Adjective Phrases
From Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki
Contents
Adjectives in Scottish Gaelic
Adjective Agreement in Scottish Gaelic
| beag | Singular | Plural | ||
| 'small' | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine |
| Nominative | beag | bheag | b(h)eaga | b(h)eaga |
| Genitive | bhig | bige | beag(a) | beaga |
| Dative | b(h)eag | bhig | b(h)eag(a) | b(h)eag(a) |
| Vocative | bhig | bheag | beag(a) | beag(a) |
Adjective Ordering in Scottish Gaelic
- The relative ordering between three classes of adjectives such as size, quality and color is size > quality > color.
cù mòr briagha dubh dog big beautiful black 'a big beautiful black dog.' (MacAulay 1992)
Intesifiers
- Adverbs as adjectival intensifiers
fior dhroch latha truly bad dat 'a truly bad day.'
latha glè mhath day very good 'a very good day.'
latha uabhasach dona day terribly bad 'a terribly bad day.'
- Adjective repetition as adjectival intensification
latha math math day good good 'a good, good day.'
Comparative and superlative adjectives
- Basic
an t-eun glas the bird gray 'a gray bird.' (MacAulay 1992)
- Indefinite comparative
eun nas glaise bird more gray.comp 'a grayer bird.' (MacAulay 1992)
- Definite comparative
an t-eun a 's glaise the bird wh-C cop gray.comp 'the grayer bird.' (MacAulay 1992)
- Superlative (only definite; no indefinite superlative)
an t-eun as glaise the bird cop.rel gray.comp 'the grayest bird.' (MacAulay 1992)
- More examples
Tha an t-eun nas glaise na 'n chat be the bird more gray.comp than 'n cat 'The bird is grayer than the cat.' (MacAulay 1992)
Tha an t-eun cho glas ris a' chat be the bird so gray with the cat 'The bird is as gray as the cat.' (MacAulay 1992)
