Verbs are the engine of every sentence you’ll ever speak in Irish.

Learning the most frequent verbs will instantly boost your ability to hold a conversation.

Irish verbs might seem different from English at first glance, but they follow highly predictable patterns.

Once you understand a few basic rules, conjugating these words becomes second nature.

I’m going to break down exactly how Irish verbs work and give you a list of the 50 most useful ones to learn.

The two forms of “to be” in Irish

Irish is unique because it has two completely different verbs that mean “to be”.

The first one is the verb bí, which is used to describe a state, a feeling, or a location.

You’ll most often see it in its present tense form, which is tá.

The second form is the copula, known as is.

You use is to declare identity, nationality, or permanent facts.

Mixing them up is a common beginner mistake, so just remember that tá is for temporary states and is is for what something fundamentally is.

First conjugation verbs

Irish groups regular verbs into two main categories called conjugations.

First conjugation verbs generally have one syllable in their root form.

Examples include short words like glan (clean), dún (close), and bris (break).

When you conjugate these verbs in the present tense, you usually add an ending like -ann or -eann.

The specific ending you choose depends on whether the last vowel in the root is broad (a, o, u) or slender (i, e).

Second conjugation verbs

Second conjugation verbs are usually multi-syllable words.

They very often end in -igh or -aigh in their root form.

Examples of second conjugation verbs include ceannaigh (buy) and tosaigh (start).

When you conjugate these in the present tense, you usually remove the -igh or -aigh ending first.

Then you add endings like -íonn or -aíonn depending on the vowels.

Irregular verbs in Irish

Many languages have hundreds of irregular verbs that you just have to memorize.

Irish only has 11 irregular verbs in the entire language.

This makes learning Irish grammar much easier than you might expect.

These verbs don’t follow the standard rules for the past, present, or future tenses.

Because they represent the most common actions in everyday life, you’ll learn them very quickly through constant exposure.

The 50 most common Irish verbs list

Here’s a handy table of the 50 most frequently used verbs in the Irish language.

I’ve included the root form, the English translation, and the verb type to help you conjugate them properly.

Use this list as a daily vocabulary guide to build your core conversational skills.