Irish adjectives (aidiachtaí) have three declensions, each with the same case structure as the nouns i.e. nominative, vocative, genitive, dative.

An adjective is simply a word which describes the noun it qualifies. For example, a car could be small, red, wide or powerful. It provides further information about the noun it qualifies. Adjectives in Irish come after the noun, not before as happens in English.

Irish adjectives

Attributive Adjective

To begin let’s look at some examples:

In Irish, the adjective describing the noun mutates or changes depending on the gender of the noun. This should be easy to remember because it mirrors another example of when using the definite article (an) and a noun.

In the above examples, the adjective qualifies the noun, i.e. gives us more information about the noun. Therefore this is an example of an Attributive Adjective.

1. If the word is feminine, both the noun and the adjective are lenited e.g. An charraig mhór / The big rock.
2. If the word is masculine, both the noun and adjective following it are unchanged e.g. An gúna mór / The big dress.

As we have already seen adjectives that begin with a consonant after masculine nouns see no change: whereas consonants after feminine nouns are lenited (where possible). If the noun is feminine but the adjective begins with an l, n, or r, it cannot be lenited e.g. gníomhaíocht luachmhar.

Remember: Attributive adjectives depend on the noun’s gender, number (“number” as in whether the noun is singular or plural) and case.

But what if the adjective following the noun begins with a vowel?

It’s quite simple. If the adjective begins with a vowel, it doesn’t change at all e.g. uirlis (fem.) iontach.

What about adjectives in their plural form?

When a noun is in its plural form, the adjective must also be plural. But it’s important to note that when a noun and an adjective are made plural, the rules above relating to gender do not apply. Plural adjectives are lenited if the noun they modify ends in a consonant, regardless of gender (but it’s pointing out that most nouns with plurals ending in a consonant are masculine).

There are certain ways to make an adjective plural in Irish (aside from simply looking them up on Teanglann or Foclóir).

1. If the last vowel in an adjective is slender (i or e), we add ‘e’ to the word to make it plural.
2. If the last vowel in an adjective is broad (a,o or u), we add ‘a’ to the word to make it plural.
3. If the adjective ends with ‘air’, it changes to ‘ra’ to make it plural
4. If the adjective ends in ‘úil’, it changes to ‘úla’ to make it plural.

If the last vowel in the plural form of the noun is slender, then the initial consonant of the adjective will be lenited. For example:

Predicative Adjective

We must not forget other instances when nouns and adjectives come together. Let’s take a look at another example:

The adjective describes the state of the noun, rather than referring directly to it itself. And so, the noun is not qualified by the adjective. The adjective is used to provide information about the subject of the sentence. This is an example of a Predicative Adjective.

In these cases, it’s important to note that no change is made to the adjectives that follow the noun, regardless of the gender of the noun, or whether the noun is singular or plural.

What about multiple adjectives in a sentence?

Note that there are quite a few conflicting notes on which order adjectives should be in following the noun. For example the rule given in the book “The Celtic Languages” (the Cambridge one) is: Size → age → colour → quality → provenance

But you will also see: Size → quality → colour → origin

The overall “size → quality → provenance” idea is something you can probably lean on, though if you’re looking to be consistent!

Adjectives as adverbs

An adverb modifies a verb and not a noun, in English examples include, loudly, quickly, softly, quietly. In Irish it’s easy to create and the particle go appears before the adjective. Go requires an h-prefix preceding a vowel.

Tá mé sciobtha – I am fast (predicative)
D’oibrigh mé go sciobtha – I work fast (adverbial)

Some adjectives of opinion take the adverbial particle go when used with the verb bí. Here are nine common ones:

You can listen to the above in this sound file here (in a different order – I chose to write them alphabetically).

Note: Go is omitted in the presence of additional adverbs. For example:

Go does not appear with the copula

Using the copula with the adjective

I have an in-depth piece on the copula here, however, for this section, I would like to note that normally the verb tá is used with the adjectives, e.g. tá sé glic. The copula is, however, has a limited use with certain adjectives. Below are a few examples:

You will also see it used in exclamatory use, for example:

Use of chomh with adjectives

There are six main instances of how the word chomh works with adjectives.

