Personal Pronouns

for a definition of Pronoun see Pronoun (definition)

Basic Grade

The basic personal pronouns of Gaelic are used in neutral contexts (without emphasis) to indicate pronouns such as I, you, he, she, we, they. There is no distinction between nominative and accusative pronouns. (i.e. there is no difference between I and me, he and 'him, she and her, we and us and they and them in Gaelic.

person	Singular	Plural
1st	mi	sinn
2nd	thu/tu	sibh
3rd masc	e	iad
3rd fem	i	iad

Notes:

There are two forms for the 2nd person singular form (thu and 'tu), tu is used after verbs in the relative future tense and conditional mood.
The sibh is used both for plural you and as a polite form of the singular
There is no neuter pronoun (it) in Gaelic. Instead either e or i is used depending upon the gender of the noun being used.
In the plural there is no gender distinction, one form (iad) is used for both genders.

Emphatic Grade

see also Emphatic Marking and Emphatic Pronouns

There is a special form of the pronoun used in Gaelic to indicate special emphasis on the pronoun. There is no equivalent in English except stress. For example, if we wanted to say he saw ME, the Gaelic would use the special form mise: Chunnaic e mise. The emphatic forms are also obligatory when used with identificational uses of copula (e.g. I am John = Is mise Iain).

person	Singular	Plural
1st	mise	sinne
2nd	thusa/tusa	sibhse
3rd masc	esan	iadsan
3rd fem	ise	iadsan

Notes:

There are two forms for the 2nd person singular form (thusa and 'tusa), tusa is used after verbs in the relative future tense and conditional mood.
The sibhse is used both for plural you and as a polite form of the singular
There is no neuter pronoun (it) in Gaelic. Instead either esan or ise is used depending upon the gender of the noun being used.
In the plural there is no gender distinction, one form (iadsan) is used for both genders.

Note that sometimes reflexive forms (see below) are also used to mark emphasis.

Reflexive Pronouns

See the main article at Reflexive Pronouns
For a definition of reflexive see Reflexive (definition)

Reflexive pronouns (in English forms like myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves) are used obligatorily when referring back to another noun that has been named in the same clause, e.g., John loves himself (himself refers back to John). In other words they are used as anaphors.

In Gaelic, unlike English (but used this way in Irish English and Hebredean English), reflexive pronouns can also be used as Emphasis. In such uses, they are not anaphoric (i.e. they don't refer back to a previous noun). For example, they can be used in subject position: Tha è fhèin a' tighinn (Literally "himself is coming", but colloquially HE is coming.)

In Gaelic the reflexive is formed by attaching fhèin (sometimes fhìn in the first person) to either basic grade or emphatic grade pronouns. This is usually written as a separate word.

person	Singular	Plural
1st	mi fhìn or mi fhèin	sinn fhèin
2nd	thu fhèin	sibh fhèin
3rd masc	e fhèin	iad fhèin
3rd fem	i fhèin	iad fhèin

Note:

The choice of fhìn or fhèin with the 1st person singular is a matter of dialect. In Skye the form fhìn is more frequently used than fhèin
Also: mise fhìn, thusa fhèin, esan fhèin, ise fhèin, sinne fhèin, sibhse fhèin, and iadsan fhèin.

Possessive Pronouns

See main article at Possessive Pronouns

Person	Singular		Plural
1	my	mo^L	our	àr^N
2	your	do^L	your	ùr^N
3 masc	his	a^L	their	an/am
3 feminine	her	a^H	their	an/am

Notes:

^L stands for lenition trigger, ^N stands for Eclipsis/nasalization trigger, ^H indicates the word prefixes an <h> in front of the following word. These letters are not written but are provided here as guides.
am is used instead of an in front of words beginning with any labial consonant (i.e. <b, m, f, p>), eg. their table am bòrd
before words beginning with vowels "mo" is reduced to mo', do is reduced to d', and a^L his is deleted.

Prepositional Pronouns

See main article at Preposition Inflection

In Gaelic prepositions take special forms when they take a pronoun as an object. These are Prepositional Pronouns.

