Help with sentence structure!

[Tahnee Moors]

So I’m quite new to Irish and I’m getting all flustered with the sentence structure of longer sentences. I know that with Irish it’s generally VSO (verb, subject, object) whereas with English it’s subject, verb, object…. But I’m having trouble creating a sentence when there’s more than one subject etc.

So like, if I were to say “the cat sat on the mat” it’d be “Shuig an cat ag an mata” (I think)… But if I were to say “the cat sat on the mat with the dog”, I wouldn’t know where to start with Irish… Would ‘the dog’ be placed next to ‘the cat’ in the sentence? Or would it go at the end? Where on earth would I put it?! This goes with any sentence, really…

I’m fine if there’s one of each (as in one verb, one subject and one object), but as soon as there’s more than one of each, I get all confused and don’t know how to structure it!

Sorry if this is an obvious question, or if it doesn’t make any sense at all, for that matter! I might have all of this entirely wrong! But I hope someone can help!

Thank you in advance!!!

[Lughaidh]

So like, if I were to say “the cat sat on the mat” it’d be “Shuig an cat ag an mata” (I think)…

shuigh an cat sìos ar an mata
(Ulster: shuigh ‘n cat sìos ar a’ mhata)

But if I were to say “the cat sat on the mat with the dog”, I wouldn’t know where to start with Irish… Would ‘the dog’ be placed next to ‘the cat’ in the sentence? Or would it go at the end? Where on earth would I put it?! This goes with any sentence, really…

you could say:
shuigh an cat sìos ar an mata leis an madra (Ulster: shuigh ‘n car sìos ar a’ mhata leis a’ mhadadh)

or

shuigh an cat agus an madra sìos ar an mata… (the cat and the dog sat down on the mat)

it’s as in English, except that the verb is before…

[Séril Báicéir]

But I’m having trouble creating a sentence when there’s more than one subject etc.

So like, if I were to say “the cat sat on the mat” it’d be “Shuig an cat ag an mata”

Well actually you would still only have one subject in either of your examples, and that subject would the “cat”. “On the mat” is part of the predicate of the sentence and contains a prepositional phrase using the preposition “on.” “With the dog” is another prepositional phrase as well.

If you wanted to have a compound subject you could say, “The cat and the dog sat on the mat.” “Shuigh an cat agus an madra ar an mata.”

I agree that the VSO sentence structure is definately one that takes some getting used to by native English speakers. I still sometimes have to adjust and remind my brain to think that way. Good luck!

[Tahnee Moors]

Thank you both for your time! That was a giant help! :’)

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