Having become accustomed to the Ulster response to "how are you?" as 'Tá mé go maith, go raibh maith agat'; and curious about the workings of the application at http://www.englishirishdictionary.com; I typed in tá mé go maith and was given back the phrase with the prepositional pronoun (di) addended. What the heck does that mean? Or am I mistaken in thinking that the first phrase is best translated "I am well?" Doesn't the latter give me "I am well to someone or other?"

"Tá mé go maith di" would be odd, but would mean "I am good for her". I think it is sometimes used to mean "I like her" - I can't at the moment remember if that is a feature of a particular dialect, but I have definitely heard it.

But I'm not overly impressed with that dictionary. Particularly as it is not clear who is behind it, and what kind of credentials they have.

I'll revise that slightly - they seem to have done a lot of work on it since I did the "éirí" test on it. That, or I'm mixing it up with some other online dictionary.

I'd still like to know who is behind it.

I assume that the éirí test has something to do with how many variations a source comes up with for the use of the verb. This source has quite a few.

Meanwhile, it translates Tá mé go maith di as "I love her." I would have said Tá grá agam di. Is either a question of dialect as opposesd to standardized usage?

Also, while I have someone's attention, can I get a clarification regarding the subjunctive tense?

Is there a difference between

go bhfeice mé
and
go bhfeicfidh mé ?

I suspect that the "go" in the latter phrase is not part of the subjunctive construction. Is there such a thing as a future subjunctive, or is it implied in the present?

I've learnt that "an bhfuil tú go maith domh?" is what a Donegal girl would ask to a boy in order to ask "do you love me?".

An mbaineann sé le mná amháin?

quote:

I assume that the éirí test has something to do with how many variations a source comes up with for the use of the verb.

Sin é. When I tried that site (at least I think it was that one) about 6 months ago it just came up with "ascend".

quote:

Is there a difference between

go bhfeice mé
and
go bhfeicfidh mé ?

My gut feeling and without prejudice to grammarians is that only the first is subjunctive in expressing a wish that I might see something, whereas the second will be preceded by something such as "Tá súil agam" (I hope/expect) and that it then goes on to mean "that I will see"

In which case, the "go" in "go bhfeicfidh mé" means "that?"

mar sampla: tá súil agam go bhfeicfidh mé thú.

But then why is the f eclipsed if it's simple future tense?

A Phádraig, a chara,

A while ago I posted some tables (see here) listing conjunctions. Here they are again in summary form:

Go, gur, nach and nár take the dependant form of an irregular verb.

		Positive	Negative
verb	present / future	go (ecl)	nach (ecl)	prefix n- to vowel
	past *	gur (len)	nár (len)	remove d' from verb
copula	present / future	gur	nach
	before vowel	gurb	nach
	past / conditional	gur (len)	nár (len)
	before vowel	gurbh (len)	nárbh (len)

(ecl) eclipses a following verb,
(len) aspirates a following verb.
*Note: The following 6 irregular verbs take go / nach in the past tense:

verb	dependant form	Positive	Negative
Abair (say)	dúirt	go ndúirt	nach ndúirt
Bí (be)	raibh	go raibh	nach raibh
Déan (do / make)	dearna	go ndearna	nach ndearna
Faigh (get)	fuair	go bhfuair	nach bhfuair
Feic (see)	faca	go bhfaca	nach bhfaca
Téigh (go)	deachaigh	go ndeachaigh	nach ndeachaigh

Does that answer your query a chara?

>In which case, the "go" in "go bhfeicfidh mé" means "that?"

>mar sampla: tá súil agam go bhfeicfidh mé thú.

>But then why is the f eclipsed if it's simple future tense?

Any "eclipsable" consonant is eclipsed after the verbal particle "go", it doesn't come from the tense but from that particle, that always eclipses before verbs.

if i may...

about tenses (i'm not speaking diachronically but synchronically) :


"d'' like in "d'ith sé" is the past tense

"r" like in "gur" is also the past tense


this is why you have "gur ith sé". this is also why you have "go raibh" : because "raibh" is already the past form of the verb, so "r" would be redundent...

quite frankly, i dealt with the irish verbal system last year, and i came up with something that is much simpler than what you can find in the grammar books... no wonder people get confused with what you can find in them...

Any "eclipsable" consonant is eclipsed after the verbal particle "go", it doesn't come from the tense but from that particle, that always eclipses before verbs.

Of Course!

If we keep searching and trying, someone's bound to give the simple, understandable explanation. You've done it, a Lughaidh

Actually, "gur" comes from Old Irish "co(n)-ro", and "raibh" from "ro-ba", so in "raibh" the preverb "ro" is already present, so no need to use the particle containing "ro", but just "co(n)" > modern irish "go".

Lughaidh,

this is a diachronic explanation.

but synchronically, the system reajusts itself in certain patterns....

every system is explanable in synchronic terms: no one has to learn old irish to learn modern irish...

But Old irish helps a lot - anyway, modern irish seems to be dead easy when you've studied Old Irish...

Lughaidh,
I've been told by a well known poet that the use of "ro" still exists in Munster Irish. Do you concur?

In which context is it used ?

Good question. I was given almost the exact example that you gave with the origins of 'gur' and 'nár'. He mentioned that in Munster 'ro' was still used. I don't know if that was an encompassing statement or not since we quickly moved on.

As an aside, he also told me that the word 'Daltaí' tends to refer to lower level learners and is not usually used for that reason. He implied it could be taken as an insult. Most often, the word 'Mac Léinn' is used to refer to a student. Anyone else agree? Interestingly, one of the larger news magazines published here in Canada is called 'Macleans'. They are famous for their yearly (many would argue biased) Canadian University ratings.

Dalta means pupil and would be used for school children, i think, and mac léinn for university students.

Maclean is a name of Scottish origin and isn’t related to mac léinn (except the "mac" element that means "son" in both words), anyway they aren’t pronounced the same way, i think: Maclean > /makli:n/, mac léinn /mak L’e:N’/.

"Lean" (in its English spelling, i dunno what is the genuine Gaelic spelling) is a proper noun, so Maclean means "son of Lean".

"Léinn" is the genitive of the common noun "léann" which means "study" "erudition".

You're good Lughaidh! I just discovered that it was named in 1905 after its founder "Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean". Funny enough, we don't pronounce it /makli:n/. I wish I could post a sound file so you could hear how I pronounce Maclean with my Canadian accent. They sound almost identical to me which is why I made the false conclusion that they might be linked. Oh well! I propose a movement to change this site's name to www.MacLéinn.com!

As Gaeilge MacLean is written Mac Giolla Eáin and is a northern name. I think Daltaí is the better name since it encompasses beginners working their way up rather than advanced level students only.