Personal Pronouns

Irish personal pronouns, like “I”, “you”, “he”, and “she”, work differently from their English counterparts. They have distinct forms depending on their role in a sentence and whether they follow a verb directly. This guide covers the standard, emphatic, and special-use forms you will encounter.

Unlike English, Irish does not have separate possessive pronouns like “mine” or dative forms like “to me”. These concepts are expressed using possessive adjectives and conjugated prepositions instead.

Forms

Irish personal pronouns are divided into standard and emphatic forms. Emphatic forms add stress or contrast, similar to saying “I did it” or “he himself” in English.

Standard Forms

These are the everyday, unstressed forms of the pronouns.

Emphatic Forms

These forms are used to emphasise or contrast the person.

Pronunciation

The simple pronouns mé, tú, sé, sí, and siad have both a stressed and an unstressed pronunciation, while sinn, muid, and sibh do not.

• Stressed pronunciation: The vowel is long, matching the spelling (e.g., mé [mʲeː], tú [tuː], sé [ʃeː]). This is used for emphasis, after conjunctions like agus, and in copular sentences.
• Unstressed pronunciation: The vowel is shortened, sometimes to a schwa [ə]. This is the most common pronunciation in everyday speech, as pronouns are often unstressed. For example, unstressed mé can sound like [mʲe] or [mʲə].

Even when pronounced with a short vowel, the fada is always retained in standard spelling (e.g., mé, tú).

Double Stress

In sentences with a finite verb, stressing the simple personal pronoun does not emphasise the person, but rather the action or the truthfulness of the statement. This creates a “double stress” pattern where both the verb and the pronoun receive equal stress.

• An raibh sé anseo? - Bhí. - Was he here? - Yes. (Standard answer) An raibh sé anseo? - Bhí sé. [ˈvʲiː ˈʃeː] - Was he here? - Yes, he certainly was. (Emphasises the truth of the statement)

This allows for fine distinctions in meaning:

• Rinne sé sin. [sə] - He did that. (Neutral statement, unstressed pronoun)
• Rinne sé sin. [ˈʃeː] - He did do that. (Emphasis on the action, stressed pronoun)
• Rinne seisean sin. - He did that. (Emphasis on the person, emphatic pronoun)

Subject Form (Conjunct)

The subject form (e.g., sé, sí, siad) is used only when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence and immediately follows the verb.

• Ólann sé bainne. - He drinks milk.

It is not used:

• With synthetic verb forms, where the subject is already part of the verb ending (e.g., ólaim - I drink).

• When the pronoun subject does not come directly after the verb.

• Ólann seisean agus ise. - He and she drink. (Here, the disjunct emphatic forms are used).

Object Form (Disjunct)

The object form (e.g., é, í, iad, thú) is used whenever the pronoun does not immediately follow the verb as its subject.

This includes:

• As the object of a verb:
  • Chonaic mé é. - I saw him.
• As the subject in infinitive constructions:
  • Ba mhaith liom thú a fheiceáil. - I would like to see you.
• With the autonomous verb form:
  • Glanfar é. - It will be cleaned.
• After non-conjugable prepositions:
  • gan é - without him
  • gan tú - without you
• To express reflexivity, with féin (self):
  • Ghortaigh sé é féin. - He hurt himself.

Copula Form (Disjunct)

The copula form is used when a pronoun is the subject or predicate in a sentence with the copula (is). It is identical to the object form, except that tú is not lenited if it comes directly after the copula.

• Is é mo mhúinteoir é. - He is my teacher.
• Is tusa a rinne é. - It was you who did it.

Polite Form

Irish does not generally have a formal “you” for showing respect. Strangers, elders, and superiors are all addressed with tú (singular you).

• Conas atá tú, a Uachtaráin? - How are you, Mr. President?

The only common exception is when addressing a member of the clergy, where sibh (plural you) can be used as a mark of respect (the plural of honour or iolra an ómóis).

• Conas atá sibh, a Athair? - How are you, Father?

Emphatic Forms

Emphatic forms are used to highlight or contrast a person. They are required in certain situations:

• In lists of people:
  • mise agus tusa - you and I
• As the predicate in identification sentences with the copula:
  • Is mise Pól. - I am Paul.
• In calls or commands:
  • Haigh, tusa! - Hey, you!

For inanimate objects, emphasis is shown using féin (self) or a demonstrative like sin (that), not the personal emphatic suffixes.

The Impersonal Pronoun ea

The pronoun ea (older spelling eadh) is a remnant of the neuter gender, which no longer exists in modern Irish. It translates as “it” but has a very specific and limited use. It can only be used as a predicate with the copula.

