‘Níba’ instead of ‘níos’?

[Séamas O’Conaill]

I was just wondering why and when would I use ‘níba’ in place of ‘níos’, I was guessing to myself that ‘níba’ would be used when talking in the past tense – am I wrong in saying that?

[Labhrás]

I was just wondering why and when would I use ‘níba’ in place of ‘níos’, I was guessing to myself that ‘níba’ would be used when talking in the past tense – am I wrong in saying that?

No, that is right. “ní ba” is past tense (and imperfect and conditional)

[Seáinín]

Which might be more understandable when you know that “níos” is a contraction of “ní” + “is”, with the “ní” translating as “thing”, not a negator. Phrases like “níos mó” could be literally translated to “thing that is more”. Helps it make sense that “ní ba” would be the past/conditional tense, doesn’t it?

[Author]

Posts