Tip of the Week 23
Some people may be experiencing difficulty with expressions of quantity such
as *many, more, few, much *etc. To explain this in depth would just
about fill a book, but, starting this week, I shall try to give you an outline
of how some of these expressions are used.
We'll begin with *mòran* which is one of the most common
words.
It is best to think of this word as meaning, basically, *a large amount
/lot*. However, it may also translate into English as *much
/many*
according
to context.
*Mòran* may be used as an independent noun:
Dè tha (a') dol? Chan eil mòran.
What's doing? Nothing much /not a lot.
Ach cha robh mòran a b' urrainn dhaibh a
dhèanamh.
But there was not much /a lot that they could do.
Tha mòran a' dèanamh gàirdeachas ris an naidheachd
seo.
Many welcome this news.
*Mòran* is frequently paired with another noun (which is in
the genitive case) to indicate *a lot of [something]*, *much
[something]*- when in the singular, and *many [something]* when
in the plural.
Chan eil mòran airgid agam.
I do not have a lot of money /I do not have much money.
Cha robh mòran dhaoine anns an talla.(*1)
There weren't many people in the hall. /There wasn't a lot of people etc.
When used partitively (i.e. when indicating a lot out of a larger amount)
*mòran* is followed by *de* = *of*:
Chaidh mòran de na daoine dhachaigh.
Many of the people went home.
(i.e. many out of the larger number who were there).
Tha mòran de na thuirt e cothromach.
Much of what he said is fair /reasonable.
When dealing with personal pronouns e.g. *many of us /of you /of
them* etc. prepositional pronouns of *de* are used:
Tha mòran dhiubh sgìth den obair seo.
Many of them are tired of this work.
Bhiodh mòran dhinn deònach sin a dhèanamh.
Many of us would be willing to do that.
In this last usage, you will often find the prepositional pronouns of
*aig* being used, though *aig* with a noun is not used (to
the best of my knowledge) e.g. mòran againn = many of us,
mòran aca = many of them etc.
Finally, the word *tòrr*, basically meaning *a heap*
is used in exactly the same way as *mòran*, so, in all the
examples above this could be substituted for *mòran*. I
should think, however, that *mòran* is more
widely acceptable.
(*1) In some texts, even in comparatively modern times, the rule that *d* or
*t* are not lenited after an *n* is observed e.g. *mòran daoine*, *mo
nighean donn bòidheach* etc. However, the trend is towards leniting in this
situation.
More next week,
Cailean
Am Marcair Dubh
Is i a' Ghàidhlig Cànan mo Dhùthcha.
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