I call my five-year-old fear beag (little man), should I be leniting beag? Is this even the correct way to say little man? GRMA in advance

Beir bua agus beannacht

I've been saying "a fhearín" to our 2 year old grandson. He responds, but what does he know? If by some miracle he develops an interest in the language, enough to acquire it, perhaps it will be an example of the living language principle: if the people say it often enough, it becomes correct. Ain't that so?

beag is lenited after feminine nouns when it is used to give quality to the noun: fear beag =little man, but girseach bheag =little girl

If you are addressing him, on the other hand, a fhir bhig is the form. While a few things are happening, an easy way to remember is that both noun and adjective are been 'pinched' and the lenition is simply echoing thru to the adjective. This pinching works for masc nouns

Female nouns, on the other hand, in the vocative are not pinched, but the lenition is carry/echoed thru the noun to the adjective too, so 'a ghirseach bheag'. Pinching is not used for feminine nouns in the the vocative


"if the people say it often enough, it becomes correct. Ain't that so?"

I suppose 'as people code, so it is".

GRMA I think I'll change to Padraig's suggestion though I'll get teased by my mother if she hears me call him something like that.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Funnily enough, "little man" has its own meaning in my neck of the woods ;P

As Gaeilge nó as Béarla?

As Béarla... but of course there's always soil creep when the vast majority of people are fluent in two languages.