| Author |
Message |
    
Oliver Grennan
| | Posted on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 08:50 pm: |   
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Conas a déarfá:
How would you say:
"It would be a nice thing if they did that"
I was thinking of this:
Ba dheas an rud é dá ndéanfadh siad é sin"
Is this how it should be said?
Le gach buíochas roimh ré,
Oliver. |
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Aonghus
| | Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2003 - 03:58 pm: |
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Díreach i gceart, Oliver |
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Oliver Grennan
| | Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2003 - 09:23 pm: |
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OK, but it seems weird if translated to English:
"It was a nice thing if they did that"
Gaelic idiom, I suppose. |
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Aonghus
| | Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 09:50 am: |
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I would have translated it to english as
It would be a nice thing if they did that.
It is the (I think) subjunctive - modh coinníolach |
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Oliver Grennan
| | Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 08:17 pm: |
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Right, but how then would I say "it was a nice day"
Ba dheas an lá é...
Aimsir caite, nach ea? |
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James Murphy
| | Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 - 09:41 pm: |
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"it was a nice day" -
Wouldn't "ba la deas e" do? I'd have thought that in "ba dheas an la e" the fact that the day was nice was being emphasised. |
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Aonghus
| | Posted on Monday, September 01, 2003 - 04:50 am: |
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James, yes
Oliver - there is a good reason why the copula (is) takes up chapters in any good grammar book!
"Ba" covers a number of cases: the following is cut & paste from an Foclóir beag
ba [aimsir chaite, foirm dhíreach dhearfach][modh coinníollach, foirm dhearfach dhíreach][aimsir chaite, foirm choibhneasta dhearfach dhíreach][modh coinníollach, foirm choibhneasta dhearfach dhíreach] |
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