Preverbal Particles
Irish uses a number of preverbal particles to modify the meaning of a sentence. In a positive statement, no particle is used and the verb comes first (except in Munster Irish where "Do" is placed before verbs in the past, habitual past and conditional, leniting the verb that follows). This is still seen in the Standard Language in said tenses, prefixed to verbs beginning with vowels, e.g., D'ól mé (D'ólas in Munster Irish) meaning "I drank":
- Tuigeann Seán Gaeilge. "Seán understands Irish."
- Thuig Seán Gaeilge. "Seán understood Irish."
- Thuigfeadh Seán Gaeilge. "Seán would understand Irish."
Read more about this topic: Irish Conjugation
Famous quotes containing the word particles:
“In another’s sentences the thought, though it may be immortal, is as it were embalmed, and does not strike you, but here it is so freshly living, even the body of it not having passed through the ordeal of death, that it stirs in the very extremities, and the smallest particles and pronouns are all alive with it. It is not simply dictionary it, yours or mine, but IT.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)