Notes · IrishUK · A-Levels

Grammar and use of language

This topic is a competence rather than a single assessed element, but it is the competence with the widest reach in the whole qualification. It is examined DIRECTLY in Unit AS 2 Section C, Use of Language, where four short grammatical and lexical exercises are followed by the translation of short sentences from English into Irish, and again in the English-into-Irish translation of Unit A2 2 Section B Question 4. It is then assessed indirectly everywhere else, because AO3 — manipulating the language accurately and appropriately, in spoken and written forms, using a range of lexis and structure — is the only assessment objective present in all six units. Its content is Appendix 5 of the specification, the AS and A Level Grammar and Structures List, which sets out what a candidate must know at each level and marks with an (R) those structures for which receptive knowledge only is required. And its centre of gravity is the initial mutations, an séimhiú and an t-urú, which govern the first letter of a very large number of Irish words and which no amount of vocabulary will compensate for.

5 sections~33 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·0222 / 14

Exam profile

AO3 · Manipulate the language accurately and appropriately, in spoken and written forms, using a range of lexis and structureAO3 · Understand and apply accurately the grammatical system and a range of structuresAO2 · Transfer meaning from Irish into EnglishAO3 · Transfer meaning from English into Irish

Operators:identifyapplytransformtranslatecorrectjustify

basic level

The AS grammar and structures list is already long: nouns with gender, plural, genitive and vocative and both mutations; the article; adjectives with agreement, comparison and the copula; adverbs; the copula in nine listed uses; conditional conjunctions; regular and irregular verbs with negative and interrogative forms; the present, past and future tenses and the imperative and conditional moods, all including autonomous forms; direct and indirect relative clauses; dependent forms; the many uses of bí; the verbal noun in nine listed constructions; the verbal adjective; prepositions in ten listed uses; the defective dar le; and numbers. Work through it as a checklist rather than reading it once.

higher level

The A-level list is explicitly cumulative: everything required at AS, PLUS the past habitual, the subjunctive in both tenses, universality, verbal patterns, lucht-constructions, the genitive distinction between lucht siúil and lucht siúlta bóithre, adverbial phrases sorted into openers, middlers and closers, natural idioms and proverbs, indirect-relative verbal phrases, idiomatic and semantic prepositions with the copula, abstract nouns and abstract-noun degree with a, dá and cá, the adjective genitive, the past comparative and superlative, and the superlative with a preposition. Several of these carry an (R), meaning receptive knowledge only — you must recognise them, not necessarily produce them. Learn which is which; it is examinable planning information.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Grammar and use of language

An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the three dialects, and which one these notes write#

FoundationSpecification Appendix 5 — AS and A Level Grammar and Structures ListSpecification Appendix 1 — Unit AS 1 Sample Content for PresentationSpecification §4.2 AO3 — manipulate the language accurately and appropriately

The written standard and the Ulster dialect

Fig. 1The overlap is almost the whole language. Preposition plus article is the divergence a candidate meets first and most often.

Irish has three broad dialect groups, corresponding to the surviving Gaeltacht regions: Gaeilge Uladh, the Irish of Ulster, above all Donegal; Gaeilge Chonnacht, the Irish of Connacht, above all Galway and Mayo; and Gaeilge na Mumhan, the Irish of Munster, above all Kerry, Cork and Waterford. They differ in pronunciation, in stress placement, in vocabulary, and in some grammatical forms. Alongside them sits An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the Official Standard, a written standard first published in 1958 and revised since, maintained by Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, the translation section of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Caighdeán is a standard for WRITING. It does not replace the dialects and it was never intended to be a spoken norm.

These notes write An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. That is stated so that you know what you are reading and can compare it with what your teacher says, not because the specification requires it. It is worth being exact about what the specification does and does not do here. It prescribes NO dialect. It says nothing about the Caighdeán. Appendix 5 lists parts of speech and indicative examples, and the note beneath each table says only that the examples in italics are indicative, not exclusive. There is no sentence anywhere in the document telling a candidate which variety of Irish to write or speak.

