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Examples per Buntas Ceacht 102
Le carr a cheannach, a stór. Translated as To buy a car, love.
Nach bhfaigheadh sé carr le ceannach sa bhaile mór anseo? Translated as Wouldn’t he get a car to buy in town here.
In the first phrase it means “in order to”, in order to buy a car
E.g. Tháinig mé anseo le carr a cheannach. – I came here (in order) to buy a car.
The second sentence means an opportunity
(Though the verb faigh is sufficient enough to denote an opportunity and “Nach bhfaigheadh sé carr a cheannach” means actually the same.)What is the difference in using a cheannach and using le ceannach? Buntus shows both meaning to buy.
Go raibh maith agaibhAren’t there example sentences?
le can have a lot of meanings (purpose, possibility, necessity, etc.)
a is just a grammatical device without a real meaning.Tá sé le ceannach = It can/must be bought. (“It is to buy”)
é a cheannach = to buy it
Cad atá sé a cheannach? = What is he buying?
Cad atá le ceannach? = What can be bought?It probably differs acc. to dialect.
an t-aon hart in Connacht (e.g. Tomás Ó Máille, An Béal Beo)
an t-aon hairt in Ulster (e.g. Eoghan Ó Colm, Toraigh na dTonn)Why is it right to say, “Níl mórán Fraincise agam,” w/ “Fraincise” being in the [color=purple]genitive[/color] form…but “Níl aon Ghearmáinis agam,” w/ “Ghearmáinis‘” being in [color=green]nominative[/color] form? Is “mórán” a noun and “aon” one of those rare adjectives that comes [color=brown]before[/color] a noun? Or is it something else I’m not getting? 😮 I’d like very much to know; so thanks to anyone who does!
Yes, mórán is a noun, aon (as well as all numbers from 1-19) is an adjective.
Phrase used in the song sounds like d’anam don diabhal or d’ anam ón diabhal. Any thoughts?
Go raibh maith agaibh.don (sometimes shortened to ’on)
(You don’t get souls from the devil.)
Why is it that
“Dia duit” is pronounced “djiah gwich”But for “Cad is ainm duit” it’s pronounced “cahd iss anim ditch? “
From
http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/gaelic.htmlI’m referring to the “duit”
Dia duit ~Dia dhuit
“D” in “duit” (and in similar forms of do) is often lenited (ie. dhuit, at least so pronounced), especially after vowels (e.g. after Dia), less often after consonants (e.g. ainm)
so:
Dia dhuit
but
…ainm duitThere’s an explanation at Akerbeltz (for the similar Scottish Gaelic version of Sé/Dé do bheatha):
http://www.akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Jesus_is_life?
So, originally in Old Irish: rotbia de bethu, lit. “[There] will(shall)-be-to-you [plenty] of life”
It is an idiom. It is not a copula sentence at all. And (as Onuvanja already stated) ‘bhaile (abhaile) isn’t a noun here but an adverb, “at home”.
I recently discovered that “smaoinigh” would be pronounced “SMWEE•chee” in Ulster. Is this perhaps because of an origin of a different regional spelling? And, either way, how does this affect the different pronunciations of the Ulster conjugation? I’m mostly relying on abair.ie for conjugation pronunciations, which has been very helpful, but this example seems like an exception. Thanks!
You probably mean “SMWEENchee”.
Its spelling is smaointigh.
I’ve noticed that in Ulster Irish, “Gaeilge” is pronounced two different ways: “GAY•lik” and “GAY•lig•uh.” I thought that this must be a sub-dialectical difference, but, while listening to “Barrscéalta,” the [color=blue]same[/color] woman said it both ways in her speech. Umm..? What am I not getting? Can anyone help? Thanks!😊
Irish nouns are declined for case.
So it is not a matter of different pronunciations but of different word forms: Gaeilig and Gaeilige.
First is nominative case, the second is genitive case.Sorry if it’s a stupid question but this is confusing me. If it’s literally ‘I have knowledge’ why does the ‘a’ come into play? ‘I have a car’ is just ‘Tá carr agam’, no ‘a’ involved.
A refers to what you know and anticipates that clause:
Tá a fhios agam go ndéarna tú é.
If such a clause is missing, a represents the missing clause.
Tá a fhios agam. = I know it; literally: I have its knowledge.
In English, “I know” (without “it”) can stand alone but is elliptical (“I know ….”). In Irish, “Tá a fhios agam.” is a full sentence.
