Easing into the Future
It’s one thing to memorize charts of endings, but another to internalize the sounds and make them useful. In this exercise we’ll take English verbs and apply Irish changes to them, in order to get a better feel for how to produce them naturally in speech.
Type 1 future verb forms, in Irish, add the suffix -f(a)idh to the verb, and don’t change the beginning. These are usually one syllable words, like
tuig, tuigfidhunderstand, will understand
cinn, cinnfidhdecide, will decide
measc, meascfaidhmix, will mix
las, lasfaidhlight, will light / turn on, will turn on
Type 2 future verb forms add the suffix -óidh, or -eoidhand don’t change the front of the word either. These are usually verbs ending in -(a)igh, like
mothaigh, mothóidhfeel, will feel
imigh, imeoidhleave, will leave
but can also be other multiple syllable words like,
oscail, osclóidhopen, will open
obair, oibreoidhwork, will work
(note: verbs ending in the common suffix -áil, are type 1)
So here’s what we’ll do.-f(a)idh makes an [a] sound, and -(e)oidh makes a simple [o] sound.
Put the appropriate endings on the English verbs, changing them as needed. Remember to put the verb at the front of the sentence, and put any subject pronouns into Irish as well, just to make the transition smoother. If it’s easy putting any other words of the sentence in Irish, go right ahead.
For example:
He will force the door open.
Force-a sé an door open.
I will bend the spoon, with my mind.
Bend-a mé an spoon, with my mind.
She will squander her inheritance.
Squandr-o sí a hInheritance.
We will handle the problem.
Handl-o muid an problem.
Easing into the Future
They will brand all the cattle.
______
She will change the measurements.
______Henry will flee the country.
______
We will all remember the fallen soldiers.
______
The king will banish the transgressors.
______
The intense sun will scorch the earth.
______
Some mice will nibble the old cheese.
______
The protests will excite a frenzy.
______
His proposal will fluster the board members.
______
The bullies will gang up on the nerds, but they will fight back.
______
You will open the store when I tell you to.
______