Irish Class, May 4, 2009

Rang Gaeilge, 4ú lá Mí na Bealtaine

<!–

Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

–>

There were four students present. All of us had been in the same section of
Saturday’s workshop. So the class was
devoted to a review of some of the topics presented there, linking them to what we had previously
discussed.

Administrivia

• No class 5/25
• Last Spring class at Central 6/1
• Winona 7/17-19
• First Fall class at Central 9/14

---

Verbal nouns

Cloisim é	I hear it.	it/him
Chuala mé é	I heard it.
Tá mé á chloisteáil.	I am hearing it.
Tá sí cloiste agam.	I have heard it.	it/her
Tá sé le cloisteáil.	It is to be heard.

See Basic
Irish, chapters 19 and 20, for more on the subject.

---

Tá mé ag cloisteáil an charad.
I am hearing the friend.
Lit: “I am at the
hearing of the friend.” [not “hearing” in the sense of legal proceedings!]

Carad is in the genitive case. The object of the verbal noun must be in the genitive: “of
the friend”. “hearing of the friend” = “friend’s hearing” — possession. So when you replace the noun, e.g. “friend”, by a pronoun you will use a possessive pronoun: “friend’s hearing” → “his hearing.” In Irish, possessive pronouns

1. Go in front of nouns they possess.
2. Lenite it.

So we do those things to the verbal noun here. Also,
ag “at” is replaced by do “for.”
do and the possessive pronoun may be contracted:

ag … a → do … a → d’a → dá/dhá /γa:/ → á
do + ár → dár

Hence:

Tá mé á chloisteáil.

---

Examples

úll	apple	m1 gs úill, npl úll, gpl úll
feoil	meat	gs feola, npl gpl feolta

Tá muid ag ithe úill.	We are eating an apple.	note genitive
Tá muid á ithe.	We are eating it.	“of an apple”→”of him”. ithe cannot be lenited. Contrast á chloisteáil “hearing him/it”
Tá muid ag ithe úlla.	We are eating apples.
Tá muid á n-ithe.	We are eating them.	n- is eclipsis for words beginning with a vowel. Eclipsis because of plural.
Tá muid ag ithe feola.	We are eating meat.
Tá muid á h-ithe	We are eating it.	h- because of the feminine noun. Verbs beginning with consonants are not lenited, e.g. á cloisteáil “hearing her/it”

Another example of verbal noun + possessive:

Tá mé i mo shuí.
I am [in my] sitting.

This is an example of describing physical states. See Basic
Irish, p. 154 for more information.

iarr	request, demand, seek	verb
iarracht	attempt, effort, quantity	f3
iarraidh	request, demand, attempt	noun f
ar iarraidh	missing
Tá śe dúlta ag iarraidh.	They are gone missing.

Modal le: Purpose, intension

X le cloisteáil	X is to be heard
Tá muid ag dul amach le hithe sa mbialann.	We are going out in order to eat at the restaurant.	le prefixes h before following vowels
	[contrast]
Tá muid ag dul ag ithe sa mbialann.	We are going out eating at the restaurant.
Chuaig siad go Gaillimh le posadh.	They are going to Galway to get married.	go “to, towards” does not eclipse place names.

Donegal dialect uses chun rather than le for this.

Other modal constructions

Caithfidh mé	I need to	[urgent]
B’éigean dom	I need to	[strong]
ag iarriadh	trying, wanting
Tá mé ag iarriadh caint.	I want to speak.	Not ag caint.
Tá cead agam é a dhéanamh.	I am allowed to do it.	cead /kæd/

More in
Basic Irish, pp. 161-162.

Permission (Donegal)

An dtig liom…?	May I ….
Tig.	You may.
Ní thig.	You may not

---

Verbal Adjectives

ith eat ithe eating ite eaten

suigh sit suí sitting suite seated, situated

Tá sé le déanamh.	It is to be done.	[see above]
Tá sé déanta.	It is done.
Bhí sé déanta.	It was done.

Tá na húlla ite.	The apples are eaten.	na húlla is the subject.
Tá na húlla ite ag na páisti/agam/agamsa.	The apples are eaten by the children/by me/by me.

---

Autonomous Form

Itear úlla.	Apples are eaten.
Itear na húlla	The apples are eaten.

There is no subject. “Apples” are the object.

Autonomous endings

-t(e)ar	present
-f(e)ar	future
-(e)adh	past

dún	close
dúntar	is closed
dúnfar	will be closed
dúnadh	was closed
dúnadh	closing	verbal noun

<!–

–>
<!–

–>