Caibidil a hAon: The Noun (an tAinmfhocal)

what belongs to it?

• exclusively masculine nouns
• ending in a broad consonant
• many common terms and also many surnames (Seán, Séamas, Pól)

Genitive Singular:

• Formed using palatalisation (Caolú), i.e. the final consonant is slenderized,
  • most often just the addition of an -i- : e.g..: Seán-Seáin
  • -(e)ach to-(a)igh (note the change of -ch to -gh)
  • -(e)adh to -(a)idh
  • some require substantial changes to the vowels:
     

    Vowel	-ea-	-ea-	-éa-	-ia-	-ío-	-io-	-iu-
    becomes	-i-	-ei-	-éi-	-éi-	-í-	-i-	-i-

Nominative Plural:

• for the most part weak plural:
  • either palatalization (nominative plural =  genitive singular)
  • or suffix -a
• rarer, strong plural
  • of words ending in -ach or -adh with suffix -aí
    (with -ach also weak plural in -aigh)
  • with suffixes -ta, -tha
    especially those monosyllabic words with long vowel sounds, that end in -l,-n, -r (e.g. saol - saolta, dún - dúnta, líon - líonta)
  • (even rarer) with suffixes -nna, -anna, -acha a.o.
  • with palatalisation + omission of the second syllable + -e:  (e.g.: solas-soilse, uasal-uaisle)

Genitive Plural:

• for weak plural: Genitive Plural is the same as the nominative singular
• for strong plural: Genitive Plural is the same as the nominative plural

"regular" declension (weak plural)

typical suffixes

examples