Gaelic Lesson 14 – Tràth Caithte and More About Tenses

The above examples show the most common and easiest ways to create the present tense and past, using the continuous of the verb “to be” . To use the simple present (instead of the Continuous present) there is a construction, unusual in Gaelic, using the future tense.

Sgriobhadh mi or bidh mi a´sgriobhadh

The future tense used as the present simple is more common when we talk about things we do habitually and things which happen a lot or are generally true. Practice will make this clearer.  Please try to use the continuous until you have more practice with this.

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H is added to create the simple past, here is a chart of imperatives. Notice the irregular form of “DH” with vowels” and “F”.  It is also interesting to notice that nothing happens to “SG” and “R”

Imperative	English Translation	Past Tense	English Translation
fàg!	leave!	dh’fhàg	left
ionnsaich!	learn!	dh’ionnsaich	learnt
pòg!	kiss!	phòg	kissed
obair!	work!	dh’obair	worked
sabaid!	fight!	shabaid	fought
sgrìobh!	write!	sgrìobh	wrote
ruith!	run!	ruith	run
seas!	sit!	sheas	sat
teasgaisg!	teach!	theagaisg	taught
tog!	lift!	thog	lifted

dh´ionnsaich e

Dè dh‘ionnsaich thu anns an obair sin?

It is formed by exactly the same rules as the continuous present tense.

Questions etc and how to ask them will be shown later