Breton/Level 1/Lesson 3

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Basic Grammar rules[edit | edit source]

Sentence structure[edit | edit source]

English is an adjective-noun-language.
This means the Adjective (Describing Word) comes before the Noun (Subject)
and the Noun, before the verb (doing)

Eg.

The big   man   went  to Brittany.
(adj.)  (noun) (verb)

Breton on the other hand is a noun-adjective-language, which means that the noun comes before the adjective.

Eg.

   An       den       bras      a zo aet  da Vreizh.
(article)  (noun)  (adjective)  (verb)    da Vreizh.

Literally: The man big went to Brittany.


Articles[edit | edit source]

Definite articles:

al     before "l"
an     before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels
ar     before other letters

Example:

  • al levr (the book)
  • an nor (the door - note that "dor" mutes into "nor" after the article : "dor", "an nor")
  • ar paotr (the boy)


Undefinite articles:

ul     before "l"
un     before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels
ur     before other letters

Pronunciation : ul = eul, un = eun, ur = eur.

Example:

  • ul levr (a book)
  • un nor (a door - note that "dor" mutes into "nor" after the article : "dor", "un nor")
  • ur paotr (a boy)

Combination:

"e" (in) is contracted with the article (al, an, ar) to give:

el     before "l"
en     before "n", "d", "t", "h" and vowels
er     before other letters

Exercises[edit | edit source]

Write the following sentences with the correct grammar.

The man is big.

(Words : an (the), a zo (is), den (man) , braz (big))

The new church is beautiful.

(Words : an, a zo, iliz (church), nevez (new), brav (beautiful)

The big man went into the church, thereafter, to the old town hall.

(Words : an (the), da (to), ebarzh (into), goude se (after that, thereafter), kozh (old), nevez (new), den (man), braz (big), Ti-Ker (Town Hall), a zo aet (went))


>> Go to Answers page