Dia Duit!
Conas tá tú?

Dia 's Muire dhuit, a Chait. Tá mé go maith, go raibh maith agat! Agus tú féin?

Dia 's Muire daoibh is Pádraig! Táim féin go maith leis, cé go bhfuilim fliuch mar cat fé láthair - bhíos amuigh agus é ag cur báistí... :-)

Dia 's Muire dhaoibh, a chairde.
Táim go maith freisin. Táim sa abhaile ar ais obair anois agus beidh amarach lá shaoirse dom. Agus bíonn sé breá liomsa i gconaí. ;)
Piontaí nó ní phiontaí? Is an ceist é! :)

A Searlas, a chara!
Táim hiontach (wonderful)!
I'm glad now that there is a place for beginners.
Failte, a Maidhc Ó G.!
Failte, a Jonas!
Failte, a Searlas!
Tá tú ag scríobh. Go raibh maith agat!

Cén chaoi a bhfuil sibh, a chairde?

Tá mise breá sásta a bheith sa bhaile tar éis lá fada crua san oifig.
Táim ag éisteacht le ceol claiseacha ar an idirlíon le gloine deas Shiraz ar m’uilinn... staisiúin dar ainm “NRK Alltid Klassisk,” ag úsaid mo RealPlayer.

Sin é mo scéal...

Slán tamall, Paul

"... ag m'uillinn."

Someone might not know what someone else is saying...[like me :)]...its just nice to write something in english/bearla also.
Just a sugestion...

A Paul, a chara!
Failte!

Táim i colláis. Tá mo mhaor Bearla agus bhí mé ag scríobh a páipéar an duigh.
(let me know if i wrote that right: its supposed to say "I am in college. My major is English and i was writing a paper today) [I'm just practicing]
Go raibh maith agat!
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

A Cháit, a chara,

Cá bhfuil do choláiste?

Cáit a chara;

Táim i coláiste (Alternatively sa choláiste)
Béarla mo phríomh abhár (major is US usage. Maor is major in the military sense. Príomh is major in the "bigger" sense). today = inniu

"I am in college. My major is English and I was writing a paper today"

Táim i gcoláiste. Sé Béarla mo phríomhábhar agus bhíos ag scríobh páipéir inniu.

"Táim" = "Tá mé"

"Sé" = "Is é"

príomh is a prefix

"ábhar" = subject

"bhíos" = "bhí mé"

"páipéir" = the posessive case of "páipéar". In Irish we say that you were "at the paper's writing", hence posession.

Not sure if there should be a hyphen:

príomh-ábhar

príomhábhar

I believe you're supposed to use one with a vowel... but "príomhábhar" for some reason looks more natural to me.

A Pádraig, a chara.
Is Lander é an coláiste liom. (is that right?)

A Fear na mbrog, a chara.
Go raibh maith agat.
I think I'm still getting scotts gaelic mixed up with what i'm learning about irish...thank for the help.
Slán go foill.
Cáit.

A Aonghus, a chara.
Go raibh maith agat.
I appreciate the help. :)
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

A Cháit, a chara,

Scríobh tú: "Taim hiontach..." ach d'fhag tú an mhír go. / You wrote: "Taim hiontach..." but you omitted the particle go.

Iontach - wonderful - is the adjective but in a sentence like this it requires the particle go which prefixes h to an adjective beginning with a vowel.

So: Taim (nó tá mé) go hiontach.

Le meas,

Larry.

A Pádraig, a chara.
Is Lander é an coláiste liom. (is that right?)

(right enough for me to make sense of it. Anois, cá bhfuil Lander?

A Cháit,
Conas atá tú?
Bhí lá breá againn inniu i New Jersey.

Le meas,
Paul

Cadé mar tá sibh, Y'all. (Yes, I know. It's cad é, not cadé and atá, not tá, but I've fallen in love with that Ulster accent which would set my Catholic ancestors rolling in their graves.

Aonghus and Shoe Man,

Awhile back one of you eclipsed coláiste after i and the other didn't. Which one's right? And is the choice between i (g)coláiste and sa choláiste just a matter of preference?

It just struck me how effective this thread is. I imagine for the fluent Irish speaker, looking for scintillating conversation, this banter could be the epitome of boring, but for us neophytes, this is turning into a very effective learning/teaching tool.

Maith thú, a Cháit, agus go mbeannaí Dia thú.

I'm a fluent speaker; FnaB has the grammar pat. If he corrects my grammar, as opposed to my usage, he is usually correct.

BTW Cáit: I'd say "'Sé Lander mo choláiste"

Pádraig: the Ulster accent may well have been that of your Catholic ancestors. Ulster is not predominantely Protestant. Even the six counties was closer to a 60:40 divide when constructed, with the proportions nearing each other for various reasons since.