What the specification does contain is evidence, and it points one way. Several of its own indicative examples are recognisably Ulster Irish. The A-level list gives the verbal pattern 'cad é a chreideann tú a chonaic tú?' — and 'cad é' for 'what' is the Ulster form where the Caighdeán and the southern dialects use 'cad' or 'céard'. The adjective list gives 'iontach maith' beside 'an-mhaith', and 'iontach' as an intensifier meaning 'very' is characteristically Ulster. 'Dóigh' appears among the relative-clause adverbs, and 'dóigh' for 'way, manner' is likewise northern. Appendix 1's sample presentation titles are set in Tír Chonaill and Cúige Uladh. This is a Northern Ireland awarding organisation and Ulster Irish is the variety spoken in and nearest to its own centres.

The teaching line that follows is the notes' own judgement and is marked as such. A consistent, well-formed dialect form is not an error; an inconsistent hybrid is a risk. AO3 asks you to understand and apply ACCURATELY the grammatical system and a range of structures, and it says nothing about which regional system. So write and speak one variety properly rather than three badly. In practice most candidates in Northern Ireland will speak Ulster forms and write largely standard forms, which is exactly what most fluent speakers do, and the two are far closer to each other than the differences suggest — one alphabet, one spelling system, one set of mutations, one syntax. Where the divergence is real and examinable, these notes print both and label them.

Worked example

Auditing a paragraph for consistency rather than for correctness

A candidate writes a short paragraph that mixes standard and Ulster forms. Identify the mixture, decide which way to resolve it, and state what is actually at stake.

The paragraph, as written
Bhí mé ag caint leis an mhúinteoir faoin scrúdú. Cad é a shíl tú? Tá mé ag obair ar an bhfeirm gach samhradh. Freely: 'I was talking to the teacher about the examination. What did you think? I work on the farm every summer.'
Find the mixture
Two of the three sentences use preposition plus article. 'Leis an mhúinteoir' lenites, which is the Ulster pattern. 'Ar an bhfeirm' eclipses, which is the Caighdeán pattern. Meanwhile 'cad é' is Ulster. So the paragraph is Ulster in two places and standard in one, and the inconsistency is inside a single grammatical rule — which is the visible kind.
Decide which way to resolve it
Either is defensible. Resolved to Ulster: leis an mhúinteoir, ar an fheirm, cad é. Resolved to the Caighdeán: leis an múinteoir, ar an bhfeirm, cad. Notice that the standard resolution also changes 'leis an mhúinteoir', because after preposition plus article the Caighdeán eclipses and 'm' has no eclipsed form, so the noun stands unchanged.
State what is at stake
Not very much in marks, and a great deal in impression. AO3 rewards accurate and appropriate manipulation of the grammatical system. A consistent Ulster paragraph demonstrates a system; a consistent standard paragraph demonstrates a system; a paragraph that switches demonstrates that the writer has not noticed there is a rule.
Generalise the check
Three things to check on any page you write: the preposition-and-article forms, the word you use for 'what', and whether you have written 'a' or 'go' consistently in comparable clauses. If all three are internally consistent, the page reads as one voice, whichever voice you have chosen.

Result: The paragraph mixes Ulster lenition after preposition plus article with standard eclipsis, and Ulster 'cad é' with a standard sentence. Either resolution is legitimate — Ulster gives 'leis an mhúinteoir, ar an fheirm, cad é'; the Caighdeán gives 'leis an múinteoir, ar an bhfeirm, cad'. What AO3 notices is the inconsistency, not the region.

Typical mistakes

Believing a dialect form will be penalised, when the specification names no dialect at all.
Mixing dialects sentence by sentence and calling it flexibility — inconsistency is what looks wrong.
Assuming the Caighdeán is a pronunciation standard; it is a written standard.
Treating Ulster Irish as non-standard rather than as one of the three living dialect groups.

