Overview

Irish has a different basic sentence structure to English. Understanding this “Verb-Subject-Object” order is the first step to forming correct sentences. This page outlines the fundamental rules for arranging words in an Irish sentence.

Verb-Subject-Object (VSO)

The standard word order in an Irish sentence is Verb - Subject - Object (VSO). This is a key difference from English, which uses a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure.

• Buaileann an fear an madra. - The man hits the dog. (Literally: Hits the man the dog.)
• Cheannaigh mé leabhar. - I bought a book. (Literally: Bought I a book.)
• Tá an spéir gorm. - The sky is blue. (Literally: Is the sky blue.)

Adjectives

In Irish, adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe.

• an madra mór - the big dog
• an spéir ghorm - the blue sky
• an fear beag - the little man

Genitive Nouns

A noun in the genitive case, which often shows possession, also comes after the noun it belongs to.

• hata an fhir - the man’s hat
• madra an chailín - the girl’s dog
• barr an chnoic - the top of the hill

Possessive Pronouns

Unlike adjectives and genitive nouns, possessive pronouns (like “my”, “your”, “his”) come before the noun.

• mo theach - my house
• a mhadra - his dog
• ár gcarr - our car

Adverbs

Adverbs, especially those indicating time and place, usually go at the end of the sentence.

• Cheannaigh mé leabhar inné. - I bought a book yesterday.
• Tá mé anseo. - I am here.
• Chonaic mé é ar an tsráid. - I saw him on the street.

Questions

Questions are typically formed by placing an interrogative particle or an interrogative pronoun at the very beginning of the sentence, before the verb.

• An bhfaca tú é? - Did you see him?
• Cé a rinne é? - Who did it?
• Cá bhfuil tú? - Where are you?

Negation

To make a sentence negative, you add a negative particle to the beginning of the sentence, before the verb.

• Ní fhaca mé é. - I did not see him.
• Níor cheannaigh mé leabhar. - I did not buy a book.
• Níl mé anseo. - I am not here.