Irish/The Article
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The Article
[edit | edit source]English has a definite article ("the") and an indefinite article ("a" or "an").
Irish has only a definite article. In situations where "a" or "an" would be used in English, the noun is used with no article.
The definite article has two forms: an and na.
- an is used in front of singular nouns
- na is used in front of plural nouns (and feminine nouns in the genitive case).
Grammatical Changes
[edit | edit source]The singular definite article "an" may change the noun it is applied to, depending on the first letter and gender of the noun:
| Consonant (b c f g m p) |
Consonant (d n t l r) |
Consonant (s but not sc, sm, sp or st) |
Vowel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | (no change) | (no change) | (no change) | t-/t |
| Feminine | séimhiú | (no change) | t | (no change) |
The plural definite article "na" changes the noun based only on its first letter:
| Consonant | Vowel |
|---|---|
| (no change) | "h" prefix |