A chairde,

I'm a bit confused with this whole deal of prefixing adjectives to nouns. For example, in Lesson 16 of "Learning Irish", I'm given the task of translating "It is a great pity to knock down old houses like that and to build new offices." Why is "old houses" seantithe and not tithe seana? I've never seen "tithe seana", but I don't understand why it always has to be seantithe. Another example is seandaoine, why not daoine seana?

Slán go fóill,

Harrison

One more thing, how would I know when to prefix adjectives to nouns? Is there some rule, or is it with just a few nouns and a few adjectives?

My copy of Ó Siadhail covers "prefixed adjectives" in Ch. 13.

Any chance of posting the list of prefix-adjectives, a Mhaidhc please, assuming it isn't too long.

Sean and droch are always prefixed and usually written as one word, e.g., drochsceal, seanduine. I don't know of any others offhand.

Some adjectives are always prefixed, like sean, droch, dea-, an- (not really an adjective but it can be used like one), nua- (sometimes, it has a specific meaning when prefixed), etc.

It doesn't mean that it can be done for all adjectives :-)

An- very, excellent, great
Barr- outstanding, extraordinary
Deá- good
Droch- bad
Fíor- real, true, genuine
Ro- too, excessive, over
Sean- old
Síor- constant, continual
-- Also 'aon' any. Which is written as a seperate word.
These are on page 56 of my copy and the following is taken rom "Learning Irish" by Mícheál Ó Siadhail.

Ordinarily, the smaller number of adjectives which are prefixed are given the primary stress, eg. in drochbhád, droch- takes the primary and -bhád the secondary stress. As is with the case of all compound words, any prefix causes lenition.
ii.Double Stress
Tá an-charr ag Cáit. Cáit has an excellent car.
In the case of the intensive prefixes an-, fíor, barr-, deá-, the compound word gets a double stress, eg. an-mhor, an- and -mhor are stressed equally.
Also 'aon' and the following noun get equal stress.
iii. Spelling
Generall, the prefix is written together with the following word, eg. drochbhád,. Howecer, two vowels, two identical consonants or two prefixes are seperated with a hyphen, eg. ro-óg, droch-chapall, droch-sheanbhád. The prefixes an- and deá- are written with a hyphen and aon as a seperate word.
iv. Adjectives ending with n
All adjectives endint with n which come before the noun behave like an- (These are covered in ch. 5 and 8)
(a) the n takes the quality of the vowel which follows in spelling, eg. n in seanfhear and aon fhear is pronounced /N'/.
(b) D and T resist lenition, eg., sean teach, seandoras, aon teach.
S also resists lenition, eg., aon solas, although a t is frequently inserted, eg., aon tsolas.
(Ó Siadhail gives no explanation for this, whether dialectal, speaker preference or otherwise.)

-Maidhc.