Do (preposition)

• for other uses of do see Do (disambiguation)
• for a complete list of prepositions see Prepositions

Gaelic preposition, meaning roughly "for" or "to". It governs the dative case, and triggers lenition on following indefinite nouns.

Simple forms

bare form: do^L 'to a' definite form: don^L 'to the'

Basic inflected forms

Like most prepositions, do can be inflected for person, number, and gender. For example, to say "to me", we use the single word dhomh.

		singular	plural
1st		dhomh	dhuinn
2nd		dhut	dhuibh
3rd	Masc	dha	dhaibh
	Fem	dhi

Emphatic Inflected forms

Special emphatic forms are used if we want to emphasize the pronoun in the inflected preposition. (e.g. ormsa "on **me**")

		singular	plural
1st		dhòmhsa	dhuinne
2nd		dhutsa	dhuibhse
3rd	Masc	dhàsan	dhaibhsan
	Fem	dhìse

Possessive inflected forms:

There are three possible forms for combinations of the preposition with a possessive pronoun. There are forms without contraction, and two different kinds of contraction where one is lenited and other is not

Partly Uncontracted forms

		singular	plural
1st		do moL	do arN
2nd		do doL	do urN
3rd	Masc	do aL	do anN
	Fem	do aH

do am is used instead of do an "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonant consonants ,

, <m>, and <f>

Lenited Contracted forms

		singular	plural
1st		dhamL	dharN
2nd		dhadL	dhurN
3rd	Masc	dhaL	dhanN
	Fem	dhaH

"" dham is used instead of dhan "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonant consonants ,

, <m>, and <f>

Unlenited Contracted forms

		singular	plural
1st		domL	darN
2nd		dodL	durN
3rd	Masc	daL	danN
	Fem	daH

dam is used instead of dan "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonant consonants ,

, <m>, and <f>

References

Mark, Colin (2004) //The Gaelic-English Dictionary/Am Faclair Gàidhlig-Beurla.// London: Routledge

Notes

In this document, as elsewhere, ""^L"" indicates lenition and ""^N"" indicates nasalization, (prefixation of an n- before a word beginning with vowels, and a nasalization of the next consonant (not indicated in the orthography) and ""^H"" indicates antilenition (the prefixation of h before words beginning with vowels).