Chapter V: Part II: Of the Parts of Speech

The parts of speech in Gaelic may be conveniently divided and arranged as follows:--Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection. Of these, the first five are declinable; the other four are indeclinable.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE ARTICLE.

The Gaelic article an corresponds to the English definite article _the_. There is in Gaelic no indefinite article corresponding to the English _a_ or _an_. The inflections of the article are but few. They depend on the gender, the number, and the case, of the noun to which it is prefixed. Hence the article is declined by gender, number, and case, as follows:

Singular. Plural.
_Masc._ _Fem._ _Masc. & Fem._
_Nom._ an, am an, a' na
_Gen._ an, a' na nan, nam
_Dat._ an, a', n' an, a', n' na

In the singular, final _n_ of the article is sometimes cut off, and its absence marked by an apostrophe. The same happens to the initial _a_ of the dative singular.