Irish/Relative clauses - Revision history

Silmeth: /* Direct relative */

2026-04-23T19:35:20Z

Direct relative

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:35, 23 April 2026
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	This is also the construction used with adverbs of time and nouns denoting time (which work adverbially), like ''nuair'' ‘when’, ''an lá'' ‘the day’, ''an bhliain'' ‘the year’, etc. (but see below – in Connacht it’s common to use indirect relative clauses with time nouns too):		This is also the construction used with adverbs of time and nouns denoting time (which work adverbially), like ''nuair'' ‘when’, ''an lá'' ‘the day’, ''an bhliain'' ‘the year’, etc. (but see below – in Connacht it’s common to use indirect relative clauses with time nouns too):
	* ''an lá '''a bhí''' mé in Éirinn'' ‘the day '''when''' I '''was''' in Ireland’,		* ''an lá '''a bhí''' mé in Éirinn'' ‘the day '''when''' I '''was''' in Ireland’,
	* ''''nuair a''' tháinig sé'' ‘'''when''' he came’.		* '''''nuair a''' tháinig sé'' ‘'''when''' he came’.

	And the same logic applies to adverbials (prepositional phrases and other averbs) fronted with the copula:		And the same logic applies to adverbials (prepositional phrases and other averbs) fronted with the copula:

Silmeth: /* Direct relative */

2026-04-23T19:17:29Z

Direct relative

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:17, 23 April 2026
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	# an adverb describing the manner or time of the verb of the relative clause.		# an adverb describing the manner or time of the verb of the relative clause.

	~~[TODO~~: ~~examples]~~		For example, when the antecedent is the subject:
			* ''an fear '''a mholann''' an leabhar'' ‘the man who praises the book’ (or ''a mholas'', ''a mholanns'' with the relative form),
			* ''an bhean '''a bhí''' sa tseomra'' ‘the woman who was in the room’.
			or the object:
			* ''an buachaill '''a chonac''''' ‘the boy '''whom I saw'''’,
			* ''na leabhair '''a léigh''' sé'' ‘the books '''that''' he '''read'''’.

	~~[TODO~~: ''atá'', ~~no “particle”~~ in Classical Gaelic, ~~etc~~.]		Note that sometimes only the context can disambiguate whether the clause describes its subject or object:
			* ''an fear a chonaic an bhean'' can mean either ‘the man who saw the woman’ and ‘the man whom the woman saw’.

			This is also the construction used with adverbs of time and nouns denoting time (which work adverbially), like ''nuair'' ‘when’, ''an lá'' ‘the day’, ''an bhliain'' ‘the year’, etc. (but see below – in Connacht it’s common to use indirect relative clauses with time nouns too):
			* ''an lá '''a bhí''' mé in Éirinn'' ‘the day '''when''' I '''was''' in Ireland’,
			* ''''nuair a''' tháinig sé'' ‘'''when''' he came’.

			And the same logic applies to adverbials (prepositional phrases and other averbs) fronted with the copula:
			* ''is ar an mbord '''atá''' an cat'' ‘it is on the table '''that''' the cat '''is'''’,
			* ''is liomsa '''a bhí''' tú ag caint'' ‘it is to me '''that''' you '''were''' talking’.

			Note that for the verb ''tá'' the form used in relative clauses is ''atá'' and it’s not lenited – that’s because the verb comes from Old Irish ''at·tá'',
			a compound verb. Those had the verbal rule lenited in relative clauses, and ''·tá'' could not be lenited after ''at·''. So it was invariably ''at·tá'',
			in Classical Gaelic ''a-tá''. In Modern Irish the initiall ''a-'' was dropped except in relative clause contexts (where it is understood as the relative
			particle), but lack of lenition remained.

	=== Relative form of the verb ===		=== Relative form of the verb ===

	Dialects of Ulster and Connacht have special relative forms of verbs in the present and future tenses (but not in the past). Those forms are not used		Dialects of Ulster and Connacht have special relative forms of verbs in the present and future tenses (but not in the past). Those forms are not used
	in Munster dialects (except for set phrases), the relative form is optional but allowed in Caighdeán Oifigiúil.		in Munster dialects (except for some set phrases), the relative form is optional but allowed in the Caighdeán Oifigiúil.

