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. 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

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 Pronouns are also used to mark emphasis.

see also

• Personal Pronouns
• Reflexive Pronouns
• Emphatic Marking