An+Aimsir+Chaite

Example: **STEM PAST TENSE** Bris (to break) Bhris mé (I broke)😩 Cuir (to put) C__**h**__uir mé (I put) Glan (to clean) G__**h**__lan tú (You cleaned)
 * Aimsir Chaite ** **1. put a 'h' in after a consonant.**

** Don’t forget: You must add on a person which will help the verb. ** There are seven persons in Irish which we must learn · mé (I) · tú (you) · sé (he) · sí (she) · sinn (we) · sibh (you plural) · siad (they) Don’t forget – you can also put someone’s name or the description of who the person is after the verb.

C**h**uir an múinteoir (the teacher put) G**h**lan an dochtúir (the doctor cleaned) B**h**ris Úna an peann (Úna broke the pen)

If you want to make your sentence **NEGATIVE**, simply put the word **Níor** before the verb.

**Níor** c**h**uir an múinteoir (the teacher didn’t put) **Níor** g**h**lan an dochtúir (the doctor didn't clean) **Níor** b**h**ris Úna an peann (Úna didn’t break the pen)

If you want to make your sentence a **QUESTION**, simply put the word **Ar** before the verb. **Ar** c**h**uir an múinteoir an peann ar an mbord? **Ar** g**h**lan an dochtúir an fhuinneog? **Ar** b**h**ris tú an ndoras?

** IMPORTANT (CANNOT PUT A 'H' OR D' TO FOLLOWING VERBS) (THESE ARE ONLY SOME) ** Example: **STEM PAST TENSE** Las (to light) Las mé an tine (I lit the fire) Rith (to run) Rith mé go gasta (I ran very fast) Scuab (to brush) Scuab mé mo chuid gruaige (I brushed my hair)

** 2. Verbs that begin with a vowel **

Just like English there are five vowels in Irish, a, e, i, o, u. There are special rules for verbs that begin with vowels in the past tense.

We must put **d’** before the stem.

**STEM PAST TENSE** Ól (to drink) **D’**ól mé (I drank) Ith (to eat) **D’**ith sé an ceapaire (He ate the sandwich) Éist (to listen) **D’**éist muid le U2 ar an raidió (We listened to U2 on the radio)

To make a verb negative we still put **Níor** before the verb, but this time we don’t add d’

PAST TENSE NEGATIVE **D’**ól mé (I drank) **Níor** ól mé (I didn’t drink) **D’**ith mé (I ate) **Níor** ith mé (I didn’t eat) **D’**éist muid (We listened) **Níor** éist muid (We didn’t listen)

To ask a question, we still put **Ar** before the verb, but we don’t add the d’

PAST TENSE QUESTION **D’**ól mé (I drank) **Ar** ól tú? (Did you drink?) **D’**ith mé (I ate) **Ar** ith tú? (Did you eat?) **D’**éist sí (She listened) **Ar** éist sí? (Did she listen)

** 3. Verbs that begin with the letter ‘f’ ** We must be careful with verbs that begin with the letter **‘F’** in the past tense as there are special rules.

If a stem begins with the letter **‘f’** we must put a 'h' in and put **d’** before it

Example

**STEM PAST TENSE**

Fan (to wait/to stay) **D’**f**h**an mé (I waited/I stayed) Foghlaim (to learn) **D’**f**h**oghlaim mé (I learned) Fág (to leave) **D’**f**h**ág mé (I left)

In the negative we still put the 'h' in the verb, but we drop the d’

Example

**STEM PAST TENSE NEGATIVE** Fan;**D’**f**h**an mé;Níor f**h**an mé Foghlaim;**D’**f**h**oghlaim mé;Níor f**h**oghlaim mé  Fág;**D’**f**h**ág mé;Níor f**h**ág mé

Exactly the same happens when asking a question. Put the 'h' in the stem but drop the d’ Example

STEM PAST TENSE QUESTION Fan;**D’**f**h**an mé;Ar f**h**an tú? Foghlaim;**D’**f**h**oghlaim mé;Ar f**h**oghlaim tú? Fág;**D’**f**h**ág mé;Ar f**h**ág tú?

** 4 Irregular Verbs **

** There are 11 irregular verbs in Irish (Abair, Beir, Bí, Clois, Déan, Faigh, Feic, Ith, Tabhair, Tar, Téigh ** This means that they do not follow the same rules as the other groups. We must be careful with these verbs. **__ Group A __** : **Beir** (to catch)   **Cluin** (to hear)  **Ith** (to eat)  **Tabhair** (to give)  **Tar** (to come)

In the past tense, **the stem changes**:


 * ** STEM ** || ** Positive ** || ** Negative ** || ** Question ** ||
 * ** Beir **** (to catch) ** || ** Rug ** mé ar (I caught) ||  Níor **rug** mé (I didn’t catch)  ||  Ar **rug** tú (Did you catch?)  ||
 * ** Cluin **** (to hear) ** || ** Chuala ** mé (I heard) ||  Níor **chuala** mé (I didn’t hear)  ||  Ar **chuala** tú (Did you hear?)  ||
 * ** Ith **** (to eat) ** || ** D’ith ** mé (I ate) ||  Níor **ith** mé (I didn’t eat)  ||  Ar **ith** tú? (Did you eat?)  ||
 * ** Tabhair **** (to give) ** || ** Thug ** mé (I gave) ||  Níor **thug** mé (I didn’t give)  ||  Ar **thug** tú? (Did you give?)  ||
 * ** Tar **** (to come) ** || ** Tháinig ** mé (I came) ||  Níor **tháinig** mé (I didn’t come)  ||  Ar **tháinig** tú? (Did you come?)  ||

** NB: In the negative with Group A we still use ‘Níor’ and in the question we still use ‘Ar’ **

**__ Group B __** : **Abair** (to say) **Bí** (to be) **Déan** (to do/make) **Faigh** (to get) **Feic** (to see) **Téigh** (to go)

__ Be careful with this group __. Notice that the negative and question are very very different from the stem and the positive.


 * ** STEM ** || ** Positive ** || ** Negative ** || ** Question ** ||
 * ** Abair **** (to say) ** || Dúirt mé (I said)  ||  Ní dúirt mé (I didn’t say)  ||  An ndúirt tú? (Did you say?)  ||
 * ** Bí **** (to be) ** || Bhí mé (I was)  ||  Ní raibh mé (I wasn’t)  ||  An raibh tú (Were you?)  ||
 * ** Déan **** (to do/make) ** || Rinne mé (I did/made)  ||  Ní dhearna mé (I didn’t do/make)  ||  An ndearna tú? (Did you do/make?)  ||
 * ** Faigh **** (to get) ** || Fuair mé (I got)  ||  Ní bhfuair mé (I didn’t get)  ||  An bhfuair tú? (Did you get?)  ||
 * ** Feic **** (to see) ** || Chonaic mé (I saw)  ||  Ní fhaca mé (I didn’t see)  ||  An bhfaca tú? (Did you see?)  ||
 * ** Téigh **** (to go) ** || Chuaigh mé (I went)  ||  Ní dheachaigh mé (I didn’t go)  ||  An ndeachaigh tú? (Did you go?)  ||

** This time, we use ‘Ní’ in the negative and ‘An’ in the question. ** ** These are the only verbs in the past tense that use ‘Ní’ and ‘An’. ** ** Also for past tense there is Caol and Leathan which are Slender and Broad. This means that for slender the ending will be eamar and Broad will be amar. **