Breton/Breton bases


 Introduction to Breton

Breton bases


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 Bremañ a ra Yann
To read Bremañ does Yann


First Breton words

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

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 verbal particle "a" (other verbal particles exist: "e", "o", etc.)
  • "a lenn" : the verb "to read" is used in a personal form with a verbal 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"