Inflected Prepositions with object pronouns

		singular				plural
	definite	1	2	3 masc	3 fem	1	2	3
aig	aig an	agam	agad	aige	aice	againn	agaibh	aca
air	air an	orm	ort	air	oirre	oirnn	oirbh	orra
ann	anns an	annam	annad	ann	innte	annainn	annaibh	annta
à	às an	asam	asad	às	aisde	asainn	asaibh	asda
bho	bhon	bhuam	bhuat	bhuaithe	bhuaipe	bhuainn	bhuaibh	bhuapa
de (dhe)	dhen	dhiom	dhiot	dheth	dhith	dhinn	dhibh	dhiubh
do	don	dhomh	dhut	dha	dhi	dhuinn	dhuibh	dhiabh
fo	fon	fodham	fodhad	fodha	foidhpe	fodhainn	fodhaibh	fodhpa
eadar	eadar an	--	--	--	--	eadarainn	eadaraibh	eatorra
gu	(thun^†)	(th)ugam	(th)ugad	(th)uige	(th)uice	(th)ugainn	(th)ugaibh	(th)uca
gu	chun	chugam^†	chugad	chuige	chuice	chugainn	chugaibh	chuca
gun	no special inflected forms
le	leis an	leam	leat	leis	leatha	leinn	leibh	leotha/leò
mar	no special inflected forms
mu	mun	umam	umad	uime	uimpe	umainn	umaibh	umpa
o	on	uam	uat	uaithe	uaipe	uainn	uaibh	uapa
rè	no special inflected forms
ri	ris an	rium	ruit	ris	rithe	ruinn	ruibh	riutha
ro (roimh)	ron	romham	romhad	roimh(e)	roimhpe	romhainn	romhaibh	romhpa
thar	thar an	tharam	tharad	thairis	thairte	tharainn	<tharaibh	tharta
trìd	no special inflected forms
tro (troimh)	tron	tromham	tromhad	troimhe	troimhpe	tromhainn	tromhaibh	tromhpa
†Note the chugam, chugad etc. forms are rarely used anymore, nor is the definite form thun

Inflected Prepositions with possessive pronouns

The 1st person singular, 2nd person singular and 3rd person singular masculine forms here trigger lenition (indicated with a superscript ^L). 1st and 2nd person plurals trigger the prefixation of n- onto words beginning with vowels (nasalization), This is indicated with a superscript ^N. the pronunciation of the a consonant following these and the 3rd person plural is also frequently voiced or nasalized. Finally the 3rd person feminine forms prefix an <h> onto words beginning with a vowel. This is indicated with ^H. The superscript N, H, and L are not usually written out in the orthography of Gaelic and are presented here merely to remind you what Initial Consonant Mutation is being triggered.

Note: of the following only the possessive inflected forms of aig, ann, do and ri are in regular use. All the others quite rare or considered prescriptively inferior.

	singular				plural
	1	2	3 masc	3 fem	1	2	3
aig	'gam^L	'gad^L	'ga^L	'ga^H	'gar^N	'gur^N	'gan
ann	'nam^L	'nad^L	'na^L	'na^H	'nar^N	'nur^N	'nan
bho	bhom^L	bhod^L	bho a^L	bho a^H	bhor^N	bhu^N	bhon
de (dhe)	dhem^L	dhed^L	dhe a^L	dhe a^H	dhe ar^N	dhe ur^N	dhen
do	dom^L/dham^L	dod^L/dhad^L	dha^L	dha^H	dor/dhar^N	dhur^N	don/dhan
fo	fom^L	fod^L	fo a^L	fo a^H	for^N	fur^N	fon
gu	gum^L	gud^L	gu a^L	gu a^H	gar^N	gur^N	gun
le	lem^L	led'^L	le a^L	le a^H	ler^N	lur^N	len
mu	'mum^L	'mud^L	mu a^L	mu a^H	mar^N	mur^N	man
o	om^L	od^L	o a^L	o a^H	or^N	ur^N	on
ri	rim^L	rid^L	ri a^L	ri a^H	ri ar^N	ri ur^N	rin
ro (roimh)	rom^L	rod^L	ro a^L	ro a^H	ror^N	rur^N	ron
tro (troimh)	trom^L	trod^L	tro a^L	tro a^H	tror^N	trur^N	tron

Note that the /n/ ending on the 3rd person plural will change to an <m> when the word precedes word beginning with <m, b, f, p>.
Any preposition not in the list above simply combines the normal preposition with the normal possessive pronoun (e.g. "air mo")

Personal Pronouns

Contents

Basic Grade

Emphatic Grade

Reflexive Pronouns

Possessive Pronouns

Prepositional Pronouns

Inflected Prepositions with object pronouns

Inflected Prepositions with possessive pronouns

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