Addendum: it's "caidé mar tá sibh?" (caol le caol)

A Cháit!

Dia Duit!
Conas tá tú?
Tá tú ag scríobh.
Go raibh maith agat

All these phrases have the same error - they are directed exlusively to one persone although the context makes it clear that you intend them to us writing here. The correct versions would be
Dia Daoibh!
Conas tá sibh?
Tá sibh ag scríobh.
Go raibh maith agaibh

"an-duigh", as you wrote, is Scottish Gaelic. The Irish version is inniu

A Mhaidhc
Táim sa abhaile
This means nothing. I guess you mean Táim sa bhaile (I'm home). abhaile means "homewards", Táim ag dul abhaile = I'm going home.

ar ais obair
"ar ais" (or "thar n-ais" as I'd say it) is followed by the genitive. "ar ais oibre".

A Phádraig

Aonghus and Shoe Man,

Awhile back one of you eclipsed coláiste after i and the other didn't. Which one's right? And is the choice between i (g)coláiste and sa choláiste just a matter of preference?

Absolutely not!!! It can only be "i gcoláiste", "i coláiste" (I shiver as I write it ;-) ) is totally wrong.

It just struck me how effective this thread is. I imagine for the fluent Irish speaker, looking for scintillating conversation, this banter could be the epitome of boring, but for us neophytes, this is turning into a very effective learning/teaching tool.

I'm not bored at all, a chara. I think it's a good thing you're all practicing your Irish. I'll try to jump in and make the occasional corrections. I'll write some posts too, but I'll leave the main posting to you. Despite some small errors, I think you're all doing great!!

Just a little note about "Is" usage.

If neither of the nouns are definite, the do it like so:

A dog is an animal.
Is ainmhí madra.

If one of them is definite and the other is indefinite, then do it like so:

The boy is a child.
Is páiste é an buachaill.

If both are definite then:

Lander is my college.
Is é Lander mo choláiste.

Note that they can also be as follows:

Ainmhí madra.
Páiste é an buachaill.
Sé Lander mo choláiste.

I'm not sure if you'd hear "Lander mo choláiste"?

Jonas; Pádraigs question was about

i gcoláiste vs

sa choláiste.

The waters were muddied by my having previously misstyped i gcoláiste.

The following three and only the following three are valid:

i gcoláiste
sa choláiste
sa gcoláiste

Ach níor fhreagair tú ceist Phádraig! Ní dhearna mise ach oiread, toisc nach bhfuilim cinnte faoin difríocht idir "i gcoláiste" agus "sa choláiste" sa chás seo.

Except that "i" is indefinite, "sa" definite, I don't have an answer to Padraig's question, which is why I restated it.

A Jonais, a chara, (vocative pronunciaton.)
Bhí ceart agat faoi 'sa abhaile' m'úsaid. Bhím ag "sa bhaile" a smaoineamh ar nuair shcríobhim é.
Go raibh maith agat.

A Larry, a chara.
Go raibh maith agat. The worksheet i had printed off had not given me the "go" infront of "hiontach". Thanks for the correction. :)
Slán go foill!
Cáit.

A Pádraig, a chara.
I'm not sure how to say this in Gaelic, but Lander is in South Carolina in the USA.
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

A Paul, a chara.
Bhí lá breá againn inniu i South Carolina. (though the hurricane's gave us a lot of rain and wind and tornadoes).
How did you come to study Gaelic?
Slán go foill.
Cáit.

A Aonghus, a chara.
Go raibh maith agat.
Slán go foill.
Cáit.

A Jonas, a chara.
Go raibh maith agat.
I knew that there was a way to adress many people but i did not know the prepositions of "ag" when combined with "sibh".
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

A chara, I have a question for anyone who can help. As far as in pronunciation, when you have words like "gcoláiste" and "mbrog" does the "g" and the "m" elispse the "c" and the "b"?
I've been confused as to elipses.
Go raibh maith agat!!!
Cáit.

You did it again, Cáit. The salutation is plural: A chairde.

A Pádraig, a chara.
Oh, I didn't know there was another way to phrase the greeting. Sorry. Well, I know better now. :)
Go raibh maith agat.
Cáit.

Seo smaoineamh maith. Níl aon duine eile agam a chaint liom as Gaeilge. Is maith liom nuair a socraíonn (verb? conjugation?) daoine mo earráide. Is breá an lá é anois ach beidh sé fuar gan mhoill. Bhí sé 6°C (43 F) an mhaidin seo. Tá dalta malairte Meicsiceach againn trasna na sráide agus tá eagla air!