Active revision

Find out, from your teacher, which variety your centre teaches and which your visiting examiner is likely to hear most often. Then take one page of your own written Irish and check it for consistency: are the preposition-and-article forms all standard or all Ulster? Is the word for 'what' the same throughout? Mixed answers are the thing to fix, in either direction.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5, AS and A Level Grammar and Structures List (CCEA)

An séimhiú: lenition, and the triggers that cause it#

StandardSpecification Appendix 5 — Nouns: aspiration, eclipsesSpecification Appendix 5 — Adjectives, Copula, Prepositions, Verbal nounSpecification Appendix 1 — sample presentation titles

Séimhiú: the triggers

Fig. 2Every example here is either printed in the specification's own appendices or built on a form that is. The emphasised cell is the specification's faoi bhrón.

An séimhiú, which the specification calls aspiration, is written by inserting the letter h after the initial consonant of a word. Nine consonants take it: b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s and t. So bád becomes bhád, cara becomes chara, doras becomes dhoras, fear becomes fhear, geata becomes gheata, máthair becomes mháthair, páiste becomes pháiste, súil becomes shúil and teach becomes theach. Three consonants — l, n and r — never take it, and neither do vowels. And s has a restriction worth learning on its first day: it lenites only when followed by a vowel or by l, n or r, so sráid becomes shráid and slat becomes shlat, but scoil, spórt, stór and smaoineamh do not change at all.

Séimhiú does not merely decorate a word; it carries information, and the same three-word set makes the point. A chara means his friend. A cara, with no mutation, means her friend. A gcara, eclipsed, means their friend. Three different meanings distinguished by nothing but the treatment of the first letter, with the possessive word itself identical in all three. That is why a mutation error is not a spelling slip: it can change who is being talked about. The same happens in the past tense, where the lenition is the tense marker — briseann sé means he breaks, bhris sé means he broke — and in the noun phrase, where an bhean means the woman and bean alone means a woman.

The triggers fall into a manageable list. The possessive adjectives mo, do and a meaning his: mo chara, my friend; do theach, your house. The vocative particle a: a Sheáin, addressing Seán; a chara, addressing a friend. The past tense of regular verbs, and the particles níor, ar, gur and nár that go with it: bhris mé, I broke; níor bhris mé, I did not break — remembering that verbs beginning with a vowel or with f take d' instead, as in d'ól sé, he drank, and d'fhan sé, he stayed. The negative ní before other tenses: ní cheannaím, I do not buy. The simple prepositions ar, de, do, faoi, mar, ó, roimh, trí and um before an indefinite noun: the specification's own faoi bhrón, meaning sad or in sorrow.

Four more triggers complete the working set. The article an before a feminine singular noun in the nominative: an bhean, the woman; an Ghaeilge, the Irish language, which Appendix 1 prints as sa Ghaeilge and as na Gaeilge. The article an before a masculine singular noun in the genitive, which the specification illustrates with carr an fhir mhóir, the big man's car. An adjective following a feminine singular noun: Appendix 1's eagraíocht Ghaeilge, an Irish-language organisation. And the intensifiers an- and ró-, as in the specification's an-mhaith, very good, and ró-mhór, too big. Two exceptions to memorise now rather than later: after the article an, and after an-, the consonants d, t and s are not lenited — an doras, an teanga, an-deas.

Worked example

Six phrases, each mutation named before it is written

Build six Irish phrases from English, and for each one name the trigger BEFORE writing the mutated form. The habit of naming the trigger first is what turns a guess into a rule.

