A chairde,

The following table may prove useful to those students who are confused over which conjunction to use in a subordinate clause.

		POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
verb	present / future	go (ecl)	nach (ecl)
	past	gur (len)	nár (len)
copula	present / future	gur	nach
	before vowel	gurb	nach
	past / conditional	gur (len)	nár (len)
	before vowel	gurbh (len)	nárbh (len)

(ecl) eclipses a following verb
(len) aspirates a following verb.

Le meas,

(Message edited by Larry on March 22, 2005)

Thanks!

So "gur fearr" = "it is better"

"gurbh fhearr" = "it was/would be better"


Correct?

Yep, correct.

[Ba + fhearr] = B'fhearr

It'd be better to leave that at home if you went away with John.
B'fhearr é sin a fhágáil sa bhaile dá n-imeofá le Seán.
Dúirt sé gurbh fhearr é sin a fhágáil sa bhaile dá n-imeoinn le Seán.


It's better to quit while you're ahead
Is fearr éirí as agus tú chun tosaigh
Deir sé gur fearr éirí as agus tú chun tosaigh

Yep. Sometimes you have "go mb’ fhearr" as well but it’s not Standard Irish.

Further to the table above:

There are six of the irregular verbs which use go / nach in the past tense instead of gur / nár.

Verb	Dependant form	Positive	Negative
Abair (say)	dúirt	go ndúirt	nach ndúirt
Bí (be)	raibh	go raibh	nach raibh
Déan (do / make)	dearna	go ndearna	nach ndearna
Faigh (get)	fuair	go bhfuair	nach bhfuair
Feic (see)	faca	go bhfaca	nach bhfaca
Téigh (go)	deachaigh	go ndeachaigh	nach ndeachaigh

I apologise if my first table has caused any confusion...

In Ulster there are differences:

Remove "abair" because we say ’d’úrt’ > gur úrt, nár úrt
Add "tabhair" > thug > go dtug, nach dtug
Add "tar" > tháinig > go dtáinig, nach dtáinig


Déan gives > rinn > go dtearn/go dtearr, nach dtearn/dtearr

Téigh gives > chuaigh > go dteachaigh, nach dteachaigh