Abair (to say)

abair (to say) is one of the eleven irregular verbs in Irish. It is extremely common and essential for everyday conversation. Its irregularity comes from using several different stems for different tenses and moods, such as deir-, dúirt-, déar-, and abair-.

Conjugation

Present Tense

The present tense uses the stem deir-.

• Deir sé an fhírinne i gcónaí. - He always tells the truth.

Past Tense (Preterite)

The past tense uses the stem dúirt-. A key feature of abair is that it does not use a preterite particle like d'.

• Dúirt mé leis teacht abhaile. - I told him to come home.

Because abair does not use the past tense particles d', níor, ar, or gur, its dependent forms use the particles associated with the present and future tenses (ní, an, go, nach).

• Ní dúirt sé tada. - He said nothing.
• An ndúirt tú leis? - Did you tell him?
• Sílim go ndúirt sé é. - I think that he said it.

Imperfect Tense

The imperfect tense also uses the stem deir- to describe past habitual actions.

• Deirinn leis gach lá, ach níor éist sé. - I used to tell him every day, but he didn’t listen.

Future Tense

The future tense uses the stem déar-.

• Déarfaidh mé leis amárach. - I will tell him tomorrow.

Conditional Mood

The conditional mood also uses the stem déar-.

• Déarfainn an fhírinne dá bhfiafródh sé díom. - I would tell the truth if he asked me.

Imperative Mood

The imperative mood uses the stem abair-.

• Abair é arís! - Say it again!

Subjunctive Mood

The subjunctive mood uses the stem deir-.

Present Subjunctive

• Go ndeire tú an fhírinne. - May you tell the truth.

Past Subjunctive The past subjunctive is identical in form to the imperfect indicative.

• Dá ndeirinn an scéal, ní chreidfeá mé. - If I were to tell the story, you wouldn’t believe me.

Verbal Noun and Verbal Adjective

• Verbal Noun: rá

• Genitive of Verbal Noun: rá (substantive) or ráite (infinitive)

• Verbal Adjective: ráite

• Tá sé deacair é sin a rá. - It is difficult to say that.

• Tar éis a ráite dóibh... - After it was said by them…

• An scéal ráite - The spoken story

Mutations

The forms of abair that begin with d- (deir, dúirt, déar-) are never lenited in the standard language. This is because they historically began with a vowel (adeir, adúirt).

• An fear a deir an fhírinne. - The man who tells the truth. (No lenition after direct relative a)
• Cad deir tú? - What are you saying? (The relative particle a is often omitted after cad)

The only standard exception is after the negative particle nár in the subjunctive mood.

• D'iarr mé air nár dheire sé focal. - I asked him that he might not say a word.

Usage with Direct Speech

When quoting direct speech, Irish often uses the defective verb ar or arsa instead of a form of abair. ar is used before the pronouns seisean, sise, siadsan, while arsa is used before nouns or other pronouns.

• "Tá an ceart agat," ar sise. - “You are right,” said she.
• "Is lá breá é," arsa Seán. - “It’s a fine day,” said Seán.

If abair is used after direct speech, it must be in a relative clause.

• "Beidh mé ann," a dúirt sí. - “I will be there,” she said.

Dialectal Variations