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Go leor after a noun or adjective usually means ‘enough of X,’ ‘a fair amount of X,’ &c. When go leor comes before, it usually means ‘a lot of X’…
Hmm, that’s an interesting take. A big part of my problem is that I’m still thinking in English and am trying to make sense of things from that standpoint. What you’ve said above makes sense to me in this context:
ceart go leor
To me, this means “true enough”, not “a lot of true” (although I’ve already proven I don’t know what I’m talking about). So, in a hypothetical situation where two cooks are preparing for a dinner party when unexpected guests arrive:
An mbeidh bia go leor?
Cinnte, beidh go leor bia.Would this conversation amount to this:
Will there be enough food?
Sure, there will be lots of food.Or (more likely) am I still misunderstanding something?
Bhí teach mór ag a mbean agus bhí go leor seomraí ann.
“Go leor” usually comes first. Why were you expecting it to be different?
“go leor seomraí” – lots of/enough rooms
I think this issue has to do with what is the subject of the sentence. It’s a compound sentence (uses “and” to connect two normally seperate sentences) so it makes it a bit more difficult to spot. But if you take just the second part: “…bhí go leor seomraí ann.” “ann” changes everything for this sentence, because I believe it would be “Bhí seomraí go leor” if “go leor” were at the end…but that would mean “seomraí” is now the subject with “go leor being the predicate adjective. In English this sentence would read, “Rooms were enough.” Which isn’t the meaning of your original sentence. So your original sentence translates as “There were lots of/enough rooms.” “Lots of/enough” is clearly attached to “rooms” in this sentence, with “there” being the subject.
Bleh, I know I’m horrible at explaining grammar stuff, but I hope you can make some sense of what I tried to explain. If anyone else has an easier way of saying it, please chime in, or if I’m wrong please tell me that too. 🙂
Oh, I see! “Bhí go leor seomraí ann” for “There were lots of rooms”, and “Bhí seomraí go leor” meaning “Rooms were enough”. Presumably “Bhí seomraí go leor ann” means “I’m a beginning student of Irish”. 🙂 So the order in this case actually does change the meaning (as opposed to just being a sort of poetic license). GRMA!
Go raibh maith agat, a Aonghuis!
Regarding “ge leor”, I could have sworn that I’d seen it as “rudaí go leor” instead of “go leor rudaí”. However, I went back and reviewed the examples from earlier in the book, and have found several where the use the “go leor xxx” order. So I guess I need more study (and more caffeine).
Speaking of lack of caffeine, I’d thought that the sentence to be translated was this:
Máire has a nice coat and a wonderful dress too.
This is why I’d thought that the Gaeilge form would be something like “Tá cóta deas ag Máire agus gúna iontach freisin”. Reviewing the original sentence, it’s actually this though:
Máire also has a nice coat and a wonderful dress.
in which case “Tá cóta deas ag Máire freisin agus gúna iontach” makes sense (as you pointed out). So I’ll try to make sure I’m fully awake before posting next time. 🙂
Go raibh maith agat, a Aonghuis (I hope I got the vocative right there)! I haven’t yet come across the Tá/Is thing in Learning Irish yet, but think I’m starting to get a feel at least for when to use “go” and when to lenite. I really appreciate your taking the time to correct me.
Go raibh maith agabh! I had to look up what a predicative adjective is, which led me to a quick lesson on cupolas. Amazing how much you learn about one language (English in this case) when studying another. Please bear with me; I want to see if I’ve gotten a better feel for this now. Can someone please correct these sentences?
Tá sé lá breá. It is a fine day.
Tá sé oíche bhreá. It is a fine night.
Tá an lá go breá. The day is fine. (I know this is correct as I didn’t come up with it myself.)
Tá an oíche go breá. The night is fine.
These are really contrived sentences, but I was trying to use both masculine and feminine nouns with both attributive and predicative adjectives. Thanks for your patience.
Dia ‘is Muire dhuit, a Iosua. I just started learning not too long ago as well and hope you find this forum as useful as I have.
Go raibh maith agaibh! Funny how a simple little sentence can have several things to teach me. When I said “There is a house there” I think I was too tired when I posted (so it was redundant). I meant more like “A house exists there”, which still isn’t the best English. The other examples in Learning Irish which had “Tá…” seem to be translated as “There is…”, so it makes more sense to me at this point in my learning to think of it as “There is a house there” (in the sense of “a house exists in that location” as opposed to “there is a house way over there”).
I’d learned about “ann” and “ansiúd”, but thanks for the reminders as it’s all still new to me. I hadn’t come across “an” or “thall” yet, so thanks for that too.
Good point about supporting Daltaí by purchasing products through their store. I appreciate the further recommendations (on Foclóir Póca, Buntús Cainte, Collins, et al.), and for the warning about Get The Focal Out Of Here. Go raibh maith agaibh!