	In the present tense in Ulster and Standard Irish the ending is ''-(e)as'' or ''-(í)os'' replacing the present ending ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'':		In the present tense in Ulster and Standard Irish the ending is ''-(e)as'' or ''-(í)os'' replacing the present ending ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'':

	~~[TODO: examples]~~		* ''an fear '''a mholas''' an leabhar'' ‘the man who praises the book’.

	In Connacht the ''-s'' is added to ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'', resulting in ''-(e)anns, -(í)onns'':		In Connacht the ''-s'' is added to ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'', resulting in ''-(e)anns, -(í)onns'':

	~~[TODO: examples]~~		* ''an fear '''a mholanns''' an leabhar'' ‘the man who praises the book’.

	In the future tense the ending is ''-f(e)as'':		In the future tense the ending is ''-f(e)as'':

	~~[TODO: examples]~~		* ''an fear '''a mholfas''' an leabhar'' ‘the man who will praise the book’.

	There is one verb whose relative form is required by an Caighdeán Oifigiúil, that is ''lean'' ‘follow’ which in present tense direct relative clauses		There is one verb whose relative form is required by an Caighdeán Oifigiúil, that is ''lean'' ‘follow’ which in present tense direct relative clauses

Silmeth: first sketch with the structure

2023-11-10T21:23:33Z

first sketch with the structure

New page

There comes a time in the life of every learner of Irish when they have to face Irish relative clause constructions, and it can be a challenge. Relative clause is one that
refers back to something that was mentioned before (or, in some languages, will be mentioned later) – often providing more information about it,
for example in the English sentence:

* ''The man '''whom I had seen before''' walked in''

the ''whom I had seen before'' is a relative clause that refers back to ''the man'' of the outer clause (''the man … walked in'').

The thing the relative clause refers back to (so ''the man'' in the example above) is called the '''antecedent'''.

Irish is famous in having two types of relative clauses – [[#Direct relative|'''direct''']] and [[#Indirect relative|'''indirect''']] ones
(the latter being an Irish innovation, this form didn’t really exist in Classical Gaelic and isn’t found in other Gaelic languages).

== Direct relative ==

Direct relative clauses are formed with the relative particle ''a'' and the '''lenited independent''' form of the verb (or [[#Relative form of the verb|the relative form]]
if a given dialect uses those).

Clauses of this type have their verb refer '''directly''' to their antecedent – this means that there is no word, like a pronoun, referring
back to the antecedent and that the antecedent is closely related to the verb of the relative clause.

This means that you use the direct relative clause when the antecedent is one of the following:
# the subject of the relative clause,
# the direct object of the relative clause,
# an adverb describing the manner or time of the verb of the relative clause.

[TODO: examples]

[TODO: ''atá'', no “particle” in Classical Gaelic, etc.]

=== Relative form of the verb ===

Dialects of Ulster and Connacht have special relative forms of verbs in the present and future tenses (but not in the past). Those forms are not used
in Munster dialects (except for set phrases), the relative form is optional but allowed in Caighdeán Oifigiúil.

In the present tense in Ulster and Standard Irish the ending is ''-(e)as'' or ''-(í)os'' replacing the present ending ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'':

[TODO: examples]

In Connacht the ''-s'' is added to ''-(e)ann, -(í)onn'', resulting in ''-(e)anns, -(í)onns'':

[TODO: examples]

In the future tense the ending is ''-f(e)as'':

[TODO: examples]

There is one verb whose relative form is required by an Caighdeán Oifigiúil, that is ''lean'' ‘follow’ which in present tense direct relative clauses
is required to be ''leanas'' ‘which follows, that follows’.

