Cailean Mark - <[email protected]>
 
Tip 55

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Last modified: October 1, 2003
These are from the Gaidhlig-B Mailing List, courtesy of Cailean Mark

Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 10:44:33 +0100 From: Colin Mark <[email protected]> Subject: Tip of the Week 55 Homework (4)   Continuing with the examination of the Gaelic for 'homework'   Cothrom 20   Ciamar a bheir thu obair taighe dhan chloinn mura h-eil Gàidhlig aig am pàrantan, agus ciamar a n� thu conaltradh ris na pàrantan? How do you give homework to children if the parents don't have Gaelic, and how do you communicate with the parents?   Ciamar a bheir thu ...? Note that 'ciamar' takes after it the relative pronoun 'a' and the relative form of the verb. This is the same as the Present, Past or Imperfect / Conditional Tenses, but the Future Tense has a special Relative Future Form (except those verbs which have an irregular future Tense, as 'thoir' has)   e.g. Present: Ciamar a tha thu? How are you? Tha mi sgìth. I am tired.   Past Ciamar a bha thu? How were you? Bha mi sgìth. I was tired.   Imperfect / Conditional Ciamar a bhiodh i? How would she be? Bhiodh i sgìth. She would be tired.   But:   Future Ciamar a bhios iad? / Ciamar a bhitheas iad? How will they be? Bidh iad sgìth. They will be tired.   Ciamar a bheir thu? How will you give? Cf. 'nì' below. Bheir mi I shall give (Irregular)   obair taighe (literally) = 'house work' = 'homework'   dhan chloinn The combination 'don' 'to the' is often 'dhan' in various dialects.   mura h-eil The conjunction 'mur' means 'if not' / 'unless'. The form 'mur' is used before vowels and 'an do ..?', and 'mura' before consonants (though 'mura h-' is also used before vowels.   am pàrantan = 'their parents'   agus ciamar a nì thu conaltradh = and how will you make conversation? = How will you converse? 'Nì' is the irregular Future Tense of the verb 'dèan' 'make', 'do'   ris na pàrantan? Most verbs denoting communication use the preposition 'ri /ris'. A notable exception is 'innis' e.g. Innis dhomh Tell (to) me.   ============================ Source unknown   lean i oirre le obair an taighe   she continued with the housework / she carried on etc.   lean basically means 'follow', but when followed by the prepositional pronouns of 'air' i.e. 'orm', 'ort', 'air', 'oirre', 'oirnn', 'oirbh', 'orra' = 'on me', 'on you', 'on him', 'on us', 'on you', 'on them' respectively, it means 'carry on', 'continue' etc.   And here we see 'obair an taighe' = (lit. 'work of the house' = 'the housework', whereas 'housework' ( in general) would be 'obair-taighe' / 'obair taighe'.   That ends this series.   All past Tip of the Week messages are to be found, courtesy of George Seto, at:   http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6338/tip_o_wk.htm     Cailean Cànan ar Cridhe 's ar Gaoil Am Marcair Dubh Is i a' Ghàidhlig Cànan mo Dhùthcha. URL: http://www.gaeldesign.com/colinmark

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