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Ainmearan fireann

Masculine nouns

The article for masculine nouns in the genitive case follows the same pattern as we saw with the dative case for both masculine and feminine nouns. Like the feminine dative, masculine nouns in the genitive typically slenderise their endings. Like this:

Masculine nouns

b, c, g, m, pa’ _ha’ bhùird a’ chidsin
fan fhan fheasgair
sl, sn, sr s+vowelan t-an t-seòmair an t-sneachda
vowelsanan uisge an oilthighe
otheranan dorais an taighe

Masculine nouns

NOMINATIVEDATIVEGENITIVE
an taighanns an taighcoltas an taighe
the housein the house(a/the) look of the house
am bòrdair a’ bhòrdcas a’ bhùird
the tableon the table(a/the) leg of the table
an dorasaig an dorasdath an dorais
the doorat the door(a/the) colour of the door
an cidsinanns a’ chidsinbòrd a’ chidsin
the kitchenin the kitchen(a/the) table of the kitchen
an seòmaranns an t-seòmarmeud an t-seòmair
the roomin the room(a/the) size of the room

And in our conversations, we saw:

an gàrradhanns a’ ghàrradhceann a’ ghàrraidh
the gardenin the gardenend of the garden
am bòrdair a’ bhòrdmullach a’ bhùird
the tableon the tablethe top of the table
Did you know?

Cas a’ bhùird

You can see from the English translations above the Gaelic genitive with the definite article can be translated in two ways. Where in English we can use ‘the’ twice, in Gaelic the article appears only once:

cas a’ bhùird = the leg of the table
cas a’ bhùird = a leg of the table