Normal Word Order
The normal word order in an Irish sentence is:
- Preverbal particle
- Verb
- Subject
- Direct object or predicate adjective
- Indirect object
- Location descriptor
- Manner descriptor
- Time descriptor
Only the verb and subject are obligatory; all other parts are optional (unless the primary or finite verb is transitive, in which case a direct object is required). In synthetic verb forms, the verb and subject are united in a single word, so that even one-word sentences are possible, e.g. Tuigim "I understand."
An example sentence:
| Labhraíonn | Mícheál | Gaeilge | le Cáit | go minic. |
| speaks | Mícheál | Irish | with Cáit | often |
| Verb | Subject | Dir.obj. | Ind.obj. | Time |
| "Mícheál speaks Irish with Cáit often." | ||||
Read more about this topic: Irish Syntax
Famous quotes containing the words normal, word and/or order:
“The normal present connects the past and the future through limitation. Contiguity results, crystallization by means of solidification. There also exists, however, a spiritual present that identifies past and future through dissolution, and this mixture is the element, the atmosphere of the poet.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)
“Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)