Breton/Level 1/Lesson 3

Basic Grammar rules

Sentence structure

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

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

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))

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