This is what I was trying to say for anyone who could try and correct my mistakes:

This is a good idea. I don't have anyone to talk to in Irish. I like it when people fix my mistakes. It is a nice day today but it will be cold soon. It was 6°C (43 F) this morning. We have a Mexican exchange student across the street and he's afraid!

Pádraig is aspirated in the vocative:

A Phádraig.

A Phádraig, a chara.
Right. :)

When you alter a sound in Gaeilge, it totally replaces the original sound. The only reason the letter is left in is so that learners of the language can see what's going on. Plus, it's a way of showing one's superior grammar, eg. in English we have "its" for posession and "it's" for "it is"; there's a lot of people who don't know this, so when you use them correctly, it shows that you've good grammar.

For instance:

i gcoláiste

is pronounced:

i goláiste

If I saw "i goláiste" written, I'd know what's going on. When I write txtmsgs I always leave out the replaced letter, eg:

Cá wil tú?

Anyway, the following:

an tsráid
an bhéim
ar an mbord

are pronounced as:

(The following are english sounds...)
on chroid
on vame
air on mord

Seo smaoineamh maith. Níl aon duine eile agam a chaint labhraíonn liom as Gaeilge. Is maith liom nuair a socraíonn (verb? conjugation?) cheartaíonn daoine mo earráidí (plural). Is breá an lá é anois ach beidh sé fuar gan mhoill. Bhí sé 6°C (43 F) an mhaidin seo inniu. Tá dalta malairte Meicsiceach againn trasna na sráide agus tá eagla air!

Maith thú Natalie.
Is fearr liomsa an focal "botún" ná "earráid"
Ainmfhocal "caint" : labhairt an briathar.

socraigh = fix; ceartaigh = correct

A Natalie,

"mo earráidí" becomes "m'earráidí". You've no choice there - if you don't it's a gramatical error, just like saying "a apple".

And more on "Is" usage:

See what Aonghus said:

---

quote:

Ainmfhocal "caint" : labhairt an briathar

---

That's another way of saying:

Is ainmfhocal í "caint" : is í labhairt an briathar.

The first is "indefinte & definite", the second is "2 definites".

Dia daoibh,
Is mise Aingeal. Cad é mar tá sibh? Tá mé go hiontach inniu. Conas a dearfa "What does that mean?" as Gaeilge? Go raibh maith agaibh.

Slán,
Aingeal

Cén brí atá leis sin?

Aonghus, a chara,
Go raibh maith agat. Is that pronounced something like
Cane bree ataw lesh-in? I'm not best at phonetics.

Slán,

Aingeal

Cane bree a'taw lesh shin

Dia dhaibh. Cén chaoi a bhfuil sibh? Tá súil agam go bhfuil sibh maith go léir. : )
Is foghlaimeoir mé as Rockford, Il. Mura miste leo, ba mhaith liom part a ghlacadh sa snáithe chomh maith. Is ball nua mé ar an mbord teachtaireachtaí seo.Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge le cupla bliain anuas, ach níl mo chuid Gaeilge ro-mhaith fós. : (
Is bean chúthail mé agus is rud deacair é ag labhairt {nó scríobh} as Gaeilge le daoine eile, go hairithe ma tá Gaeilge dheas líofa acu!
DAS..Go raibh maith agat, a Cháit, as an snáithe d'fhoghlaimeoirí. : )

Tá ceist agam. Is féidir an nuacht agus daoine eile a thuiscint, ach bhí mé ag breathnú ar Rós na Rún ar líne agus sílim go bhfuil a gcuid Gaeilge do-thuigthe! Níl mé cinnte cén fath. An síleann aon duine eile go bhfuil siad do-thuigthe? An é an comhad é, b'fhéidir? An bhfuil gaeilge mhaith acu?

April

Hi everyone, how are you. Hope you're all well. I'm a learner from Rockford Il, and if you don't mind I'd like to particpate too. : )I'm new here. I've been learning for a couple years now but my Irish isn't very good yet.
Thanks Cáit for the thread for learners.

Aonghus, you cannot say "Cén brí atá leis sin?". Since brí is a feminine noun, it has to be "Cén bhrí atá leis sin?". A more standard version is "cad is brí leis?". (No lenintion of brí there since it doesn't follow the article.)

I'm not a native speaker of English, but I cannot see how the spelling "cane" should correspond to the pronunciation of "cén". Apart from the slender consonants, "cane" contain a diphthong (rhyming with "rain", right?" while "cén" certainly doesn't.

Tá an-fháilte romhat a April!

