Hi,
I'm a beginner and I'm presently studying the Conamara dialect with the book Learning Irish.

In lesson 4 of the book it says that an adjective indicating subjective judgment adds the particle 'go' (although not when lenited by a directly preceding feminine noun).

Now I was just wondering why in these sentences taken from the exercises, 'go' isn't required in front of the adjective.

-Tá lampa maith anseo.
-Tá peictiúr deas eile anseo.
-Tá ceann iontach eile anseo.

I'm not quite sure I follow this whole business of subjective judgment adjectives.

Could somebody please tell me in what circumstances exactly does the adjective need the particle 'go'?

A Angmar,

I think part of the answer to your question relates to Section 3, (ii), which indicates Modifying and directly following nouns in the singular That is to say, if the adjective, like maith or deas follows directly after the noun it is modifying, go is not required, as in the examples you note above.

The list shown in 3(i) that contain go is comprised of forms indicating how something is doing, or going. For example, Tá sé go maith translates to it's going fine or well

quote:

-Tá lampa maith anseo.
-Tá peictiúr deas eile anseo.
-Tá ceann iontach eile anseo.

Hi Angmar,

In the sentences above, the adjective is used to directly modify the noun. (If you're familiar with grammar terms it might help you to know it's called an attributive adjective here.)

The sentences translate:
There is a good lamp here.
There is another nice picture here.
There is another wonderful one here.

The particle 'go' is only used with a handful of adjectives when they are used predicatively. That means they are linked to the noun by the verb. Here's an example:

Tá an lampa go deas (the lamp is nice)
Tá an ceann eile go hiontach (the other one is wonderful)
Tá an pictiúr go maith (the picture is good)

I hope this is helpful.

tapaidh -quick

go tapaidh -quickly

By addition of go before adjective you turn it into an adverb. Adjective gives more info on noun, so adverb gives more on verb (cue Liz's bit on predicate usage)

Those 8 adjectives are used in an adverbial sense, as can be seen from this phrase:

tá an fear go maith (the man is good) or 'the man is goodly' /'stands the man goodly' as in 'his goodly wife' as you might see in old stories from England

So, a subjective usage where you are of an opinion that he is good (rather than noting a physical characteristic like 'fear rua'), the -ly construction is used.

From wikipedia:
"a predicate (grammar) is one of the two immediate constituents of a sentence. It is the rest of the sentence apart from the subject. For instance, in the sentence "All good things come to an end" the "come to an end" is the predicate, whereas the subject is "all good things." Strictly speaking, the simple subject is "things" and "come" is the verb; the other words modify the key terms and comprise elements of the subjective phrase and the predicate phrase. "

All good things -things (noun subject)

Come to an end -come (verb)

"The particle 'go' is only used with a handful of adjectives when they are used predicatively. That means they are linked to the noun by the verb"

Tá an lampa ((N subj) go (V) deas (Adj) [go (V) + deas (Adj) =go deas (Adv)]

Tá lampa (N subj) maith (Adj) anseo (Adv)

You see in Irish you need some sort of an adverb present for subjectives:

tá an lampa go deas

bíonn an bhean go hiontach

But objectives can stand alone:

béan ruaidh

fear gorm


I will clean it up tomorrow if its confusing

Hi, I'm a beginner and I'm looking for a translation for the English phrase "I will live." As in, I will live my life, I will survive, something like that. Any help would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

I will survive = mairfidh mé (and in Munster Irish: mairfead).

Hey! Thanks everyone, now i get it!

By the way, i think there is a mistake in lesson 4 for the translation part in No.6

It says:

-There is no college at all.

-Níl coláiste ar bith anseo ar chor ar bith.

Shouldn't it be written instead: Níl coláiste ar bith ann.

Is this a mistake in the book, or is it just me yet again misunderstanding something?

There's more emphasis in the first one.

Níl coláiste ar bith anseo ar chor ar bith.
There's no college here whatsoever


Níl coláiste ar bith ann
There's no college there.

In Irish repetition of words happens, it makes the language more poetic. Alliteration is also used a lot, like faic ná fríde.
Níl faic ná fríde agam. - I have nothing whatsoever.

Níl coláiste ar bith ann =there's no college (at all) there

Níl coláiste ar bith anseo ar chor ar bith = there's no college there 'a tall a tall' (at all at all) in Hiberno English. The at all at all is the emphatic bit


Glad you got the explanation as the wiki bit should have been left out...

You say "faic na fríde", not "faic ná fríde"... Fríde is the genitive of fríd so the word before it is "na", not "ná" ;-)

Gabh mo leithscéal! Tá an ceart agat. Dearmad clóscríofa atá ann. Pé scéal é, caithfidh mé a bheith níos mó cúramaí nuair a táim ag scríobh.

Thanks so much for the help!