Past and Future Tense of Regular Verbs

Forming the past and future tenses of verbs in Gaelic is straightforward on the whole. If you know the root of a verb, then you can form other tenses.

Take the root or command form coisich (walk).

The Past Tense

To form the past tense of the root coisich, you simply add an ‘h’ after the initial letter and coisich becomes choisich (walked). However, there are variations in the way verbs form the past tense. They can be looked at in the following way:

1. Eight consonants

If a verb begins with consonants: b,c,d,g,m,p,s,t, add h after initial letter of the root to form the past tense.

If we use the word mill (spoil), the past tense can be created

mill = mh ill (spoiled)

2. Five vowels

If a verb begins with vowel: a, e, i, o, u, add dh’ before initial vowel to form the past tense.

We can apply this to the word ith (eat).

ith = dh'ith (ate)

3. Three consonants

Verb begins with consonants: l, n, r do not change in the past tense. An example of this would be the word nigh (wash).

nigh = nigh (washed)

4. One consonant followed by a vowel

If a verb begins with f and vowel, treat as if word begins with a vowel and precede the word with ‘dh’ and add ‘h’ after initial letter of the root word. Let’s apply this to the word faighnich (ask).

faighnich = dh’fhaighnich (asked)

No Gaelic verbs ever begin with the letter ‘h’!

5. Summary of Past Tense

To form the past tense of verbs beginning with a consonant insert an h after the first letter of the root, e.g. dhùin (did shut ). The three exceptions are verbs beginning with the letters l, n, or r. They do not require an h, e.g. laigh (did lie).

All verbs beginning with a vowel put dh’ before the initial vowel to form the past tense, e.g. dh’òl (did drink).

Verbs which begin with f+vowel have dh’ inserted before the f and have an h inserted after the f, e.g. dh’fhuirich (stayed).