Tá dhá chlár ar an láithrean seo, clár Béarla is clár Gaeilge. Más cómhrá as Gaeilge atá uait, téigh chuig an gcuid Gaeilge! Tá do chuid Gaeilge go hiontach, tá an-ghramadach agat freisin!

Maidir le Ros na Rún, bhfuel níorbh fhéidir liom é seo a mhíniú go maith le mo chuid Gaeilge, mar sin úsáidfidh mé mo chuid Béarla:

When you're learning a language, even when you get to a stage where you can engage in general conversation, there's still another step past that to the point where when you hear the language being spoken with different accents, you can still "cop" the style and hear what's being said. While I myself would say the I've good Gaeilge, still I have trouble with other accents; for instance, when I heard Ulster Irish and Munster Irish on the TV, eg. in Ros na Rún, at times I can't understand it.
On top of that you have idioms, abbreviations, colloquialisms. For instance, the English phrase "See you later!"; obviously it's an abbreviation of "I'll see you later!", but a learner will just be thinking "Where's the subject in that sentence?!". There's plenty of things like this in Gaeilge too. For instance, take:

Tá sé
Níl sé
An bhfuil sé

Note how different "tá" and "bhfuil" are. Because of that, if you leave out the "an", and just say "Bhfuil tú críocnaithe?", then the listener knows what's going on.

All it takes is practice!

--
...go háirithe má bhíonn Gaeilge dheas...

Go raibh míle maith ád, a Fhir! : )
Tá mé buíoch díot as do cheartúchán agus do chúnamh. B'fhéidir go mbeidh mé in ann iad a thuiscint le cleachtadh amach anseo.
Agus ar ndóigh, léifidh mé an bord eile níos déanai...ach an bhfuil tú cinnte nach mbeidh mé ag cur isteach orthu le mo dhrochGhaeilge? Ní féidir liom mo thuairimí a chur in iúl as Gaeilge 'chuid is mó den am.
Bhuel, caithfidh mé imeacht i gceann noiméid nó dhó. Cé go bhfuil an aimsir an-deas, tá fonn ar mo theaghlach dul go dtí an phictiúrlann chun "The Forgotten" a fheiceáil. An bhfaca aon duine ar an mbord seo é? Deirtear gur scannán maith é.
Slán libh, April

Thank you, fear-na-mbróg. I'm grateful for your correction and your help. Its possible I'll be able to understand them someday with practice. And of course, I'll read the read the other board later, but are you sure I won't be bothering them with my horrid Irish? Its not possible for me to express my opinions in Irish most of the time.
Well, I have to go in a moment or two. Although the weather's nice , my family wants to go to the theatre to see The Forgotten. Did anyone on the the board see it? Everyone says its a good movie.

If you tell me that you've drochGhaeilge again I'm going to slap you across the face with a fish! I'll say it again, tá do chuid Gaeilge go hiontach!

Tá Gaeilge níos fearr agatsa ná atá ag an gcuid is mó den chlár seo. Beidh an-fháilte romhat sa chuid Gaeilge! Is cuma liom nuair a thagann daoine isteach sa chlár Gaeilge lena chuid Gaeilge briste, chomh fhada is a dheánann siad iarracht feabhsú is a ghlacann siad le ceartú!

Anois, imigh leat chuig an gcuid Gaeilge! :-D

Níl an scannán sin feicte agam agus sé an t-am in Éirinn ná deich tar éis a hocht san oíche!

regarding lenition or eclipsis after "sa", here is what I understand to be the case:

"Sa gcolaiste" meaning "in the college" is the form used in the west.

"Sa cholaiste": is used in Donegal.

I don't know which version is used in the south.

I myself would say " ins an gcolaiste" but that may be out of date now.

A Fhir! Ná bí do mo bhualadh le hiasc! Is "newbie abuse" é! : )
Baileoidh mé liomsa féin chuig an mbord eile. : )
April

DAS Ní maith liom an scannán. : (

TSJ, "sa" eclipses in Connact as in "sa gcoláiste" while lenition is the norm elsewhere, "sa choláiste" is the form in the standard, in Ulster and in Munster.

April, tá do chuid Gaelainne go breá!! Cén saghas leabhair nó cúrsa tá agat chun foghlaim?

Go raibh maith agaibh to those up there who corrected my little paragraph up there by the way. This particular post is moving so fast that I couldn't get in my thank you until now! :) (I know I already said this, but I still think this post is the best idea yet for beginners!)

Jonas - "cane" is how I would pronounce "cen" just as Aonghus does. How would you say it phonetically?

Phonetically cén is [k´e:n´] while cane is [kein]. Which one of them do you pronounce differently than I do?

