Bearn
Member Username: Bearn
Post Number: 572 Registered: 06-2007
| Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 10:01 am: |
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Look at this easy way to remember: Masculine singular nouns: These are like the indefinite articles in English: A cat An apple Look at Irish: An cat An t-éan If you remember that t-prefixing is like keeping the n in the indefinite article in English before an initial vowel, it becomes easy to remember Feminine singular nouns: These are easy to remember because (a): Initial lenition of consonants: An ghloine (b): t-prefixing is a form of lenition, so it is natural to have it on the s in the feminine noun set An tsúil Masculine singular genitive: An chait An éin An tsagairt Here it is natural to have the t prefix to the s as t-prefixing is lenition in another form. No prefixing to the vowel as no lenition can happen there. Feminine singular genitive: The feminine article na is used and causes no initial change except for before vowels as this is to stop an hiatus event Masculine plural: The plural article na is used and again causes no initial change except for before vowels to stop an hiatus event Feminine plural: It is the same above as gender diffracted by case does not matter in the plural in Irish Masculine genitive plural: The old genitive plural article nan/nam survives in the form of na plus the initial eclipsis of the following consonant or n-prefixing to vowel: Na bhfear Na n-éan Na sagart Feminine genitive plural: The same as above: the old genitive plural article nan/nam survives in the form of na plus the initial eclipsis of the following consonant or n-prefixing to vowel: Na gloiní Na súl Na n-áiteacha sold!
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