Seall an tùs aig Prepositions made easier

Tricky one. They are very old words/forms and it's been a long time since they they were first formed, involving things like the Old Irish accusative which have been dead for a long time now, so there is no foolproof way of giving you a simple guide which tells you how you can just form them on the spot.

There's a few pointers that we can give you though.

Broadly speaking you can group modern Gaelic preposition into 5 categories - Regular, Mostly Regular, 3rd Person S, Labial in Root and Decidedly Weird. We have grouped them this way because this then allows you to learn them in groups and perhaps memorise some of rules.  We'll also explain their history further down which may also help some of you to understand these pesky little buggers.

==Regular==
{| style="width: 30%;" border="0"
! align="left" | Root
! align="left" | Analysed preposition
! align="left" | Full form
|-
| ag- || -(a)m || agam
|-
| ag- || -(a)d || agad
|-
| ag- || slenderisation & -e || aige
|-
| ag- || slenderisation, hardening & -e || aice
|-
| ag- || -(a)inn || againn
|-
| ag- || -(a)ibh || agaibh
|-
| ag- || harden & -a || aca
|-
|}

Following the same pattern:

{| style="width: 30%;" border="0"
! align="left" | Root
! align="left" | Analysed preposition
! align="left" | Full form
|-
| thug- || -(a)m || (th)ugam
|-
| thug- || -(a)d || (th)ugad
|-
| thug- || slenderisation & -e || (th)uige
|-
| thug- || slenderisation, hardening & -e || (th)uice
|-
| thug- || -(a)inn || (th)ugainn
|-
| thug- || -(a)ibh || (th)ugaibh
|-
| thug- || harden & -a || (th)uca
|-
|}

The variants ugam, ugad... and chugam, chugad... follow the same pattern.

==Mostly Regular==
Group & Endings
	analysed preposition 	normal form

MOSTLY REGULAR
	ROOT: ann- 	ann an

-(a)m
-(a)d/-(a)t
ROOT
-(th)e + slenderise
-(a)inn
-(a)ibh
-(th)a
	ann-am
ann-ad
ann
inn-te
ann-ainn
ann-aibh
ann-ta 	annam
annad
ann
innte
annainn
annaibh
annta
  	  	 
  	ROOT: or- 	air
  	

or-m
or-t
air
oir-the
oir-inn
oir-ibh
or-tha
	

orm
ort
air
oirre (<oirrthe)
oirnn
oirbh (<oiribh)
orra (<orrtha)
  	  	 
  	

ROOT: dhi-
	

de
  	

dhi-am
dhi-at
dh-e
dhi-(th)
dhi-(i)nn
dhi-(i)bh
dhiubh
	

dhiom
dhiot
dhe
dhi (<dhith)
dhinn
dhibh
dhiubh

The most striking feature of this group is that it uses the root form for the 3rd person singular masculine.  The other bit to watch out for with air is that in the plural the root slenderises.  And we get innte because the root used to be int-.  But more of the history later.

The prepositions in brackets are other/older spellings of these still kicking about which fit the paradigm much better and which GOC abolished so non-nonchalantly. <sigh>

The next group is also fairly regular, but different because the 3rd person singular masculine adds an -s to the root:

 

Group & Endings
	analysed preposition 	normal form

MOSTLY REGULAR
	ROOT: as- 	á

-(a)m
-(a)d/-(a)t
ROOT + [ʃ]
-(th)e + slenderise
-(a)inn
-(a)ibh
-(th)a
	

as-am
as-ad
as-(s)
ais-te
as-ainn
as-aibh
as-ta
	

asam
asad
as
aiste
asainn
asaibh
asta
  	  	 
  	ROOT: le- 	le
  	

le-am
le-at
le-is
lei-the
le-inn
le-ibh
leo-tha
	

leam
leat
leis
leatha (cf léithe)
leinn
leibh
leotha
  	  	 
  	ROOT: ri- 	ri
  	

ri-am
ri-at
ri-(i)s
ri-the
ri-(i)nn
ri-(ibh)
riu-tha
	

rium
riut
ris
rithe
ruinn (<rinn)
ruibh (<ribh)
riutha
  	  	 
  	ROOT: thar- 	thar
  	

thar-am
thar-ad
thair-is
thair-te
thar-ainn
thar-aibh
thar-ta
	

tharam
tharad
thairis (air)
thairte
tharainn
tharaibh
tharta

As you can see, this bunch is mostly regular except for ás, which has [s] instead of the expected [ʃ] and the 3rd person singular feminine leatha which is a bit weird.  The Irish form léithe fits the paradigm perfectly though, not that that is any consolation to us.

Again, i gets inserted so the caol ri caol rule isn't broken.

Almost there.  There next group we decided to call Labial in Root because they - surprise - all contain a labial (b, m, f):

 

Group & Endings
	  	 

LABIAL IN ROOT
	ROOT: tromh- 	tro

-(a)m
-(a)d/-(a)t
ROOT + [e]
-pe + slenderise
-(a)inn
-(a)ibh
-pa
	

tromh-am
tromh-ad
troimh-e
troimh-pe
tromh-ainn
tromh-aibh
tromh-pa
	

tromham
tromhad
troimhe
troimhpe
tromhainn
tromhaibh
tromhpa
  	  	 
  	ROOT: romh- 	ro
  	

romh-am
romh-ad
roimh-e
roimh-pe
romh-ainn
romh-aibh
romh-pa
	

romham
romhad
roimhe
roimhpe
romhainn
romhaibh
romhpa
  	  	 
  	ROOT: ua- 	o
  	

ua-m
ua-t
uai-the
uai-pe
ua-inn
ua-ibh
ua-pa
	

uam
uat
uaithe
uaipe
uainn
uaibh
uapa
  	  	 
  	ROOT: fodh- 	fo
  	

fodh-am
fodh-ad
fodh-a
foidh-pe
fodh-ainn
fodh-aibh
fodh-pa
	

fodham
fodhad
fodha
foidhpe
fodhainn
fodhaibh
fodhpa
  	  	 
  	ROOT: um- 	mu
  	

um-am
um-ad
uim-e
uim-pe
um-ainn
um-aibh
um-pa
	

umam
umad
uime
uimpe
umainn
umaibh
umpa

Nothing much to add about this group really.  As you will see later on, that weird -p- isn't part of the ending but rather a very old part of the root that crops up now and then, but let's finish this off first and take a look at the Decidedly Weird Group (luckily there's only one preposition, unfortunately it's also perhaps the most common one...):

 

Group & Endings
	analysed preposition 	normal form

WEIRD
	ROOT: dh(u)- 	do

-mh
-t
-a
-i
-inn
-ibh
-aibh
	

dh-omh
dhu-t
dh-a
dh-i
dhu-inn
dhu-ibh
dh-aibh
	

dhomh
dhut
dha
dhi
dhuinn
dhuibh
dhaibh

As you can see, compared to the other ones do is really weird.  The historical notes aside, there isn't much else unfortunately that we can add that might help you.  Except a general note perhaps: for adults, learning a new language invariable involves learning stuff by heart.  If you were doing Basque you'd have to cope with over 12.000 forms for the two verbs 'to be' and 'to have' alone ... so learning the few irregular verbs of Gaelic and these few prepositions isn't that bad really.  It's really worthwhile putting in the effort though ... they are REALLY common and having to think before coming out with your conjugated preposition really marks you as a learner!!

On to the history then for the curious minds ...

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