A Mise April, a chara.
Tá tú failte! :)
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

A Natalie, a chara.
:)
Conas tá tú? I am glad that this post is doing so well and that it is helping not only me but a lot of other beginners. :) I'm glad there's a place for novices too!
Tóg bog é!
Cáit.

Go raibh maith 'ad, a Jonas! : )
Tá Learning Irish agam agus cheannaigh mé World Talk freisin.

>>>>>

An-mhaith, a Cháit. : ) Very Good, Cáit.
Tá mé buíoch díot as d'fhailte. I'm grateful for the welcome you gave me.

In Irish, welcome is said a little diferently than in English.
To welcome someone you say....
Tá fáilte romhat.. {taw failche ruet}
my phonetics are horrid...someone else may be able to do better. I'm not used to giving them.
If you would like to hear the pronunciation, I'd be happy to help over Windows, aim, or yahoo messenger if you've got any of those. I'm not comfortable posting my addresses for those on the board, though. I can only handle so much spam. I've included my e mail on this post. if you'd like , you can send an e mail to me, and I'll give them to you in a return e mail.
BTW I welcome mail and im's in Irish. Unless they're spam. I don't like spam in any language. Actually, I don't like spam at all. Never eat the stuff. : )
April

Dia daoibh,

Mise Brían. Cad é mar atá sibh? Táim ag foghlaim Gaeilge. Tá mé i mo chónaí i stáit Washington. I'm just looking to practice my language skills with other beginning Irish speakers.

-Brían

Dia duit, a Brian.
Mise Cáit. Failte!
I wish I could say more in Irish, but I am waiting on a book to help me learn more.
Táim go hiontach inniu.
Tóg bog é.
Cáit.

Cáit,

as you end all your posts with the sentence "tóg bog é" I'd suggest that you change it to "tóg go bog é" which is the correct version.

Keep posting, you're clearly making quite rapid process!! Which book is it that you are waiting to get?

A Jonas, a chara.
I'm waiting to get the oxford Gaeilge-Bearla/English to Irish dictionary. I studied Scots gaelic by accident (it only says that it is gaelic on the book, says nothing about being scots gaelic) and got a basic grasp of grammar and idioms though i do need more practice. Go raibh maith agat for all the corrections. I would hate to go on saying things the wrong way.
I hope to order the book and tapes from this website as soon as i have some spare funds.
Tóg go bog é!
Cáit.

Jonas, "tóg bog é" is in the spoken language, and may be where Cáit picked it up!

A Aonghus, a chara.
I learned the phrase from a handout online that I think is based on the spoken language. Either you or Jonas could see about it better that I. There seems to be a few corrections that need to be made to that work sheet. The link is http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/gaelic.html
I hope that this is not a misleading resource.
Slán go fóill.
Cáit.

Books for learning are really hard to get or at least they're really hard to get here where our money is worth nothing in the world. I have Teach Yourself Irish which I'm trying to finish and we asked my bookstore to order Learning Irish for me and she said that there were like only 2 around or something like that (around probably meaning, around here) and that it would cost me like 90$ to get the box set because of all the trouble of the money exchange and the trouble its causing (yes, I know, one big run-on sentence...I'm just ranting). Anyway, the point of my story is that I'm going to learn this language and then be poor. :(

Tá brón orm, a Natalie.
Cá bhfuil tú i do chónaí gu 'm bhfuil leabhar $90.00? (I hope I wrote it right).
$90.00 is a lot! If I were you, I'd order it off of Amazon.com or another book site. It would be cheaper and the wait for shipping would be worth saving the money.
Tóg go bog é.
Cáit.

Conas tá sibh?
Does anyone know how to say "I want" and "I wish/hope" in Gaelic?
Go raibh maith agaibh.
Cáit.

Cáit

give us a whole sentence please!

I want a drink :
Ba mhaith liom deoch
or
Tá deoch de dhíth orm (I need rather than want)
or
Is mian liom ól

I wish/ I hope
Tá súil agam go (clause about what you wish will happen, starting with a verb)

There are a lot of ways of translating both these concepts, depending on the context.

That's ok. Its going to be a Christmas present anyway. We're not very trusting about ordering things over the internet here, lol. I don't know why. I'm sure it's perfectly safe from a reputable place like Amazon.com but all the same...

Since thousands order from Amazon daily, I'm sure your order will be safe. Why not just check with them first to see availability and if the price is good?

I did check before...I don't remember what the price was but I'm sure it would've ended up expensive with the exchange and everything anyway. I was just pointing out that books are great but sometimes hard to come by. :)

Cáit

Tá mé i mo chonaí i gCeanada.