my father
The noun is athair, beginning with a vowel. Trigger: the possessive mo, which lenites. But a vowel cannot take séimhiú, and mo elides before a vowel. Result: m'athair. The rule fired; the vowel simply has nothing to show for it.
his house
The noun is teach. Trigger: the possessive a meaning his, which lenites. t is lenitable. Result: a theach. Compare a teach, her house, unmutated, and a dteach, their house, eclipsed — the same word three ways.
I sold the car
The verb is díol, to sell, and the tense is past. Trigger: the past tense of a regular verb lenites. Result: dhíol mé an carr. If the verb had begun with a vowel or with f, the past marker would be d' instead: d'ith mé, I ate.
on a big table
Two triggers in one phrase. The preposition ar lenites an indefinite noun: ar bhord. Bord is masculine, so its adjective is not lenited: mór stays mór. Result: ar bhord mór. Change the noun to a feminine one and the adjective changes too: ar chathaoir mhór, on a big chair.
the woman's car
A genitive phrase. Bean is feminine, so the genitive singular is na mná, and after na a feminine noun is not lenited. Result: carr na mná. The specification's own example runs the same pattern with an adjective attached: carr na mná móire.
very good Irish
Two triggers again. The intensifier an- lenites: an-mhaith. Gaeilge is feminine, so an adjective following it is lenited: Gaeilge mhaith, good Irish. Put them together and you get Gaeilge an-mhaith, very good Irish, with the lenition on maith caused by an- rather than by the noun.

Result: m'athair, a theach, dhíol mé an carr, ar bhord mór, carr na mná, Gaeilge an-mhaith. In every case the trigger was identifiable before the form was written, and in two cases — m'athair and carr na mná — the rule fired without producing a visible h, which is exactly the situation that makes candidates doubt a rule they have applied correctly.

Typical mistakes

Leniting sc, sp, st or sm — scoil never becomes shcoil.
Writing a past-tense verb without lenition: bris mé for bhris mé.
Forgetting d' on vowel-initial and f-initial verbs in the past: ól sé for d'ól sé.
Leniting d or t after the article: an dhoras, an theach.

Active revision

Take twenty nouns from your current theme, mark each one masculine or feminine, and write each in four forms: bare, after an, after mo, and after ár. That gives you the bare noun, the article rule, a lenition trigger and an eclipsis trigger on the same word. Then check the s-nouns separately: does the s lenite, or is it blocked by a following consonant?

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5 and Appendix 1 (CCEA)

An t-urú: eclipsis, the n-prefix, and where the dialects part#

StandardSpecification Appendix 5 — Nouns: aspiration, eclipsesSpecification Appendix 5 — Prepositions with articles (leis an, sa)Specification Appendix 5 — Conditional conjunctions and dependent forms

Urú: the triggers

Fig. 3The emphasised cell is preposition plus article — the one trigger where An Caighdeán Oifigiúil and Ulster Irish genuinely part company.

An t-urú, which the specification calls eclipsis, writes a new consonant in front of the old one, and the old one falls silent. There are seven pairs and they are worth learning as pairs rather than as a list: b becomes mb, c becomes gc, d becomes nd, f becomes bhf, g becomes ng, p becomes bp and t becomes dt. So bord becomes mbord, cara becomes gcara, doras becomes ndoras, fear becomes bhfear, geata becomes ngeata, páiste becomes bpáiste and teach becomes dteach. A word beginning with a vowel takes a prefixed n and a hyphen instead: athair becomes n-athair, as in ár n-athair, our father. Consonants outside the seven — l, m, n, r, s — have no eclipsed form and simply stand unchanged.

The triggers are fewer than for séimhiú and mostly grammatical rather than lexical. The possessive adjectives ár, our, bhur, your plural, and a meaning their: ár dteach, our house; a bpáistí, their children. The preposition i, in, before an indefinite noun: the specification's own i dTír Chonaill, in Donegal, and i gCúige Uladh, in Ulster. Note that i becomes in before a vowel with no eclipsis at all — in Éirinn, in Ireland. The numbers seven to ten: seacht mbliana, seven years; deich mbliana, ten years. And the genitive plural after the article na: Appendix 1's Mná na dtithe, the women of the houses.

The verbal triggers are the ones you will use most often, because they attach to particles you cannot avoid. The interrogative particle an: an bhfuil tú? are you? The negative interrogative and subordinating nach: nach bhfuil sé? is he not? The conjunction go, that: tá a fhios agam go bhfuil sé anseo, I know that he is here. The conditional conjunctions the specification lists — dá, mura, sula, cá: dá mbeadh sé anseo, if he were here; mura dtagann sí, unless she comes; cá bhfuil sé? where is he? These particles are also why the dependent forms in Appendix 5 matter: fuil, raibh, deachaigh and dearna exist only after such particles, which is why níl is ní plus fuil, and an raibh tú? is the past of an bhfuil tú?

