Do (preposition)

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

Simple forms

  • bare form: doL 'to a'
  • definite form: donL '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.

singularplural
1stdhomhdhuinn
2nddhut/dhuitdhuibh
3rdMascdhadhaibh
Femdhi

Emphatic Inflected forms

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

singularplural
1stdhòmh-sadhuinn-ne
2nddhut-sa/dhuit-sadhuibh-se
3rdMascdhà-sandhaibh-san
Femdhì-se

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 the other is not

Uncontracted forms

singularplural
1stdo moLdo arN
2nddo doLdo urN
3rdMascdo aLdo anN
Femdo aH

do am is used instead of do an "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonants <b>, <p>, <m>, and <f>

Lenited Contracted forms

singularplural
1stdhamLdharN
2nddhadLdhurN
3rdMascdhaLdhanN
FemdhaH

dham is used instead of dhan "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonants <b>, <p>, <m>, and <f>

Unlenited Contracted forms

singularplural
1stdomLdarN
2nddodLdurN
3rdMascdaLdanN
FemdaH

dam is used instead of dan "to their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonants <b>, <p>, <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 eclipsis, (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).