An Modh Coinníollach Cheat Sheet

Are you an Irish language enthusiast? At some point you’ll get to An Modh Coinníollach, the conditional tense or “Conditional Mood”. This lets you express yourself in the Irish language about things that you would do. 

Conditional Tense – More Info

This is a topic that tends to fill learners with dread, in particular the ones who studied Irish at school in Ireland. In reality, it’s not so difficult, and the issue in schools is that, for logical reasons, the modh coinníollach tends to be taught later than the present, past and future tenses, and perhaps students just have less time with it.

You’ll find, however, that an modh coinníollach is not so hard, and that it’s really useful for imagining, speculating and wondering about possibilities, options, and even fantasy worlds like Tír na nÓg.

With the conditional tense, you can start by looking at different language to talk about dilemmas and choice, and especially imagining what you would do.