The past tense: buying & bought
An tràth caithte: a’ ceannach & cheannaich
John and Anne used one word lots: cheannaich ( bought). We will use question and answer format to show you how to form the past tense of ceannaich ( buy).
Is ceannaich (buy) a regular verb?
Yes. It is!
How do you form the past tense of regular verbs?
First you need to find out the imperative, (also known as the root or basic form) of the verb. It is ceannaich. Imperative means the verb used to give instructions and it is listed in all dictionaries. In the LearnGaelic dictionary, we show this with an exclamation mark.
Does the imperative start with one of the following consonants b, c, d, g, m, p, s, t?
Ceannaich does start with c! If the imperative starts with one of the consonants: b, c, d, g, m, p, s, t, then the word lenites when it is in the past tense.
| Imperative/Òrdugh | ||
| b, c, d, g, m, p, s, t | + h | Ceannaich -> Cheannaich |
| a, e, i, o, u | + dh' | Ith -> Dh'ith |
| l, n, r, sg, sm, sp and st | - | Leugh -> Leugh |
| f + a, e, i, o, u | Dh' + h | Dh'fhuirich |
These are the common questions using the basic lenited form cheannaich .
TThe càit question, unlike the other question words, is followed by the Yes/No question form, just like before with Càit a bheil ?, Càit an robh ?,