Breton/Introductory lessons/Breton Basics

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 Introductory lessons
Breton Pronunciation

Introductory lessons
Breton Basics

Introductory lessons
Breton Dialects
 


 Introduction to Breton

Breton Basics

Your first steps in Breton

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Here are the very first sentences of Breton in this course :

  • Who is it ?
Piv eo ?
Who is ?
  • It's John
Yann eo
John is
  • What does John do?
Petra a ra Yann ?
What does John ?
  • John reads Bremañ (insisting upon the subject : John)
Yann a lenn Bremañ
John reads Bremañ
  • John reads Bremañ (insisting upon the verb : To read)
Lenn    a ra Yann Bremañ
To read does Yann Bremañ


First Breton words

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Breton English IPA notation
Piv Who piu
Eo Is eo
Yann John yañn
Petra What petra
Lenn To read len
Bremañ Now (Breton newspaper) bremañ

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Verbal group

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In the preceding sentences, we have several verbal groups :

  • "eo" : the verb "to be" is used alone in a personal form
  • "a ra" : the verb "to do" is used in a personal form with a verb particle "a" (other verb particles exist "e", "o", etc.)
  • "a lenn" : the verb "to read" is used in a personal form with a verb particle "a" as above
  • "lenn a ra" : the verb "to read" is used in an impersonal form with an auxiliary verb which is in a personal form "a ra"
 Next: Breton Dialects