Simple sentences in Irish follow the Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) word order. This means that the verb comes first, followed by the doer of the action, followed by the object on which the action occurs.
This Irish Language Word Order is different to English or French, which follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order.
| Verb | Subject | Object | English |
| Imríonn | Seán | peil | Séan plays football |
| Caitheann | sí | gúna | She wears a dress |
| Itheann | Dónal | úlla | Donal eats an apple |
| Scríobhann | siad | scéalta | They write stories |
Please note that the verb “to be” in Irish does not fully follow the usual word order as outlined above. There are two ways to express “to be” in the Present Tense in Irish. Sometimes we use Tá, and sometimes we use An Chopail/The Copula Is.
Some verbs in Irish cannot have a direct object on which they act. The verb bí/to be is an example of this. Bí can have a subject, i.e. the person doing the ‘being’, but it cannot affect an object. This is why we cannot say ‘tá sé fear’ or ‘Bhí Séamus peileadóir’.
Phrases using bí tend to be followed by adjectives, verbal nouns and adverbs which provide additional information about the subject, e.g. ‘Tá sé go maith’/‘He is well’ and ‘Bhí Síle ag imirt peile’/‘Síle was playing football’.
You will find an example sentence below which uses Tá and Is. Note how they differ from the usual word order in Irish.
| The Verb (the action) | The Subject (the doer of the action) | No Direct Object – Adjective | English |
| Tá | mé | go maith | I am well |
| Tá | Mícheál | dathúil | Mícheál is handsome |
| The Copula (Conveys “Being”) | The Predicate (Piece of Information) | The Subject (The thing the piece of information is about) | English |
| Is | bean | mé | I am a woman |
| Is | múinteoir | mé | I am a teacher |
Read my in-depth copula piece here.
Other verbs do not have direct objects but do have indirect objects which are connected to the subject and the verb with the help of prepositions. Read my piece on Irish prepositions here. An example of this is the verb téigh/to go. For example:
| Téann sí chuig an siopa | She goes to the shop |
| Chuaigh Liam go hAlbain. | Liam went to Scotland |
Does Irish poetry change the VSO order to SVO or even SOV depending on the context? Or is VSO effectively fossilised?
Not exactly sure with regards to modern Irish poetry, though things like “ní fheaca” / ‘I haven’t seen anything, I haven’t seen a (single) thing’ exists also in prose – you can put object of negative sentence first to emphasize its negation (instead of attributing it with aon, ar bith, etc).
Also you do see lines like “Báidín Fheilimí d’imigh go Toraí” in songs with subject first though, you could interpret it as “is é báidín Fheilimi (a) d’imigh go Toraigh” but not sure if that’s really what whoever wrote the song meant originally)
Historically – in Classical Gaelic poetry and earlier – the word order was indeed largely free.