Its main uses include:

• In classification sentences with an indefinite predicate:
  • Múinteoir is ea í. - She is a teacher. (Literally: “A teacher, it is she.”)
• In answers to classification questions:
  • An dochtúir thú? - Ní hea, ach múinteoir. - Are you a doctor? - No, a teacher.
• In short questions and answers:
  • Seán a rinne é, an ea? - Is ea. - Seán did it, is that so? - Yes.
• To connect an adverbial phrase to a main clause:
  • Thall ansiúd is ea atá sí ina cónaí. - Over there is where she lives.
• In the phrase más ea (if so):
  • Ach más ea, déanfaidh mé é! - But if so, I will do it!

In all other contexts where English uses an impersonal “it”, Irish uses the masculine pronoun sé or é. This is common in expressions about weather, time, and distance.

• Tá sé te. - It is hot.
• Tá sé a naoi a chlog. - It is nine o’clock.

eadhon

The form eadhon is the emphatic version of ea. Today, it is used only in writing to mean “that is” or “namely”, often abbreviated as .i. (from the Latin id est).

amhlaidh

The word amhlaidh (so, thus) is a fossilised prepositional pronoun from amhail (like) + eadh (it), literally meaning “like it is”.

• Tá sin amhlaidh! - That’s how it is!
• Is amhlaidh a bhuail tú an fear. - What you did was hit the man. (Used for emphasis).

muid vs sinn

Both muid and sinn mean “we”. Sinn is the older, original form, while muid developed from the verb ending -imid.

• Sinn is more traditional and is strongly associated with Munster Irish.
• Muid originated in Ulster and has now become the more common form in most of the country, including in the official standard.

While some recommend using muid as a subject form (Tuigeann muid) and sinn as an object form (Tuigeann tú sinn), this is not a strict rule, and muid is frequently used in all positions.

tú vs thú

In Connacht and Ulster Irish, tú is generally the subject form and thú is the object form. The rules are slightly more complex in the standard language.

Use unlenited tú / tusa:

• As the subject of a verb: Rinne tú é. - You did it.
• Immediately after the copula: Is tusa mo ghrá. - You are my love.
• After the conjunction agus: mise agus tusa - you and I.
• After non-conjugated prepositions: gan tusa - without you.

Use lenited thú / thusa:

• As the object of a verb: Feicim thú. - I see you.
• As the subject in a copula sentence when it does not immediately follow the copula: Is dochtúir thú. - You are a doctor.
• To add emphasis to a command: Léigh thusa é! - You read it!

Order of Persons

When listing people, Irish places the 1st person (mé, mise) first, followed by the 2nd person (tú, tusa), and finally the 3rd person (é, í, nouns). This is the opposite of the polite convention in English.

• Bhí mise agus tusa agus eisean ann. - He, you, and I were there.
• Bhí mise agus mo chairde in Éirinn. - My friends and I were in Ireland.

Agreement in Gender and Number

Pronouns in the 3rd person (sé, sí) must agree with the grammatical gender and number of the noun they refer to, but there are several important exceptions.

Gender Agreement

• People: For nouns referring to people, the pronoun matches the person’s natural gender, not the noun’s grammatical gender. an cailín (the girl) is a masculine noun, but the pronoun is sí (she).
• Animals: For animals, the pronoun usually matches the noun’s grammatical gender, regardless of the animal’s actual sex. stail (stallion) is a feminine noun, so the pronoun is sí (she).
• Ships: All ships, boats, and vessels take the feminine pronoun í, regardless of the grammatical gender of the noun used (bád is masculine, long is feminine).
  • Is bád deas í. - It is a nice boat.
• General Reference: When referring to something of unknown gender or to a general statement, the masculine pronoun é is used.
  • Is é mo bharúil go… - It is my opinion that…

Number Agreement

• Collective Nouns: Nouns that are singular in form but refer to a group (e.g., muintir - people, beirt - two people, foireann - team) can take a plural pronoun when the focus is on the individual members.
  • Is iad an bheirt is fearr iad. - They are the two best. (an bheirt is singular, iad is plural).

Emphatic Suffixes

A common way to add emphasis is by attaching a suffix to a pronoun, noun, or verb. These suffixes serve to contrast or highlight the person involved.

The suffix is chosen based on the final vowel of the word it attaches to.

These suffixes can be attached to:

• Personal pronouns: mise, tusa, seisean

• Possessive pronouns (after the noun): mo theachsa (my house), a theachsan (his house)

• Prepositional pronouns: agamsa (at me), aigesean (at him)

• Synthetic verb forms: táimse (I am), tuigimse (I understand)

• An bhfuil tusa ag labhairt liomsa? - Are you talking to me?

Alternatives to Emphatic Suffixes

Instead of suffixes, emphasis can also be added using:

• The reflexive pronoun féin (self): mé féin (myself), é féin (himself).
• Demonstrative pronouns (3rd person only): é sin (that one), iad seo (these ones).

Unlike the suffixes, these alternatives can be used for inanimate objects and animals as well as people.