With le

Chomh … le is a structure we use when expressing something is ‘as … as’ for example:

When is is followed by the direct relative

Chomh … is is a structure that is followed by the direct relative and is used to express ‘as … as’ as well. Note: this is can be seen as well as a shortened version of agus. For example:

With sin

Chomh … sin is used to express ‘all that’, ‘so that…’

With céanna

Chomh … céanna are used to express ‘just as’. For example:

As an exclamation

Chomh … le can be also used to express ‘how … is’. For example:

Note: This isn’t a structure that’s typical in Munster. Instead, you’d get nach ard í Cáit, or even something like cad é an aoirde atá i gCáit / cén aoirde atá i gCáit.

In questions

Chomh … le can be also used to express ‘how … is’ in questions. For example:

Note: This (distinct) structure in the examples below also isn’t typical in at least traditional West Munster Irish. You could also use the interrogative version of the exclamation above, cén aoirde atá i gCáit?

The Verbal Adjective

This describes a state resulting from an action. Below is how the formation of this occurs. Firstly let’s look at examples of one-syllable roots:

As you can see, the above have the following endings: te, ta

Now let’s look at examples of two-syllable roots:

The use of the adjective with the genitive of masculine nouns and feminine nouns

Masculine Nouns

An adjective following a masculine noun in the genitive is lenited and in the case of one-syllable adjectives (that don’t end in ll, m, nn, rr) the final consonant is made slender.

Adjectives ending in -(e)ach change to -(a)igh

Feminine nouns

Adjectives ending in -ach change to -(a)í

Genitive plural of all declensions and the adjective

For most nouns, the genitive plural is identical either with its nominative plural or nominative singular form. And similarly, the adjective also sometimes uses the nominative singular and nominative plural form – basically, if the noun uses the nominative singular form etc. the adjective does likewise. No matter what form of the adjective is used in the genitive plural, the initial consonant is never lenited.

Prefixed adjectives

Few attributive adjectives do not follow the noun they modify but are prefixed to it, causing lenition on the noun. The most common of these are sean (old) and fíor (true), incidentally which also occur normally as predicates. Some examples:

Other prefixes that function as attributive equivalents of other adjectives include:

In these compounds, the prefixed adjective and noun are treated as one word, and the adjective, being the first syllable, receives the main stress when pronounced.

Other prefixes can be attached to adjectives for intensified meaning. For example, an- (very), ró- (excessively), rí- and barr- (excellent).

Note on hyphens in general

From the Caighdeán Oifigiúil 2.1.7. Prefixes are hyphenated in compound words:

• When the prefixation brings two vowels or two identical consonants together e.g. droch-chaint
• When two vowels come together e.g. ró-olc
• When between two prefixes e.g., comh-cheolfhoireann; mór-cheoldráma; sin-seanathair;
• In cases where there is a danger that the compound word would be unrecognisable without the hyphen, for example between the prefixes do-, fo-, so- and words beginning with bha-, bhla-, bhra-, dha-, gha-, ghla-, ghra-, mha-, e.g., so-mharaithe i.e. to distinguish that there is a prefix there.
• in specific titles and initials e.g., an Ard-Chúirt; an tArd-Aighne; an Príomh-Aire; an Príomh-Bhreitheamh
• after an- (strong prefix) and after dea- e.g., an-aimsir; dea-bhéas. Note that the second word in a compound word is not omitted after an- when followed by d, t or s e.g., an-duine is ea é; an-drochaimsir (Further reading in the Caighdeán 10.2.12).

Other notes about hyphens:

• Two hyphens are in a compound word when there is a need for clarity e.g., an-dea-aimsir; an-droch-chaint; iar-nua-aimseartha; an Leas-Phríomh-Aire.
• An administrative term containing more than one prefix need not be hyphenated if the meaning of the term is clear without it, e.g. comhfhochoiste; roghfhochoiste
• Note that if iar comes before a title that begins with a capital letter, there is no need to put a hyphen between iar and the title, e.g. an t-iarArd-Reachtaire Cuntas agus Ciste.

Further reading:

• Irish noun genders and how to recognise them
• What happens when nouns and adjectives come together
• Possessive adjectives
• The Comparative and Superlative in Irish

References and Resources:

• An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (2017) (Written in Irish)
• Learning Irish (Written in English)
• The Celtic Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys) (Written in English)
• Úrchúrsa Gaeilge (Written in Irish)
• Nualéargais (Site unavailable but may come back online)
• Graiméar an Draoi (Written in Irish)
• Cruinnscríobh na Gaeilge (Written in Irish)

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