One trigger divides the dialects and it is the divergence a candidate meets first and most often. After a preposition combined with the singular article — ar an, ag an, leis an, ón, faoin, as an, roimh an, tríd an — An Caighdeán Oifigiúil eclipses: ar an mbord, on the table; leis an gcailín, with the girl; ag an bpáiste, at the child. Ulster Irish lenites instead: ar an bhord, leis an chailín, ag an pháiste. Both are systematic and both are in general use; what is not defensible is switching between them. Two details hold in either variety: d and t are unaffected after the article, so ar an doras and ag an teach stand as they are, and sa, in the, lenites rather than eclipsing, which is why Appendix 1 prints An Scrúdú Cainte sa Ghaeilge, the oral examination in Irish.

Worked example

The same noun through every mutation environment

Take the masculine noun bord, a table, and the feminine noun cathaoir, a chair, and drive both through the environments the examination actually uses. Name the rule at each step.

Bare and with the article
bord, a table; an bord, the table — masculine nominative, no mutation. cathaoir, a chair; an chathaoir, the chair — feminine nominative after an, so séimhiú. The gender of the noun is doing the work, which is why every noun should be learned with its gender attached.
After the possessives
mo bhord, my table; do bhord, your table; a bhord, his table; a bord, her table; ár mbord, our table; bhur mbord, your table; a mbord, their table. Three lenitions, one no-change and three eclipses, all from the possessive alone. The same seven forms work for cathaoir: mo chathaoir through a gcathaoir.
After a simple preposition
ar bhord, on a table; ó bhord, from a table; faoi bhord, under a table. Indefinite, so séimhiú. The feminine noun behaves identically here — ar chathaoir — because the trigger is the preposition, not the gender.
After preposition plus article
Standard: ar an mbord, on the table; ar an gcathaoir, on the chair. Ulster: ar an bhord, ar an chathaoir. This is the one place where you must choose a variety and hold to it. Note also ag an doras, at the door, unmutated in both, because d is unaffected after the article.
In the genitive
cos an bhoird, the leg of the table — masculine genitive after an takes séimhiú, and the noun itself changes to boird. cos na cathaoireach, the leg of the chair — feminine genitive after na, no mutation, and the noun changes to cathaoireach. The specification's own pair runs the same way: carr an fhir mhóir against carr na mná móire.
After a number
dhá bhord, two tables; trí bhord, three tables; seacht mbord, seven tables; deich mbord, ten tables. Lenition up to six, eclipsis from seven to ten. The noun stays singular after a number in Irish, which surprises English speakers every time.

Result: One masculine and one feminine noun exercise every mutation rule in the language: gender decides the article, the possessive decides between lenition and eclipsis, an indefinite preposition lenites, preposition plus article splits standard from Ulster, the genitive reverses the gender pattern, and numbers switch from lenition to eclipsis at seven.

Typical mistakes

Eclipsing after i before a vowel — it is in Éirinn, not i n-Éirinn.
Writing an fuil or an tá instead of an bhfuil: after the particle the dependent form is required.
Eclipsing after sa, which lenites.
Applying eclipsis to l, m, n, r or s, which have no eclipsed form.

Active revision

Write out the seven eclipsis pairs from memory, then generate the same noun in five environments: bare, after an, after mo, after ár, and after ar an in both the standard and the Ulster pattern. Do it for one noun beginning with each of b, c, d, f, g, p, t and one beginning with a vowel — eight nouns, forty forms, and every mutation rule in the language exercised once.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5, Nouns, Prepositions and Conditional conjunctions (CCEA)

The verb system, the copula, and the two ways Irish says 'is'#

AdvancedSpecification Appendix 5 — Verbs, Tenses, Verbal noun, Verbal adjectiveSpecification Appendix 5 — Copula (AS list and A level additions)Specification §3.2 Unit AS 2 Section C — Use of Language

The AS list requires the present, past and future tenses and the imperative and conditional moods, each INCLUDING AUTONOMOUS FORMS, and the A-level list adds the past habitual and the subjunctive in both tenses. The autonomous form — an saorbhriathar — is the one English has no clean equivalent for: it states that an action happens without naming who does it. The specification's own contrast makes the point exactly: tá sé déanta, it is done, describes a state, while déantar é, it is done, describes an action with no stated agent. Learn the autonomous alongside each tense rather than as an afterthought; it appears constantly in the written registers the reading passages are drawn from — reports, news items and official prose.

