Irish Class, January 26, 2009

Rang Gaeilge, 26ú lá mí Eanáir 2009

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Listening exercise

1. Ceapim go mb’fhearr lin an liamhás a ithe ar dtús.
   I think that it is
   better for us to eat the ham first.

   ar dtús (=i dtosach)	first
   go mb’fhearr linn	would be better for us

   go mh’fhearr ← go b’fhearr ← go ba fearr. ba is conditional copula,
   and go eclipses. Alternative contraction of the same words: gurbh fhearr.
   In modern colloquial Irish you often just hear go b’fhearr, omitting the
   eclipsis.

2. Is mór an náire nár féidir libh teacht a thabairt cuairt.
   It is a great
   shame that you [pl.] would not be able to come visit.

   náire	shame	f4
   nár	would not be	Neg. cond. copula
   a thabairt cuairt	visit	lit. “give a visit”
   a thabairt ← ag tabhairt	to give	with modal contruction

3. An fada chun cinn atá sibh?
   How far along are you [pl.]?

   chun	toward	/γun/
   chun cinn	forward, ahead
   An	are	Pres. interr. copula
   fad	length	n. m1
   fada	long	adj.
   atá sibh	are you [pl.]
   a bhí	were you [pl.]

   Lit. “The length forward are you?”

4. B’ionadh orm cé chomh láidir a bhí sé.
   I was surprised at how strong it
   was.

   B’ionadh orm	I was surprised (Lit. “Surprise was on me”)	B’ionadh ← Ba ionadh
   Ar ionadh ort faoi…?	Were you surprised about …?

5. Chuir sé spúnóg airgid, forc iarainn, agus scian óir in aice leis
   a plata.
   Put a silver spoon, an iron fork, and a gold knife next to
   her plate.

   forc	fork	m
   scian	knife	f
   airgead	silver	g. airgid
   iarann	iron	g. iarainn
   ór	gold	g. óir
   a pláta	her plate
   a phláta	his plate	plate of a different man/boy
   a phláta fein	his own plate
   a bpláta	their plate
   an bpláta	the plate

Note: in aice leis eclipses, but mutations from a personal pronoun trump that
effect.

More on Cardinal directions

Based on unit 9 of Intermediate
Irish.

We did some of the exercises at the end of the chapter. No. 6 was a little
frustrating: Our thoughts on where each paragraph led differed from the author’s.
However, there was some useful vocabulary: