a

poss pron His, her, its. After a, his, the substantive is always aspirated, but after a, her, it is plain. A mhac, his son; a nighean, her daughter. A, his, is omitted and an apostrophe inserted in its place before a word commencing with a vowel or fh and before a consonant when preceded by a prep ending in a vowel; as — gu 'mhac, to his son; 'fhalt, his hair; 'aghaidh, his countenance. In the fem an h- is interposed between a, her, and the noun, as — a h-each, her horse; a h-eun, her bird. When the fh is followed by a consonant, the pronoun is retained in the masc, as — a fhliuiche, his wetness. Cha b' urrainn iad a thogail no 'fhàgail, they could neither lift nor leave him (lit. — his lifting or leaving); theab iad a mharbhadh, they had almost killed him, (lit. — his killing). In a nighean, his daughter, n is aspirated in pronunciation, but the letter h is not written after l, n, r, in Scottish Gaelic. In some instances the difference between the plain and aspirated sound of these letters is only to be detected by a keen ear, while in others it is easily distinguishable.

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