Asklemmy

Irish is somewhat similar to how @jeinzi@discuss.tchncs.de describes German.

-ín is a diminutive added to the end of a noun. So for example you can have:

• buachaill (boy) → buachaillín (little boy)
• bóthair (road) → bóithrín (small road; this one has undergone some mutation because it's such a common word)
• smidir (fragment) → smidirín (small fragment, hence the English word smithereens)

Beag is the word that literally means small, and there are slightly different connotations. Buachaill beag is a boy who is small in size, while buachaillín is a term of either affection or derision depending on tone of voice. Bóithrín specifically means a winding country road with unkempt vegetation on the side, while a bóthair beag would be any small road.

Adjectives do not affect the words they are attached to. For example, the Irish word for red is dearg. Hence, a red rose is simply róise dearg, and a little red rose would be róisín dearg, though róisín is rarely used for flowers; it's basically exclusively a name. If you're talking about a flower, you'd be much more likely to say róise beag dearg, though róise dearg beag would also be correct.

Adjectives, however, can be altered by some adverbial prefixes, such as an- (very) and ró (too [much]). So, for example, very small is an-bheag, while too small is ró-bheag. (The BH there is pronounced like the English V. It can also be pronounced as W. I know the rule has to do with which vowels are adjacent, but I can't articulate what the rule is).

The past tense of many verbs is formed by changing the initial letter. Cuir, (put), for example, becomes chuir (put [in the past]); CH here is pronounced the same as in German, which is like the sound J makes in Spanish. Negation also tends to change the first letter of a verb; for example, cuireann (puts) → ní chuireann (does not put).