Alongside the ordinary tenses stands bí, the substantive verb, and the specification devotes nine bullets to it because it does more work than any other word in the language. Tá sé ar scoil, he is at school, for a state now; bíonn sé ar scoil, he is at school habitually. With time: tá sé a trí a chlog, it is three o'clock. With location: tá sé ag an doras, he is at the door. With obligation: tá orm dul abhaile, I have to go home. In idiomatic possession and need: tá cóta agam, I have a coat; tá cóta orm, I am wearing a coat; tá cóta uaim, I want a coat — three meanings from three prepositions and one noun. With state, health and emotion: tá sé ina chónaí, he lives or dwells; tá biseach air, he has recovered; tá áthas air, he is glad. And in the progressive: tá sé ag léamh, he is reading.

Then there is an chopail, the copula is, which is not a verb at all but a particle, and which does the job of 'to be' in a different set of sentences. The specification lists nine of its uses with examples: is é an múinteoir é against is múinteoir é, identifying against classifying; is breá an ceoltóir é, he is a fine musician, with an adjective and a definite noun; is le Seán é, it belongs to Seán, for ownership; is maith liom, I like, for feeling; is go Doire a chuaigh sé, it was to Derry that he went, for emphasis; is minic a théann sé, he often goes, with an adverb; is ionann iad, they are the same, with adjectivals; and is as Doire mé, I am from Derry, for domicile. The A-level list adds idiomatic and semantic prepositions with the copula: is mór agam, I value; is beag orm, I dislike; is gá dom and is gá liom, I must.

Two other structures in the list repay early attention because they are unlike anything in English. The verbal noun does the work of an infinitive, a gerund and a participle at once, and the specification lists nine of its uses: ag baint an fhéir or an féar a bhaint, cutting the grass, with the object before or after; á bhaint, cutting it, with an object pronoun; dúirt sé liom imeacht, he told me to leave, as an imperative complement; chuaigh mé a luí, I went to bed, with a verb of motion; chun na soithí a ní, in order to wash the dishes, for purpose. And relative clauses come in two kinds: direct — an duine a bhí ag caint, the person who was talking — and indirect — an duine a raibh mé ag caint leis, the person I was talking to — where the indirect form takes the dependent verb and a prepositional pronoun at the end.

Worked example

Tá or is? Ten sentences sorted before they are written

For each English sentence, decide whether Irish uses the substantive verb bí or the copula is, state the reason, then write the Irish.

He is a teacher / He is the teacher
Both need the copula, and the difference between them is the whole point of the specification's example pair. Classifying, with an indefinite noun: is múinteoir é. Identifying, with a definite noun: is é an múinteoir é. Writing tá sé múinteoir is the single commonest structural error learners make.
He is at school / He is usually at school
Both need bí, and the difference is tense rather than verb. Tá sé ar scoil for the present state; bíonn sé ar scoil for the habitual, the specification's own contrast. English hides this distinction; Irish makes it obligatory.
It belongs to Seán / I like music
Both are copula constructions with a preposition. Is le Seán é for ownership; is maith liom an ceol for liking. Neither can be built with tá, and both are on the AS list.
I am from Derry / They are the same
Copula again: is as Doire mé for domicile, and is ionann iad for identity between two things. The specification prints both, and both resist any attempt to route them through tá.
I have to go home / I am glad
Both need bí with a preposition. Tá orm dul abhaile for obligation; tá áthas orm for emotion, on the specification's pattern tá áthas air. Notice that Irish puts the emotion on you rather than in you — the preposition ar carries it.
It was to Derry that he went
The copula used for emphasis, fronting the element being stressed: is go Doire a chuaigh sé. The neutral sentence is chuaigh sé go Doire, he went to Derry. This structure is how Irish does what English does with stress or with a cleft sentence, and it is worth having ready for the speaking examination, where it makes an answer sound argued rather than recited.

