An Initial Consonant is aspirated in the Preterite Tense, through all the Moods and Voices, except in the Preterite Subjunctive after the Particles ni, mur, nach, gu, an, am. An initial Consonant is occasionally aspirated in the Future Tense, and in the Infinitive and Participle, indicating their connection with the preceding word.
In the first Conjugation, do is prefixed to the Pret. Aff. and Neg. Active and Passive. However, it often is, and always may be, omitted before the Pret. Aff. It is sometimes omitted in the Pret. Neg. in verse, and in common conversation. In the second Conjugation, the same Particle do is prefixed to the Preterite through all the Moods and Voices, and to the Fut. Subj. excepting only the Subjunctive Tenses after ni, mur, nach, gu, an, am. In this
Conjugation, do always loses the o to avoid a hiatus, and the d is aspirated in the Affirm. and Subjunct. Moods[[49]].
Of the Termination.
In all regular Verbs, the Terminations adjected to the Root are, strictly speaking, the same in Verbs characterised by a small vowel. But where the first vowel of the Termination does not correspond in quality to the last vowel of the Root, it has become the constant practice to insert in the Termination a vowel of the requisite quality, in order to produce this correspondence. Thus a variety has been introduced into the Terminations even of regular Verbs, prejudicial to the uniformity of inflection, and of no use to ascertain either the sense or the pronunciation[[50]]. In the foregoing examples of regular Verbs, the common mode of Orthography has been followed, but in the following rules the simple Terminations only are specified.
ACTIVE VOICE.
Simple Tenses.
The Theme or Root of the Verb is always found in the second Per. sing. of the imperative.
The Preterite Affirm. and Negat. is like the Root, and has no distinction of Number or Person. In most of the editions of the Gaelic Psalms, some inflections of the
Preterite have been admitted, with good effect, from the Irish Verb; such as, bhuaileas I struck, bhuailis thou didst strike, bhuaileamar we struck, bhuaileadar they struck. The Pret. Subj. is formed by adding to the Root inn for the first pers. sing., and adh for the other persons. The first pers. plur. also terminates in amaid.