The Autonomus Verb
Irish, like most lanugages, has verb forms for first, second, and third persons, as well as singular and plural. These link an action being performed with the person or thing performing the action:
brisim — I break
briseann tú — you break
briseann sé — he breaks
brisimid — we break
briseann sibh — you break
briseann siad — they break
briseann an fear — the man breaks
briseann na mná – the women break
But Irish also has a form that is impersonal, that simply expresses an action being performed without any reference to who or what does the action. This is used when the person performing the action is either unknown or unimportant.
In some cases, this can be translated as “One…” or “People…” or an indefinite “They…”
Óltar a lán tae in Éirinn – One drinks a lot of tea in
People drink a lot of tea in
They drink a lot of tea in
An bhfuil a fhios agat cad a thugtar ar Big Mac san Fhrainc?
Do you know what they call a Big Mac in
A Dhia! Mharaíodh Cionnaith!
Oh my God! They killed Kenny!
It can also be translate
Dúntar an geata gach oíche ar a dó an chloig.
The gate is closed every night at
They close the gate every night at
Briseadh an fhuinneoig agus mise ag an oifig
The window was broken when I was at the office
They broke the window when I was at the office
Certain verbs have specialized meanings in the autonomous form:
Faightear a leithéid seo ar fud na tire
One finds things like this all over the country =Things like this are available all over the country
Feictear dom nach bhfuil sin ceart
It is seen to me that that is not right
=That doesn’t look right to me
Samhlaíodh go raibh sé chun cur
It was imagined that it was going to rain
=It seemed like it was going to rain.
Forms of the Autonomous Verb
- In the Present Tense, the ending is -tar for verbs ending in a broad consonant, and -tear for verbs ending in a slender one.
- In the Past tense, the ending is -(e)adh or -(a)íodh
- In the Past Habitual, it ends in -t(a)í
- In the Future, it ends in -f(e)ar
- and in the Conditional it ends in -f(a)í
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