First of all, chapter 18 of Learning Irish says that: In an indirect relative clause, verbs which are normally followed by go/nach, e.g. sílim go bhfuil ... 'I think...', are followed by another indirect relative, e.g. an bord a sílim a bhfuil sé air 'the table which I think it is on'.

As an example LI gives us the following:

An bhfuil an leabhar ar an mbord a sílim a bhfuil sé air?
'Is the book on the table which I think it is on?'

Now, this all seemed to make sense to me until I encountered the following sentence in No. 7 of the answers to the exercises:

Sin é an buachaill a shílim a mbeidh an leabhar aige.

Is this a mistake in the book? Shouldn't the correct answer in fact be:

Sin é an buachaill a sílim a mbeidh an leabhar aige???

Help please!

According to the rules of LI there should be "a sílim"
But ...

According to the Christian Brothers* a direct relative clause is "iondúil" for such relative clauses
(27.29 An Clásal Idiraisnéiseach):
"Is iondúil gur clásal díreach an clásal idiraisnéiseach, ach féadfaidh an clásal aidiachtach eile bheith díreach nó
neamhdhíreach."

Examples (with another indirect relative) there:
cé is dóigh leat a bhfuil an t-airgead aige?
fuair mé an eochair in áit a mheas mé nach bhfaighinn í;
is bronntanas é ó fhear a shíl sibh nach raibh pingin aige;
cén seomra a cheapann sibh ina bhfuil siad?
cá háit seo a dúirt tú a raibh an gluaisteán?

But direct and indirect clauses can be exchanged:
"27.30 Bíonn cómhalartú idir díreach agus neamhdhíreach corruair:
fuair mé é in áit ar mheas mé a gheobhainn é
in ionad
fuair mé é in áit a mheas mé a bhfaighinn é."

*(Graiméar Gaeilge na mBr. Críostaí, 1999)

Lars

(Message edited by lars on January 02, 2009)

I don't know if you may have noticed but the exceptions tend to be words like "síl", "meas", "deir", "ceap", etc., that are secondary to the main meaning, while the main dependent clause usually has the correct indirect form. Think of them as being inserted into the main clause as buffers.