Hello everyone,

I have noticed 'a' being used a lot in Irish, for example 'ar n-aithair, ata ar neamh', where a is prefixed to ta to mean 'who'?

Could someone please give me examples of how 'a' is used in Irish?

Thanks

Clare

from An Foclóir Beag http://www.csis.ul.ie/focloir/
a [mír ghairmeach] (vocative)
mír ghairmeach leis an tuiseal gairmeach (A Sheáin, a Mhaighréad, a dhuine chóir, a fheara breátha, a dhaoine uaisle).


a [mír]
mír a úsáidtear le huimhreacha (a haon, a dó, a trí, a ceathair déag, fiche a cúig, uimhir a sé).


a [réamhfhocal]
réamhfhocal in ionad do, de (doras a dhúnadh, bainne a ól, chuaigh sé a chodladh); (a chois na tine; a seacht a chlog).


a [aidiacht shealbhach]
aidiacht shealbhach sa tríú pearsa le hainmfhocal (a bhaile agus a áit, a baile agus a háit, a mbaile agus a n-áit).


a [mír choibhneasta dhíreach]
mír choibhneasta dhíreach (an té a chuireann an síol; an cat a d'ól an bainne; an síol a cuireadh san earrach).


a [mír chéime]
mír chéime (a ghéire atá sé, ar a dhéanaí).

Go raibh maith agat, a aongus,

Could you translate that into english for me, please? (or could anyone?) I would really appreciate that

Clare

Clare, a chara,

I am quite limited in my understanding of Irish, and I took on the translation of this post as a learning experience for myself as well. I think I got it right enough to be of help to you, but I'll let Aonghus be the final judge! Ok, here goes....

[vocative participle]
calling to someone (Seán, Maighréad, chorister [?], fine man, ladies and gentlemen)

[participle used with non-adjective numerals]
counting, citing or calling out a number (one, two, three, fourteen, twenty-five, number six)

[preposition used with verbal noun]
(to shut a door, to drink milk, he went to sleep);(beside [?] the fire; seven o'clock)

[possessive adjective]
in the third person with noun (his home and his place; her home and her place; their home and their place]

[relative direct]
relative verbal participle and pronoun (he who sows seed; the cat which drank the milk; the seed which summons [?] in the spring)

[denotes degree]
(how sharp he is, how late [?])

Hopefully Aonghus will return to correct/adjust this translation (and hopefully it won't need too much correction!)

Slán go fóill.
Tá mé ag dul a chodladh!
Dawn

Go raibh mile maith agat, a Dawn!

That is sooo helpful to me
Thanks to you both

Clare

Tá fáilte romhat, a Clare.
I was happy to help!

-Dawn

Dawn
Very good. I don't know the grammar terms because I don't need them, but what you wrote makes sense.
A few small gotchas
a dhuine chóir - O just person
a fheara breátha - O fine men
a ghéire atá sé how sharp it is (usually, anyway)

Aonghus,

Thank you so much. I was hoping for your correction. I just knew there was something wrong with that chorister translation.....
I must admit I relied heavily on Foclóir Scoile, especially for those grammatical terms, but I was quite pleased to have contributed, nonetheless!

-Dawn

Fáilte romhat
btw:
a dhaoine uaisle means "o noble people" and might be used in company which consisted only of ladies or gentlemen

One other thing, some times the word "an" is shortened to a'. An example is in plancenames such as Bealach a' Doirín.

[preposition used with verbal noun]
(to shut a door, to drink milk, he went to sleep);(beside [?] the fire; seven o'clock)

This is confusing me a little..could anyone clarify this for me?
I thought that a gerund was the -ing form of a verb when used as a noun, ie 'walking is fun.' This translation looks more like the infinitive of the verb form, 'to shut a door', 'to drink milk'.
Any thoughts? Thanks..

Clare