Irish Class, February 24, 2014

Rang Gaeilge, 24ú lá mí Feabhra 2014

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Wes’s Class

Wes was out sick, so Will took his class. Three of us from Will’s class assisted. I had an attack of imposter syndrome but managed to hide it.
Here are the official notes from Will:

The focus was on the present (habitual) tense, and on answering simple questions:

• Usually referring to the “present tense” is enough, but it gets a little confusing with “to be”, because you have both Tá and Bíonn forms, the latter being the habitual version. So:
  • Tá mé tuirseach anocht, “I am tired tonight.”
  • Bíonn sé tuirseach ‘chuile lá, “He is tired every day” (notes from a doctor’s visit, say).
• We worked in pairs and spent a lot of time asking questions that started with An bhfuil and with An mbíonn, with the second person having to respond with a correct form of yes/no, namely Tá/Níl for the first question and Bionn/Ní bhíonn (or Bím/Ní bhím) for the second.
• We then expanded to other verbs, using the standard verb sheet from this site that is used for many exercises. We learned that:
  • Short verbs (and -áil verbs) are Type 1, other verbs longer than one syllable are Type 2.
  • Short verbs have short vowels in their endings and long verbs have long vowels in their endings.
  • Type 1, then, end in -ann, but remember “slender to slender, etc.”. That is, fanann but briseann. (If the e is needed in the ending, there will be an i before the final consonant in the verb stem.)
  • Type 2, then, end in-íonn, with an a added when needed to match a broad consonant: ceannaíonn vs. coinníonn.
  • There are special mé combined forms that follow the short/long vowel guideline: feicim vs. ceannaím. These need to be used in statements — Feicim madra — but the answer to An bhfeiceann tú? can be either feicim or feicean.