can say—an fear ag a ḃfuil an ḃó, or more usually, an fear a ḃfuil an ḃó aige,[1] the man who has the cow; an fear ar ḋíolas an capall leis, or an fear ler ḋíolas an capall, the man to whom I sold the horse.
542. The forms darb or darab, darḃ, lerḃ, marḃ, &c., are compounds of a preposition, relative particle; “ro,” the sign of the Past Tense; and ba or buḋ the Past Tense of is.
- darḃ = do + a + ro + ba = to whom was.
- lerḃ = le + a + ro + ba = with or by whom was.
as, bean darḃ ainm Briġid, a woman whose name was Brigid.
543. As the accusative case of the relative particle has exactly the same form as the nominative, the context must determine, in those tenses in which the verb has no distinct termination for the relative, whether the relative particle is the subject or object of the verb; an fear a ḃuail Seaġán, may mean, The man whom John struck, or The man who struck John.
Translation of the Genitive Case of the English Relative.
544. The Irish relative has no inflection for case; hence, in order to translate the English word “whose”
- ↑ An fear go ḃ‑fuil an ḃó aige is also used.