=== The copula ===
The relative form of the copula is ''is'' {{IPA|/əs/}}, just like the independent form. It is sometimes written ''as'' in older texts.<ref>In Old Irish
there was actually a distinction between non-relative ''is'' {{IPA|/is/}} and relative ''as'' {{IPA|/as/}} but due to vowel reduction this distinction
was lost around the time the language transitioned to Middle Irish in the 10th century. In later times both forms of the copula are most commonly written
as ''as'' and the modern standard spelling ''is'' is basically bringing back the original Old Irish way to spell the non-relative form…</ref>

[TODO: examples]

== Indirect relative ==

Indirect relative clauses are formed with the '''other''' relative particle ''a'' (sometimes ''go'' or ''na'', see [[#Alternative forms of the particle|below]]) and the '''eclipsed dependent''' form of the verb (the relative
form of verbs is '''not''' used in this type!). In the past tense with regular nouns leniting ''ar'' is used instead.

Clauses of this type generally have some type of pronoun referring back to their antecedent, this might be:
# a prepositional pronoun (like ''air'' ‘on him / it’, ''léi'' ‘with her / it’, ''acu'' ‘at them’, etc.),
# a possessive pronoun (''a'' ‘his / her / their’, also merged with a preposition like ''dá'' ‘to his’, etc.),
# or a direct object pronoun (''é'' ‘him / it’, ''í'' ‘her / it’, ''iad'' ‘them’).

Some examples of the first one would be:
* '''{{color|green|an bord}} a bhfuil an cat {{color|green|air}}''' — ''the table that the cat is on'', ''air'' ‘on it’ refers back to ''an bord'' ‘the table’,
* '''{{color|green|an cailín}} a raibh mé ag caint {{color|green|léi}}''' — ''the girl I was talking to'', ''léi'' ‘with her / to her’ refers to ''an cailín'' ‘the girl’,
* '''tuigim {{color|green|an teanga}} ar scríobh tú an teachtaireacht {{color|green|inti}}''' — ''I understand the language in which you wrote the message'' (literally ''… that you wrote the message in it''), ''inti'' ‘in it’ (feminine) refers to ''an teanga'',
* '''{{color|green|na leabhair}} ar fhoghlaim mé {{color|green|uathu}}''' – ''the books I learned from'', ''uathu'' ‘from them’ refers to ''na leabhair'' ‘the books’.

Note that the prepositional pronoun agrees in number and gender to the thing referred to (in case of ''cailín'' ‘girl’ it actually agrees with the
“natural” perceived gender rather than the noun’s gender, as is common when talking about humans).

When the pronoun is a possessive one then the clause translates as a ‘whose’-relative clause to English:
* '''{{color|green|an buachaill}} a bhfuil {{color|green|a}} mháthair breoite''' — ''the boy whose mother is sick'', the leniting ''a'' ‘his’ refers back ''an buachaill'' ‘the boy’,
* '''sin í {{color|green|an bhean}} a raibh mé sa scoil {{color|green|lena}} mac''' – ''this is the woman with whose son I was in school'' (lit. ''… that I was in school with her son''), ''lena'' ‘with her’ refers back to ''an bhean'' ‘the woman’,

[TODO: the rest + examples]

[TODO: explain “exceptions” like ''an fáth a bhfuil…'', ''an áit a bhfuilim'', etc. – historically prepositional clauses]

=== Preposition + relative pronoun ===

=== Alternative forms of the particle ===

In Munster dialects generally '''go''' is used instead of ''a'' in indirect relative clauses. This generally affects only the “normal” indirect relative
clauses – not the prepositional ones with the preposition before the clause, those remain the same.

[TODO: examples]

Sometimes ''go'' gets used in Connacht too, but it’s rarer there.

Another particle is ''na'' which also happens in Munster, especially in older texts – it’s generally interchangeable with ''go'' as the marker
of indirect relative clause.

[TODO: examples]

== Other relativizers ==

[TODO: ''mar'' ‘where’]

[TODO: ''dá'' ‘when’]

=== Generalizing relative pronoun ===

== References ==

== Footnotes ==
<references/>