "be it done"

Note that the -adh endings when before a noun (eg. Seachadadh fear acu é - Let one of them deliver it) are said as if they were written -ach /-əx/. However, when before a pronoun or demonstrative beginning with s (eg. Dúnadh sé an doras - Let him close the door) they're said as if written -ait /-ətʲ/

Verbs with final sound as vowel

Verbs pronounced with a final vowel are written with -igh in the singular; this is dropped when the plural imperative (or any other) ending is added. If the vowel is i, it becomes long í when the igh is dropped (cf. nigh).

2 SG.	3 SG/PL.	2 PL.	English
brúigh	brúdh sé/sí/siad	brúigí	press, push
dóigh	dódh sé/sí/siad	dóigí	burn
léigh	léadh sé/sí/siad	léigí	read
nigh	níodh sé/sí/siad	nígí	wash

Table 2. Examples of first conjugation verbs in imperative with final sound as vowel

Note this applies to verbs that have a final SOUND as a vowel, but there may be (silent) consonants at the end.

Note for the 3rd person forms these verbs will have a broad ending affixed to them, ie. brúdh sé not brúidh sé. For verbs ending on -igh or -í they get -íodh, ie. níodh sé

Note endings are the same as the original expanded table unless stated otherwise.

Broadening of two-syllable verbs

Two-syllable verbs (and occasionally one-syllable ones) broaden the last consonant before a suffix (spelled by dropping the preceding i).

2 SG.	3 SG/PL.	2 PL.	English
sábháil	sábháladh sé/sí/siad	sábhálaigí	save
péinteáil	péinteáladh sé/sí/siad	péinteálaigí	paint
taispeáin	taispeánadh sé/sí/siad	taispeánaigí	show
siúil	siúladh sé/sí/siad	siúlaigí	walk

Table 3. Examples of first conjugation two-syllable verbs in imperative

Exception a few exceptions retain the slender consonant when endings are added; the most common such verb is tiomáin/tiomáineadh sé/tiomáinigí ‘drive’.

Second Conjugation

Characteristics:

• The second verb class differs from the first in having mostly two-syllable imperative stems and long vowels in the endings.
• The second syllable of the imperative singular in this class of verbs often ends in igh, which is dropped when endings are added.
• To conform to the broad/slender rule, the unpronounced letter a is added between the suffix and a verb ending in a broad consonant.

General case

1 SG.	2 SG.	3 SG.	1 PL.	2 PL.	3 PL.	Aut.	English
éirím	éirigh	éiríodh sé/sí/siad	éirímis	éirígí	éiríodh siad	éirítear	rise
imím	imigh	imíodh sé/sí	imímis	imígí	imíodh siad	imítear	go, depart
socraím	socraigh	socraíodh sé/sí	socraímis	socraígí	socraíodh siad	socraítear	settle, arrange
ceannaím	ceannaigh	ceannaíodh sé/sí	ceannaímis	ceannaígí	ceannaíodh siad	ceannaítear	buy

Table 1. Examples of second conjugation verbs in imperative.

Remember the singular form, as presented above, is the "dictionary form".

Note both long í's in -ígí, contrasting with the first conjugation which ends in (a)igí. This long í make a difference in pronounciation and it makes up for the loss of the igh or other ending.

The l,r,n rule

If the second syllable (sometimes the first) ends in either l, r, or n, an unstressed short vowel in the second syllable is omitted when an ending is added, unless loss of the vowel would produce a difficult-to-pronounce sequence of consonants (as in foghlaim - foghlmaígi is unpronounceable!).

Singular	Plural	English
oscail	osclaígí	open
imir	imrígí	play
inis	insígí	tell
foghlaim	foghlaimígí	learn

Table 1. Examples of second conjugation verbs in imperative.

Conclusion

These rules can seem complicated at first, but they actually turn out to be quite logical as you progress in learning Irish. It may seem complicated here, but the very same rules apply to the present tense and more. That's for a future lesson.

Have you read this far? Good, because I have some orders for all of you reading this:

'nois, suigí síos, osclaígí bhur gcóipleabhair agus scríobhaigí amach na nótaí a thug mé daoibh!.

I like giving orders. Don't you? Now you can do it in Irish.

Mar sin, nígí bhur lámha, ithigí bhur lón agus rithigí abhaile!

Sources

1. Book: Teach yourself Irish grammar
2. Book: Basic Irish: A grammar and workbook
3. Google
4. Wiktionary
5. Book: Buntús Gramadaí

Other Lessons

• Plurals
• Conditional Mood
• Future Tense
• Negation
• Irish Prepositional Pronouns
• Irish Modal Verbs (need, want, must, can)
• Adjectives
• Pronouns
• Personal pronouns