A chairde.
I've just gotten my Irish dictionary in the mail and I tried to translate a nursery rhyme from english to Irish. Please, please excuse the mistakes. It is my first try and I know there is probably a large number of gramatical mistakes, but here it goes.

"Tá sé ag cur báistí, tá sé ag stealladh báistí, tá an seanfhear ag sranntarnach. Chuaigh sé go leaba agus bhuail a ceann agus ní d'fhéadfadh éirigh ar maidin."

Please help me with the grammar.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
Cáit.

Tá sé ag cur báistí, tá sé ag stealladh báistí, tá an seanfhear ag sranntarnach srannadh.
Chuaigh sé go leaba (*) agus bhuail a ceann agus ní fhéadf adh éirigh níor fhéad sé éirí ar maidin

(*) "a leabaig" is what I'd say, but that is not standard grammar.

You could say "Chuaigh sé a luí"

Hopefully one of the grammar gurus will cut in.

D'éirigh tharr barr leat do céad iarracht. Togha mnaoi!

Is é an chéad lá de Dheireadh Fómhair inniu agus tá mé tinn ach tá sonás orm atá mé anseo in áit scoile. Bíonn Aoine mo lá muirneach. Smaoinigh mé a bhí Beo difriúil do an mhí nua. Ní thuigim na hailt ach féachaim orthu ar aon chaoi. Cathain atá siad ag athrú?

It is the first day of October today and I am sick but I am happy I am here instead of school. Friday is my favorite day! I thought Beo was different for the new month. I don't understand the articles but I look at them anyway. When are they changing?

Ok I have a question while I think about it. Up above everyone was talking about something being definite and indefinite so I'm going to venture to ask how you can tell the difference. What classifies something as being one or the other and how do you use them in a sentence once you know?

(Sorry for the delayed question. This should've been asked while it was being discussed but I was rereading this whole thread out of boredom and curiousity and saw the topic being brought up.)

A Aonghus, a chara.
I'm trying, but I think it may be a while before I grasp which preposition to use where, and what tense to use where. With just a dictionary and no real teacher anywhere in South Carolina, its hard to get feed back (except for here! :))
Go raibh maith agat for going over my first try. I hope it wasn't too painful to read over with all the tenses and grammar mixed up.
But thanks.
Tóg go bog é.
Cáit.

Hi Natalie,
A definite noun is one that has *the* in front of it... ""the cat""..""the apple""...You are speaking about a particular cat or apple.
An indefinite noun is the opposite. You are speaking about any ""cat"" or any ""apple"".
April

In Irish the article "an" is placed before a definite noun and no article at all goes before an indefinite noun. There is no "a/an" in Irish.

Tá bean ann. {indefinite}
Tá an bhean ann. {definite.

"an" causes lenitation to a feminine noun.
April

Sorry,its breakfast here, and I forgot I wasn't done before I sent. That'll teach me to read before sending.

A chara a Natalie,

Tá Béo nua anois. (I'm trying to say Beo is changed) I notice that it takes them a few hours on the first day to install the new month's edition, but it's sure worth the wait.

Dáithí

Thank you April and Dáithí. I was wondering about the definite and indefinite thing for a long time. We even tried to look it up in an English Grammar book! I thought it was something more difficult than that! Also, Thank you about Beo. Since I was sick, I was anxious for something to do! I figured they would have it up right away! :)

Tá súil agam go mbeidh biseach ort gan mhoill.
I hope you will be better soon.
Tá slaghdan orm féin.
I have a cold myself.
Bíonn an aimsir ag athrú thart anseo, agus is dóigh liom gurb é an fath a bhfuil mé tinn inniu.
The weathers changing around here,and I suppose thats why I'm sick today.
Go hairithe mar go mbionn sé deas te sa lá , agus ansin, anfhuar san oiche.
Especailly as its nice & warm in the day, and very cold at night.
April
FRC

Don't forget the definite nouns without "an":

Fear na mBróg
Éire
Seán
Máire


cóta Fhear na mBróg
cóta Éireann
cóta Sheáin
cóta Mháire


a Fhear na mBróg
a Éire
s Sheáin
a Mháire

Thank you April! I'm feeling much better today! I hope you're feeling better yourself! I hate colds.

Fear na mBróg, thank you as well. Are those verbs all definite because they are...umm I can't think of the words for it but along the lines that they're names and places and such?

Good to hear you're better Natalie! I saw that you're on-line right now so might I ask what time it is over there - this daltaí time is constantly confusing me :-) Here it's 04:40am so ba cheart dom bheith im chodladh - thána abhaile go díreach anois. ;-)

Hey.
I am an estonian girl and it is funny to see U all chating and I understand nothing. LOL
Wish I could speak irish also. But best of luck to U all!!