Result: Of the ten, six take the copula — is múinteoir é, is é an múinteoir é, is le Seán é, is maith liom an ceol, is as Doire mé, is ionann iad, is go Doire a chuaigh sé — and four take bí: tá sé ar scoil, bíonn sé ar scoil, tá orm dul abhaile, tá áthas orm. The sorting rule is that the copula links two nouns or expresses a relation, while bí locates, describes a state, or carries an action.

Typical mistakes

Using tá where the copula is required: tá sé múinteoir instead of is múinteoir é.
Confusing tá sé ina chónaí (he lives) with tá sé ag cónaí, which is not the idiom.
Forgetting the dependent form after a particle: an raibh, not an bhí.
Dropping the final prepositional pronoun in an indirect relative clause.

Active revision

Write ten sentences in English that all use the verb 'to be', deliberately covering identity, classification, location, habit, ownership, liking, origin, obligation, emotion and an ongoing action. Then translate each into Irish and label it tá or is. If you cannot say which of the two a sentence needs before you write it, that is the sentence to take to your teacher.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5, Verbs, Tenses, Copula, Verbal noun and Verbal adjective (CCEA)

Appendix 5 as a syllabus, and what the (R) marking means#

AdvancedSpecification Appendix 5 — AS grammar and structures listSpecification Appendix 5 — A level grammar and structures listSpecification §3.2 Unit AS 2 Section C and §3.5 Unit A2 2 Section B Question 4

Appendix 5 is not background reading; it is the syllabus for AO3, and it is written as two tables. The first is the AS list, covering nouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs, the copula, conditional conjunctions, verbs, tenses, the verbal noun, the verbal adjective, prepositions, defective words and number, quantity and time. The second is the A-level list, which opens with the sentence 'All grammar and structures listed for AS level, plus' — so it is strictly cumulative, and nothing on the AS list stops being examinable in the second year. Both tables end with the same note: the examples in italics are indicative, not exclusive. That is, the specification is naming the structure and illustrating it, not restricting the examination to the illustration.

The single most useful piece of planning information in the appendix is the marking (R), which the note beneath each table explains: for structures marked (R), receptive knowledge only is required. That is a genuine reduction in workload, and it is precise. At AS the (R) items include indirect relative clauses such as an duine a raibh mé ag caint leis, indirect relative questions such as cé leis a raibh tú ag caint?, the copula used for emphasis, the past and conditional copula forms, the conditional conjunctions with the copula, the verbal noun with object pronouns as in á bhaint, and the verbal noun as passive voice in tá siad á mbaint. At A level the (R) items include the subjunctive of the copula, the lucht-constructions, the genitive contrast lucht siúil against lucht siúlta bóithre, indirect-relative verbal phrases, and abstract-noun degree with a.

Two areas of the list deserve more time than their single line suggests. Prepositions occupy ten bullets and are where most learners' accuracy actually fails: prepositional pronouns such as agam and agat, which must be learned as complete paradigms rather than reconstructed; prepositions that cause the genitive, such as chun and timpeall; prepositions with articles, leis an and sa; prepositions in time expressions, sa deireadh, ar ball, leis sin; in state expressions, ar buile, faoi bhrón, ina chónaí; in idioms, tá aithne agam air, I know him; with adjectives, bródúil as, proud of, and buíoch de, grateful to; with verbs, iarr ar, ask of, abair le, say to, and mol do, praise or recommend to; and the compound prepositions ar son and faoi choinne.

