Irish Syntax - Normal Word Order

Normal Word Order

The normal word order in an Irish sentence is:

  1. Preverbal particle
  2. Verb
  3. Subject
  4. Direct object or predicate adjective
  5. Indirect object
  6. Location descriptor
  7. Manner descriptor
  8. 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:

    “Normality highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.”
    —R.D. (Ronald David)

    “It is nor hand, nor foot,
    Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
    Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
    What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
    By any other word would smell as sweet;
    So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
    Retain that dear perfection which he owes
    Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
    And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
    Take all myself.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “It’s a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.”
    —Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)