I'm in 5th year and our teacher expects us to fully comprehend college standard Irish when we can barely remember urús. I've been trawling through every site/book/forum, trying to find good phrases for essays and questions and can't find anything worth learning... Basically all I'm looking for is stuff like 'I can neither agree nor disagree'.

If anybody could post anything at all, links/sites/phrases it would be greatly appreciated

Caithfidh mé a rá - i have to admit
Ni fhéidir liom a rá - i can't say
Is mór an trua é - it is a great pity
Ní rachainn i ngiorracht sréad asal do - i wouldn't touch that with a barge pole (literly - i wouldn't go within an ass' roar of it)
Tá suil agam go bhfuil sibh bhaint taitneamh as - i hope ye all enjoy it.

Try looking for a book called fúintas 1, i used it for the leaving cert. and it helped me out fairly well. Don't worry too much about the irish.
Slán Rebecca

Ní raibh an cuma ar an scéal go raibh - it didn't look like/it did not appear as if

An feidir liom cuidiú leat ar aon bhealach?

Can i help you in any way?

Ní thuigeann sé céard tá ar súil aige (aici/agam/agat/againn/agaibh)
He doesnt know what he's doing/about


Níl an dara rogha agam

I have no choice ( or you can say agat/aige/aice/acu/agaibh )

Did you try Boards or all honours?

Rebecca, post the phrases you need here -- every day -- and we will translate them for you.

Regarding: "I can neither agree nor disagree (with this statement)."

"Ní féidir liom aontú nó easaontú leis an ráiteas seo."

Please note the "ní" in "Ní féidir liom" is not the negative particle "ní" that you put before a verb "ní chaithim tobac" I don't smoke. Rather it is the negative of that other little sneaky defective verb "is" which appears everywhere in Irish called "an chopail" or copula ("the connector?")

If you learn "an chopail" you will be ahead of the posse. Here is an example of it that you know well:

"Ní maith liom cabáiste ach is breá liom sceallóga."

I don't like cabbage but I love chips.

There you see the present tense of "an chopail" in the negative "ní" (no séimhiú after it in this tense) and "is" the present tense in the positive.

There is only one other tense: the past or conditional which does lenite the following noun and the two corresponding forms are:

"Níor mhaith liom cabáiste ach ba bhreá liom sceallóga."

I would not like cabbage but I would love chips.

Although "ba" and "níor" are "past tense" [Example: Ba é (Níorbh é) Seán an múinteoir ab fhearr. Seán was (was not) the best teacher.] they are not always used.

The above sentence "in the past tense" would be phrased differently using "real" verbs and prepositional pronouns:

"Inné níor thaitin cabáiste liom ach theastaigh sceallóga uaim."

Forcing the use of an chopail in the past tense is not a good idea for a learner. Use existing "copail" phrases that you notice in your reading. Make lists.

By the way if you really want to improve your Irish keep your eye on the use of the prepositional pronouns with verbs .i. thaitin .... liom and theastaigh .... uaim.

Try us Daltaí with another. We are here to help.

try the book An dTuigeann Tú (gnáthleibhéal). It is a leaving cert study guide with phrases, and tips for the oral, aural and written exams and topics from past exams for practice

Thanks for your help.

I've tried just about everything... it seems as though everybody uses the same sentences on most forums. The same things pop up again and again.

My teacher literally deducts marks for every point/sentence you take from Fiuntas 1 or Revise Wise, that's why I'm stressing out because I don't have the level of Irish she expects us to know and the only way I learn languages is through writing things out over and over again.

I'm usually good at languages but only if we get the vocab, get the translations and then are given the gist of what we have to go. My teacher flew through Lig Sin I gCathú in less than 2 classes, skipped a load of it and expects us to write a page on how the roles of 2 characters add to the story...

In all honesty I wish they'd make Irish optional or easier because I spend more time on Irish homework and studying then every other subject put together. It's mad that most colleges require Irish, surely they should be looking for Higher Mevel Maths or a science rather than if you can write an essay on bochtanas?

Sounds as if she's erring on the side of caution.If you just need to pass hons Irish it won't matter where the vocab came from.

Lig sin i gcathú in two bites? Mad,but you are still only in 5th year,so dont panic.

Orals will make up nearly half the mark anyhow.Find a nice retired teacher who actually likes Irish and have a chat once a week.Thats what my guys did.You can ask the questions the poor lambs at school don't have time for.You shouldnt have to do grinds ,but there it is.

Literature and language should be separate subjects until Uni ,as O Cúiv said.After all in Leavin cert French you wouldnt have to know what motivates the characters in a Victor Hugo novel.Ach sin scéal eile Rebecca.

Hi Rebecca,

Try not to stress too much. You've got to remember that your teacher's standard of marking will not be the same as that of the examiners. Although it's a great idea to improve your vocabulary, don't stress too much about trying to be too different. This will only complicate your writing and increase the number of errors.

Have you tried writing short stories as opposed to essays? Mícheál Ó Ruairc has a nice simple book called Na Lucha ag Rince, published by Cló Iar-Chonnacht last year. It's a collection of short stories aimed at Leaving Cert students. It's a bit clichéed and fairly basic but it could be helpful for exam purposes. It gives instruction on how to write good, simple stories for exams too.

Tá súil agam gur chuidigh seo. An rud is mó a chuirfeas feabhas ar do Gaeilge ná a bheith ag léamh agus ag éisteacht. Ádh mór leis an staidéar.

Rebecca

A really good site is www.beo.ie as there are glossaries at the end of many articles, also reading Foinse our national Irish language newspaper which has some key words at the end of articles and Tuarascáil in the Irish Times and watching and listening to TG4 will all improve your Irish far more than learning in your class with your crap teacher in terms of new vocab and putting sentences together. I know Ros na Rún has been a great help to me. Most of us here listen to Raidio na Gaeltachta regularly as well.

This is proabably going to sound weird but my lads picked up quite a bit of vocab from Spongebob squarepants agus na Muppets as gaeilge.


They also enjoyed the film 'Lipservice' which is about the leaving cert Irish oral.Made in 98 so you may have to ask your library to track it down.

Lipservice is on the DVD "Gearrscannáin". Nine great shorts including Yu Ming is Ainm Dom and my personal favourite Aqua. It costs about €23.00 incl. postage. I bought mine from WWW.Oideas-Gael.com

Well as far as I know you only need to look at 8 pages of Lig Sinn i gCathú so that could be done in 2 classes.
Any maybe your teacher plans to come back to it again?

Have you got the Honours Leaving Cert Irish REVISION book? That may have phrases you can use. Or ask your teacher to get you them! It's the least they can do.

Also.. if you have had same teacher for 5 years then yes you can be mad with them.. but if only for the past year or two.. then maybe previous teachers let you down by not teaching you more than they had to.

Just a thought.

Rebecca,
You sound so eager, and I commend that. Dúirt MacDara "Find a nice retired teacher who actually likes Irish and have a chat once a week." - tá ciall faoi leith ag baint le seo (Ciall ceannaithe?). Faigh fear no bean mar sin, agus cuir iad faoi geasa! 'Séard atá i gceist ná cleactadh, cleachtadh agus ansin níos mó cleachtadh. Níl sé easca teanga eile a fhoghlaim, ach bain triall as.

Best of luck and keep posting!