The other is the A-level material that is unmistakably about REGISTER rather than about correctness. Adverbial phrases are sorted into three groups — openers such as i dtús báire, to begin with, and is é mo bharúil féin, my own opinion is; middlers such as áfach and ámh, however, and ar an drochuair, unfortunately; closers such as mar fhocal scoir, as a final word, and i dtaca le holc, at worst. Beside them sit natural idioms and proverbs: dá n-éireodh linn, if we were to succeed; má théann agam, if I manage; sháraigh orm, I failed; ní mar a shíltear a bhítear, things are not as they seem; ní fál go haer é, it is not an insurmountable obstacle; is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte, health is better than wealth. These are the phrases that lift an essay or a spoken answer from correct to fluent, and they are the cheapest marks in the qualification because they can simply be learned.

Worked example

Turning the A-level adverbial phrases into a spoken answer

Take one A2 conversation question and build the answer around the specification's own openers, middlers and closers, so that the structure is visible before any content is added.

The question
An bhfuil poist pháirtaimseartha go maith do dhaoine óga? Are part-time jobs good for young people? This is the first bullet of the Young People and Society theme, so it is a question the nine-minute A2 conversation is entitled to ask.
The opener
I dtús báire, is é mo bharúil féin go bhfuil siad go maith ach go bhfuil contúirt ann. To begin with, my own opinion is that they are good but that there is a danger in it. Both phrases are printed in Appendix 5; the go bhfuil is the eclipsis after go that the same appendix requires.
The first side, with evidence
Foghlaimíonn duine óg conas airgead a bhainistiú, agus tá aithne agam ar dhaoine a fuair scileanna nach bhfuair siad ar scoil. A young person learns to manage money, and I know people who gained skills they did not get at school. Note tá aithne agam ar, the specification's own idiom, and the eclipsis after nach.
The turn, with a middler
Ar an drochuair, áfach, bíonn tionchar aige ar an staidéar. Unfortunately, however, it has an effect on study. Two of the specification's middlers in one clause, and the habitual bíonn rather than tá because the claim is about what usually happens.
The closer
Mar fhocal scoir, is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte, agus is é an rud is tábhachtaí ná cothromaíocht. As a final word, health is better than wealth, and the most important thing is balance. The proverb is Appendix 5's own; note that it is used as a bridge to the point, not as decoration.
Count what the frame contributed
Six phrases from Appendix 5 — i dtús báire, is é mo bharúil féin, ar an drochuair, áfach, mar fhocal scoir, is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte — plus one idiom, tá aithne agam ar. All of them are learnable in an afternoon, all of them are AO3 evidence of range, and none of them required knowing anything about part-time jobs.

Result: A four-move spoken answer — opener, first side with evidence, turn with a middler, closer — carried by six phrases printed in Appendix 5 and one idiom from the same list. The structure is reusable for any theme question; only the middle two sentences change.

Typical mistakes

Reading Appendix 5 once instead of using it as a checklist with ticks and crosses.
Treating the italic examples as the whole of the requirement rather than as illustrations.
Producing an (R) structure badly when recognising it was all that was required.
Learning prepositional pronouns as isolated words rather than as complete paradigms.

Active revision

Photocopy both tables of Appendix 5 and go through them line by line with three marks: a tick for anything you can produce accurately, a circle for anything you can recognise but not produce, and a cross for anything you do not know. Then check your circles against the (R) markings. Every circle that sits beside an (R) is finished work; every circle that does not is your revision list.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5, both tables and the (R) note (CCEA)

References & sources

Sources

CCEA

CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 5, AS and A Level Grammar and Structures List

Grammar and use of language

5 sections~33 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Grammar and use of language

Key points

Auditing a paragraph for consistency rather than for correctness

Key points

Six phrases, each mutation named before it is written

Key points

The same noun through every mutation environment

Key points

Tá or is? Ten sentences sorted before they are written

Key points

Turning the A-level adverbial phrases into a spoken answer

Sources

Grammar and use of language

Key points

Auditing a paragraph for consistency rather than for correctness

Key points

Six phrases, each mutation named before it is written

Key points

The same noun through every mutation environment

Key points

Tá or is? Ten sentences sorted before they are written

Key points

Turning the A-level adverbial phrases into a spoken answer

Sources