Tense: tense
Tense is a feature that specifies the time when the action took / takes / will take place, in relation to the current moment or to another action in the utterance. Verbs in Irish can be regular and irregular (e.g. bí “to be”). Regular verbs fall into two conjugation patterns; one for short verbs (e.g. tit, fan) and one for long verbs (e.g. tosaigh). Verb endings vary depending on if the stem is broad or slender (see NounType).
Past: past tense
The past tense denotes actions that happened before the current moment. In Irish, past tense is indicated in the verb through the addition of lenition and/or a d’- prefix.
Examples
- Thit tú “You fell”
- D’fhan sé “He stayed”
- Thosaigh sí “She will start”
- Bhí síad “They were”
Pres: present tense
The present tense denotes actions that are happening right now or that habitually happen. The present tense paradigm is usually created from adding endings to the lemma of the short verb (e.g. fan + 1st sing ending -> fanaim). Long verbs are shortened first (e.g. tosaigh -> tos- + endings).
Examples
- Titeann tú “You fall”
- Fanann sé “He stays”
- Tosaíonn sí “She starts”
- Bíonn siad “They are”
Fut: future tense
The future tense denotes actions that will happen after the current moment. In Irish, the future is indicated by the addition of a -f-, or -ó- suffix, with endings depending on person (see Person).
Examples
- Titfidh tú “You will fall”
- Fanfaidh sé “He will stay”
- Tosóidh sí “She will start”
- Beidh siad “They will be”
Tense in other languages: [ab] [abq] [aqz] [arr] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [el] [en] [es] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gn] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [it] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [ru] [sah] [say] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl]