🗣️ Gaeilge

Mo, do, a

My, your, his, her, our and their

In Irish, the word for “his”, the word for “her” and the word for “their” are all a. You tell them apart by what happens to the start of the next word.

One cat, seven owners

First, a guess. Mo chat is “my cat” and do chat is “your cat”. The word for “his” is a. What do you think “his cat” is?

Now tap each owner, and listen to what happens to cat.

Three groups

The seven owners are in three groups. Mo, do and a (his) add an h. A (her) changes nothing. Ár, bhur and a (their) put a letter in front.

So when you see a, the start of the next word tells you who the owner is. Tap a phrase, then tap whose it is.

The letter in front

The letter that goes in front depends on the first letter of the word. This change is called an urú. You say the new letter and leave out the old one, so in ár gcat you hear a g and no c.

Pick the letter you think goes in front of each word after ár (our).

All seven pairs

mbgcndbhfngbpdt

A word that starts with a vowel gets n- in front. Words that start with l, m, n, r or s don’t get a letter in front.

Where people slip

Words that start with a vowel follow their own rules, and some words never change at all. Pick the right one each time.

How do you say “my father”?

Whose father is this?

Seo a hathair.

Whose book is this?

Seo a leabhar.

Build any phrase

Pick a sentence, an owner and a thing, and listen. Watch the start of the thing each time you change the owner.

The sentence

Whose it is

The thing

Listen and pick

This time there’s nothing to read. Play it, then pick whose it is. There are over a hundred sentences in here, so it’s different every time you come back.

Spot it

Here are six to finish with. Nothing is scored or timed.

The same changes in another sentence

Here is a sentence you might know already. It has mo in it, and the word after mo has its h.

Tá mé i mo chónaí i gCiarraí.I live in Kerry.

Tá sé ina chónaí i gCiarraí.He lives in Kerry.

Tá sí ina cónaí i gCiarraí.She lives in Kerry.

Tá siad ina gcónaí i gCiarraí.They live in Kerry.

Ina is i and a joined together, so it follows the same rule. There is an h for him, no change for her, and a letter in front for them. Ciarraí has a g in front too, because i (in) causes the same change as ár.

Next time you see a in front of a word, look at the start of that word. You’ll be able to say whose it is, and why.