EDIT: Random other question that popped into my head: Why is it ‘ní féidir’ instead of ‘ni fhéidir’?
Because ní is a copula form here in present tense. And all present tense copula forms cause neither lenition nor eclipsis:
Is féidir, ní féidir, an féidir, nach féidir, gur féidir, más féidir …Or in other words: ní féidir is rather ní [is] féidir. The omitted (is) in parenthesis prevents the verbal particle ní from causing lenition.
(BTW: The forum software sucks. Why must I make two empty lines to get one empty line? )
In Learning Irish chapters 20 and 31, the following are given:1. Sin é an rud is féidir a dhéanamh
2. Sin é an rud nach féidir a dhéanamh
3. Sin é an rud ba cheart a dhéanamh
3. Sin é an rud nach mba cheart a dhéanamhThinking of the relative clause as a sentence in itself, are the following correct?
Sin é an rud. Is féidir é a dhéanamh (or Is féidir a dhéanamh?)
Sin é an rud. Ní féidir é a dhéanamh (or Ní féidir a dhéanamh?)
Sin é an rud. Ba cheart é a dhéanamh (or Ba cheart a dhéanamh?)
Sin é an rud. Ní ba cheart é a dhéanamh (Ní ba cheart a dhéanamh?)Yes.
Ní ba cheart = Níor cheart in Standard IrishI’m still not sure is it ‘is féidir é a dhéanamh’ or ‘is féidir a dhéanamh’. I think I read somewhere that they mean the same thing, but the second is an older construction. Any ideas?
Yes, they mean the same and the first is older.
a dhéanamh “its doing”
é a dhéanamh “it to do”Finally, I came across the following sentence:
Bhí Brídín, an leanbh ab óige, agus í ag slíocadh an chait…
What’s ‘ab’ doing here? Learning Irish makes no mention of it.
Thanks for your help!
Bhí Brídín, an leanbh ab óige, agus í ag slíocadh an chait = Brídín, the youngest child, was stroking the cat.
an leanbh ab óige = the youngest child (“the child which was youngest”)
Ab is the past tense direct relative form of the copula before vowels
Before consonants it is ba:
an leanbh ab óige
but
an leanbh ba shineI keep wondering about if it’s right or wrong to use the technical genitive version of a noun w/o the “an” or “na” article. E.g….would it be more normal to say “ceapaire ubh” or “ceapaire uibhe”? I know that “[color=blue]an[/color] ceapaire uibhe” would be right, but what about without the article? Thanks.🤞ðŸ¼
ceapaire uibheThere’s no relation to the article.
Since I haven’t found the solution in grammar books, I’ve just guessed it was the same thing after genitive singular masculine nouns as after nominative singular feminine nouns since they behave in the same way in most points of view. But maybe I’m wrong.
You already cited the rules: lenition after masculine genitives ending in slender consonant only:
So, in an tseomra suí, suí is unlenited because seomra ends in -a.A problem is an mhic tíre. You could expect lenition but there is none. (at least in examples in Nua-Chorpas or logainmneacha: Clais an Mhic Tíre)
Perhaps, mac tíre is too lexicalized a noun, so though there’s (sometimes) declension of mac, tíre is unchanged.
Also I always wondered why it’s called past subjunctive, it’s not past nor subjunctive. It should be called “conditional 2” 😀It is used instead of present subjunctive in the past
present subjunctive -> past subjunctive
Fan go dtaga mé -> D’fhan sé go dtagainn.
Imeoidh mé sula bhfeice sé mé -> D’imigh mé sula bhfeiceadh sé mé.Anseo – https://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/act#act__10 – tá shampla ann: “the programme includes two musical acts – tá dhá mhír cheoil sa chlár“
Cén fath tá sé ‘dhá’, ach nuair a chomhaireamh mé, tá se “haon, dó”, níl “haon, dá“
go raibh míle
Níl fáth ar bith seachas sanasaíocht.
bunuimhreacha. Is uimhreacha aideachtacha iad.
(aon) … amháin
dhá …
trí …
ceithre …
cúig …
sé …
seacht …
ocht …
naoi …
deich …
aon … déag
dhá … déagmaoluimhreacha. Is uimhreacha ainmfhoclacha iad.
a haon
a dó
a trí
a ceathair
a cúig
a sé
a hocht
a naoi
a deich
a haon déag
a dó dhéag
