I OUGHT.
654. “I ought” is translated by the phrase is cóir (or ceart) dom. You ought, is cóir ḋuit, is ceart duit. We ought to go home, Is cóir ḋúinn dul a ḃaile. We ought to have gone home, Ba ċóir ḋúinn dul a ḃaile. As the word “ought” has no inflection for the past tense in English, it is necessary to use the past infinitive in English to express past time. But as the Irish expression, is cóir, has a past tense (ba ċóir) the simple verbal noun is always used in Irish in such expressions.
| Ought you not have gone to Derry with them? | Nár ċóir ḋuit dul go Doire leo? |
| He ought not have gone away. | Níor ċóir ḋó imṫeaċt. |
English Dependent Phrases translated by the Verbal Noun.
655. Instead of the usual construction, consisting of a verb in a finite tense followed by its subject (a noun or a pronoun), we very frequently meet in Irish with the following construction. The English finite verb is translated by the Irish verbal noun, and the English subject is placed before the verbal noun. If the subject be a noun it is in the nominative form, but if a pronoun in the disjunctive form.