Thank you, natalie, I am feeling a bit better.: )
The nouns Fear na mBróg mentions are definite, but this gets a little more complicated...

Seán
Maire are people's names, they are pronouns which are definite, they don't take the article.

Eire
This is a pronoun too which doesn't take the article, but in Irish an its one of a few exceptions because some of countries do take the article... You'll learn these as you learn the names of countires.


cóta Sheáin
cóta Mhaire
These names are in genitive relation to the noun {cóta=coat cóta Sheáin =Seans coat} and its definite, but no article needed. You'normally learn about the genitive later. Its a little more advanced.


A Sheáin
A Mháire
This is called the vocative, and its used when you address someone directly.

April

April, a chara,
Seán and Éire are proper nouns, not pronouns.
Apart from that, sílim go bhfuil an ceart agat.
Slán beo!
Chris

Tere Cathy, kuidas sa elad? I guess it's rather fun to see us chatting and not understanding, but on the hand me võime rääkida eesti keelt :-)

It's nice to see a neighbour here, are you interested in the Irish language?

Or in Irish:
Tá sé go deas comharsáin a fheiscint anso, an bhfuil suim agat sa teanga so?

Head aega - Slán go fóill

Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, calling them pronouns! :{
April

Dia dhaoibh go léir, my name is Ciaran or (Kieran as bearla) and I'm living in Cork. I came across this website tonight and its just what I've been looking for to re-learn my native language. I did higher level irish for my leaving cert in 1987 but unfortunitely never got the opertunity to use it over the years and so I feel like a beginer again. I'v read through all the posts here, tonight and it was so nice to see the beautiful language alive in this format. A big thank you to all of you from beginners to native speakers for all your posts, it makes me feel very comfortable to be here and to learn and take part. As seo amach, tá suil agam go mbeidh me ag scriobh níos mo rudaí as geilge anseo, Slán go fóil, Ciaran

Tá fáilte romhat, a Chiarain - tá sé go deas tu a fheiscint anso!(or in standard Irish - tá sé go deas tú a fheiceáil anseo!) Táim cinnte go mbainfir sult as an suíomh so.

Jonas, sorry that I didn't answer you about what time it was here. I got offline after I wrote my post! :)

At the moment it is 5:42 PM Atlantic time in New Brunswick, Canada. We really should do something about the time because according to this thing, everyone is posting at like 3 in the morning which is very possible but still...

By the way, thank you April. I think I get it now. Well I get it as much as I need to for right now at least! :)

Now back to my sad little attempt at a daily (or even weekly) paragraph. I really should've posted all these on one big post but that's ok.

Níl sé go breá inniu. Ní raibh báisteach againn ach níl grian againn ach oiread (either?). Tá mé ag tiomáint le Ron (mo theagascóir tiomáint) inniu. Tá 4 míonna agam roimh beidh ceadúnas agam (before?).

It's not nice today. We didn't have rain but we don't have sun either. I am going driving with Ron (my driving instructor) today. I have 4 monthes before I will have my licence.

I'm starting to run out of small talk to practice with!

Go raibh míle maith agat a Jhonas, táim cinnte go bainfidh me sult(focail nua dom [for me?])nó taitneamh as seo freisin.

In english to help any beginners or refreshers...
A thousand (míle) thanks to you Jonas, I'm certain that I will get alot of satisfaction from this too.
Dia Duit Natalie, thig me gach rud a scriobh tu anocht. ( I understood everything you wrote tonight) agus tá tú ag eirí go maith. (And you are progressing well). I'm here refreshing my irish so I'm not good enough to make any suggestions or corrections if any are needed to your paragraph, in fact that short paragraph refreshed my memory on a few irish words that I have'nt seen for years, go raibh maith agat, Oiche mhaith, (good night), Ciaran...

Níl sé go breá inniu. Ní raibh báisteach againn ach níl grian againn ach oiread Tá mé ag tiomáint le Ron (mo theagascóir tiománatiomáint ) inniu. Tá 4 míonna le dul agam roimh beidh sula mbeidh ceadúnas agam (before?).

Tá ag éirí go bréa leat, a Natalie. "ach oiread" was perfect.

Go raibh maith agat, a Aonghus! Thank you for once again correcting my paragraphs! I'm finding lately that the hardest things besides verbs and stuff are all the little words and words that you look up. You don't know if the word you're choosing is the right word for the context. May I ask a question about the corrections? Why is "le dul" inserted in there?

I'm glad that our "beginner-ness" is helping you Ciaran. Just being here is help enough! I sort of feel bad for boring everyone all the time anyway!

