A chairde (go háirithe a Aonghuis 's a Phil...thanks to you both for your help last time),

Tá ceist eile agam anois, (agus tá a fhios agam gur bhféidir libh cuidiú liom)...

word order: I'm wondering if the english meaning of "to + verb + object" can be consistently expressed in Irish as "object + a + verb";

for example: "I need TO seize the opportunity TO speak Irish"

"Caithfidh mé an deis a thapú Gaeilge a labhairt"

Is this a correct translation? If I add "gach lá", should I just tag it onto the end or elsewhere?:

Caithfidh mé an deis a thapú Gaeilge a labhairt gach lá

OR

Caithfidh mé an deis a thapú gach lá Gaeilge a labhairt ?

Buíochas,
Le meas,
Tadhg

"Gach lá" at the end gets my vote.

The other requires commas to make it clear
Caithfidh mé an deis a thapú, gach lá, Gaeilge a labhairt

Dún an doras

Dúirt sé liom an doras a dhúnadh

-

Verb goes to end of sentence

-

Cuir an bosca isteach sa charr.

Dúirt sé liom an bosca a chur isteach sa charr.

-

Why isn't the verb at the end?

Prepositions

When there's prepositions, the verb doesn't go to the end, it goes to before the preposition: eg.

Faigh an liathróid.

Dúirt sé liom an liathróid a fháil.

Faigh an liathróid amach as an uisce.

Dúirt sé liom an liathróid a fháil as an uisce.

_

Oscail an fhuinneog amárach

Dúirt sé liom an fhuinneog a oscailt amárach.

Things like "amárach, inné, anois" go to the end aswell. Things to do with time. You figure that out straight away when you realize how weird it sounds and looks if you don't.

-

"a"

It's not equal to "to".

dún = close
dúnadh = to close


Dúisigh

Dúirt sé liom dúiseacht.

Dúisigh anois

Dúirt sé liom dúiseacht anois.


You use 'a + h' when you've changed the place of the verb:

Dúirt sé liom é a fháil.

Dúirt sé liom peil a imirt.

ach:

Dúirt sé liom freastal ar an gcruinniú


-

One more thing:

I went home to get my dinner.

See 'to' in that sentence. If you can replace it with "in order to" and the sentence still makes perfect sense, then you use the word "chun" in Gaeilge.

"chun" is followed by the reason.

Chuaigh mé abhaile chun mo dhinnéar a fháil.


Another use of "chun":

I went to the shop so that I'd see him there.

Chuaigh mé chuigh an siopa chun go bhfeicfinn inti é.


-Phil

Ceapaim go dtuigim go maith anois.

Go raibh maith agaibh,

T.