One of the major difficulties English speakers have when trying to learn Irish is learning the four different cases of nouns. In English, the genitive case is usually used for possession and uses and -s.

In Irish, the genitive is used for many other things. If these two languages use the genitive case for such different things, why do we call it the genitive case in both circumstances? It seems like we might as well use different words... Perhaps the "possessive case" in English or something.

I've been having a similar thought when it comes to learning about any aspect of the Irish language really. Like, English and Irish both have "verbal nouns", or that is to say, they both have "verb forms that behave like nouns." But again, the use of verbal nouns in each language is extremely different, and the use seems to depend on the idiom of the language. Is it accurate to say that in both case, the verbal nouns of each language are verb forms that behave like nouns??

And in Irish, we have the verbal adjective is the same as the past participle.... So, if the only time we use a verbal adjective is when it's being used as a past participle, why call it a verbal adjective at all??

Perhaps this is more of a question on langauge and linguistics in general, and I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to ask to be honest, but if one of the language guru's that visits these forums could give their best attempt at a response, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

I'm not a linguist, but my understanding is that the genitive case in English is either formed using the possesive ending -'s or with the preposition of. For example John's coat or the coat of John. As such you are correct that -'s is used to show possession but there are other genetive constructions with of that show relationship of two nouns, e.g. the size of the table, here the table does not own its size.

It is also worth noting that what is meant by a linguistic term does not always map 1:1 between every language. For example the Irish (or English) nominative case is not the same as the Latin nominative case because Latin also has an accusative case whose role is also covered by the nominative case in both English and Irish. This is also a reason that sometimes there are different words used for the same grammatical concept, for example the Irish subjunctive mood is generally referred to as an modh foshuiteach however Diarmuid Ó Sé refers to this mood as an modh guítheach, which technically translates to optative mood.

People often do call the English equivalent of the Irish genitive case the "possessive case". It fits the description of how the suffix, -'s, is used in English quite well.



No. Verbal nouns are nouns. They may be formed from verbs, but they behave like nouns. This is the case in both languages.

Yes, usage can depend on language-specific idioms, but there are examples in English that are very closely comparable to the primary use of verbal nouns in Irish; at ease, at play, at sail, etc.



Because it is an adjective. It is used like an adjective. Just like in English. A past participle like "broken" is also an adjective.



There is a long European tradition of grammatical analysis. These are the terms used. Not everything is going to be alike from one language to another, but where a term is employed, it's generally with good reason, and a long history of use behind it.