Dia dhaoibh go léir arís. Go raibh maith agat a Natalie, tá an áit seo cabhair nó cúnamh mór dom. (This place is a big help to me). Tá sé beag nach feiche blian o shin nuair a scriobh mé focail as gaeilge. Its nearly 20 years since? I wrote a word in gaeilge. I was never very good at understanding the mechanics of Irish or english for that matter, as in verbs etc... but its never too late to learn I guess. Aonghus's 'le dul' literally means 'to go' in terms of time. Aonghus, would 'go dtí go mbeidh ceadúnas agam' also be acceptable here, as in 'until I have my licence'. Natalie, na bí brón ort (Don't be sorry or feel bad), I'm 100% sure no one is bored by you, its the very opposite.

If anyone here can suggest corrections to my gaeilge contributions, I would appreciate your help, oiche mhaith agaibh go léir, Ciaran

'go dtí go mbeidh ceadúnas agam' is fine, and is probably what I would have written. I put in "le dul" to stay as close as possible to what Natalie wrote.

"Tá ceithre míonna agam" felt like "I possess 4 months".

Go raibh maith agat a Aonghus, cheap mé go raibh 'go dtí' ceart i mo cheann ach ni raibh mé cinnte. (I thought 'go dti' was right in my head but I was not certain).
Tá an maidin go brea anseo i gCorcaigh, tá suil agam go bhfuil sé go brea freisin sa aiteanna atá sibhse. (The morning is fine/nice here in Cork, I hope its nice too where you all are),

Slan go fóill,
Ciaran...

Go raibh maith agat a Fhear_na_Mbróg,
Ciarán

Go raibh maith agaibh arís. Is fuar an lá é inniu! Beidh mé ag dul a fheiceáil (?) an scannán Shark Tale le mo chairde amárach cé go (?) tá scoil againn Dé hAoine. Tá na ollscoileanna ag teacht amárach agus beidh mo rang ag féachaint acu. Tá muid ag cuidiú leo agus caillfimid ár ranganna sa mhaidin. Tá mé corraithe (?).

It is cold today. I will be going to see the movie Shark Tale with my friends tomorrow even though we have school on friday. The universities are coming tomorrow and my class will be looking at them. We are helping them and we will miss our classes in the morning. I am excited.

Ok I think I understand why you put in "le dul" now. I know some of my sentences are a bit more literal than maybe they should be! :) Just for curiousity's sake, I'm wondering where Cait has went. This was after all, your idea! I don't want to be the only one taking up all of everyone's time!

Dia dhaoibh go léir anocht (tonight). Hi Natalie, I fully understood your paragraph as gaeilge, I can see some items that need to be corrected but I'm not too confident myself on what the corrections are, they will be a help to me too. (Beidh siad cabhair domsa freisin). Is docha (I think)that 'cé go tá' should be 'cé go bhfuil' and 'ag féachaint acu' should be 'ag féachaint orthu' where orthu is from 'orm, ort, air, uirthe, orainn, oraibh, orthu'....
Slan go fóill,
Ciarán

Tá mé corraithe : means "I am stirred". I have only seen this used with negative emotions. "Tá mé ar bís" would be better.

ag féachaint acu orthu


Beidh mé ag dul a fheiceáil chun an scannán Shark Tale a fheiceáil le mo chairde amárach cé go tá bhfuil scoil againn Dé hAoine.

Lean ort!

---

quote:

It is cold today. I will be going to see the movie Shark Tale with my friends tomorrow even though we have school on friday. The universities are coming tomorrow and my class will be looking at them. We are helping them and we will miss our classes in the morning. I am excited.

---

If I were to translate that to Irish...

Tá sé fuar inniu. Rachaidh mé leis an scannán, Shark Tale, a fheiceáil le mo cháirde amárach cé go mbeidh muid ar scoil Dé hAoine. Tiocfaidh na hoillscoileanna amárach agus beidh mo rangsa ag féachaint orthu. Tá muid ag cabhrú leo agus beidh muid as láthair ónár ranganna ar maidin. Tá deifir orm.

Tá deifir orm means "I am in a hurry"

B'fhearr liom an ghrúpa lán Ghaelach chun ábhar a phlé...

Ceard faoi Poball Bhearna ag chuir duine le Béarla do thoghchán don Údarás? Aon tuairim?

Thank you all! I had a harder time trying to translate all that but I had nothing better to say so I decided, why not?! I knew that I would be corrected, thank goodness! It's a good thing you all take the time to actually read what I wrote or someday from now, I'm going to make a very big fool of myself with all my repetive errors! Thanks again.