An Aimsir Chaite - The Past Tense

The past tense describes an event which has already happened.

You can read my in-depth piece on Irish declensions here.

Regular Verbs

The regular verbs in Irish come in two types — 1st Conjugation and 2nd Conjugation verbs. Generally speaking, 1st Conjugation verbs have only one syllable. 2nd Conjugation verbs have two or more.

There are quite a few quick rules you can use to remember what to do with the Past Tense in Irish.

Add séimhiú to the verb that begins with a consonant (where possible) e.g. Chuir / Bhris / Thug / Ghlan
If the verb starts with a vowel, add a d’ to the beginning of it e.g. D’éist, D’éirigh, D’amharc, D’óil
When the verb begins with an f, put a d’ before the verb and lenite the verb. e.g. D’fhan, D’fhág, D’fhreastail, D’fhoghlaim
Add the noun after the verb e.g. D’éist mé, D’fhan sé, Bhris Seán, Chríochnaigh Mamaí

Remember that you cannot lenite words that begin with l, n, r, sc, sm, sp and st.

For the “we” form of the verb, you add “eamar” as the verb’s ending if it’s slender or “amar” if it’s broad and a one-syllable verb. However, for a two-syllable verb, you add “íomar” if it’s slender or “aíomar” if it’s
broad.

Past tense endings for 1st Conjugation:

cuir	chuir mé/tú/sé/sí, chuireamar, chuir sibh/siad
éist	d’éist mé/tú/sé/sí, d’éisteamar, d’éist sibh/siad
dún	dhún mé/tú/sé/sí, dhúnamar, dhún sibh/siad
fan	d’fhan mé/tú/sé/sí, d’fhanamar, d’fhan sibh/siad

Past tense endings for 2nd Conjugation:

deisigh	dheisigh mé/tú/sé/sí, dheisíomar, dheisigh sibh/siad
éirigh	d’éirigh mé/tú/sé/sí, d’éiríomar, d’éirigh sibh/siad
freagair	d’fhreagair mé/tú/sé/sí, d’fhreagraíomar*, d’fhreagair sibh/siad
cheannaigh	cheannaigh mé/tú/sé/sí, cheannaíomar, cheannaigh sibh/siad

About past tense lenition and d’

You may note in the instructions above that standard Irish prescribes lenition for consonant-fronted verbs in the past tense and the addition of d’ for those which start with a vowel or fh.

However, historically, the Irish language had a particle do before past tense verbs (shortened to d’ before vowels and fh) and this particle caused lenition. The do is now omitted in all dialects except Munster. Keep an eye out on Munster, and you will see things like ‘do bhíos’.

Questions and negatives

Use the particles ar/níor. To put a verb into the past negative in Irish, put níor before the verb and aspirate the verb. Do not add a d’ after níor. Instead, aspirate words beginning with f. Níor is the negative statement particle for the past tense.

Similarly to put any verb into the past question form, put ar before the verb and aspirate the verb. Do not add a d’ after ar. Instead, aspirate words beginning with f. A vowel can never be aspirated after ar. Ar is the question particle in the past tense.

Ar cheannaigh tú mála nua?	Did you buy a new bag?
Ar ól mé?	Did I drink?
Ar fhan tú?	Did you stay?
Níor bhain mé sult as an scannán	I didn’t enjoy the movie
Níor ól mé	I didn’t drink
Níor fhan mé	I didn’t stay

Use the particles gur/nár

Indirect speech is almost always used to talk about something that has happened in the past. Like questions and negative statements, it also takes the dependent form.

Nár is the negative question particle in the past tense and nár is the negative relative clause particle in the past tense. Gur is the affirmative relative clause particle in the past tense.

Sílim gur fhág sé ag a sé	I think that he left at six
Cheap mé nár thóg tú do mhála	I thought you didn’t take your bag
Deir sé gur éirigh sé	He says that he woke
Deir sé gur cheannaíomar	He says that we bought
Deir sé gur ól sibh	He says that you (plural) drank
Nár cheannaigh mé?	Did I not buy?
Nár fhreagraíomar?	Did we not answer?

Irregular Verbs

There are eleven irregular verbs in Irish. These verbs are called irregular because they do not follow the general rules of the past tense (*except for ith, which does follow the regular rules!)

	Verb	Positive	Negative	Question
to be	bí	bhí mé	ní raibh mé	an raibh tú?
to say	abair	dúirt mé	ní dúirt mé	an ndúirt tú?
to go	téigh	chuaigh mé	ní dheachaigh mé	an ndeachaigh tú?
to see	feic	chonaic mé	ní fhaca mé	an bhfaca tú?
to do	déan	rinne mé	ní dhearna	an ndearna tú?
to get	faigh	fuair mé	ní bhfuair mé	an bhfuair tú?
to eat	ith*	d’ith mé	níor ith mé	ar ith tú?
to hear	clois	chuala mé	níor chuala mé	ar chuala tú?
to give	tabhair	thug mé	níor thug mé	ar thug tú?
to come	tar	tháinig mé	níor tháinig mé	ar tháinig tú?
to catch	beir ar	rug mé ar	níor rug mé ar	ar rug tú ar?

Use the particles gur/nár with irregular verbs

The irregular verbs beir, clois, tabhair and tar follow the conventional rules and both gur and nár cause lenition.

Dúirt sí nár chuala sí an clog	She said that she didn’t hear the bell
Dúirt sé gur thug	He said that he gave

Use the particles go/nach with irregular verbs

However, other irregular verbs abair, bí, déan, faigh, feic, ith and téigh do not follow these rules. Instead, they use nach and go in the past tense (they have dependent past forms).

Foirm tháite / Synthetic Verb Forms

I thought this would be worth mentioning as many people don’t say, for example, ‘bhí mé’ and instead use the synthetic form, ‘bhíos’, another example would be instead of ‘thug mé’ you would use ‘thugas’. This is quite a common trait in the overall Munster dialect. Synthetic verb forms are verbs that have personal endings instead of being accompanied by separate pronouns.

To figure out the synthetic forms, I highly recommend using Réimnigh.ie which allows you to filter by major dialect.

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

An Aimsir Chaite – The Past Tense