mainoff.gif
lastdyoff.gif
lastwkoff.gif
treeoff.gif
searchoff.gif
helpoff.gif
contactoff.gif
creditsoff.gif
homeoff.gif


The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 1999-2004 » 2004 (October-December) » Archive through December 12, 2004 » Habitual present « Previous Next »

Author Message
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 79
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 12:12 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

why can I only find a GH. LÁITH (habitual present) for Bí? I mean, surely anything I do that would qualify for habitual past could also qualify for habitual present (?)

Is there no habitual present tense for anything other than Bí?

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Lúcas
Member
Username: Lúcas

Post Number: 68
Registered: 01-2004


Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 03:47 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

A Antaine, a chara,

I think almost every present tense form of an Irish verb is habitual, with a couple of exceptions. Consider a few examples;

Itheann sí iasc achan Aoine.
She eats fish every Friday.

Labhraíonn sé Gaeilge achan lá.
You speak Irish every day.

Both sentences use the present tense but the meaning includes actions in the past and future. She ate fish last Friday and she will eat fish next Friday. He spoke Irish yesterday; he spoke it today, and there is a good chance he will speak it tommorrow.

There are only two exceptions I know of to this present habitual form, namely and deir. In contrast to the habitual form bíonn, can only be used to express something that is happening right now. Tá mé tinn inniú ach beidh mé go maith amárach. Hence, is used in the progressive form when you want any other verb to express an action that is ephemeral. Let's rewrite the first two examples in this ephemeral form.

Tá sí ag ithe éisc anois.
She is eating fish now.

Tá sé ag labhairt Gaeilge anois.
He is speaking Irish now.

Both of these sentence convey an immediate sense of what is happening right this instant. She may not have been eating fish a minute ago, but she is eating it now. He was speaking English a minute ago but he is speaking Irish now.

The other exception I know of is deir. It too conveys something that is being said now. This contrasts with the present habitual form deireann.

Deir sí go n-ith sí iasc aréir.
She says she ate fish last night.

Deireann sé i gconaí go n-itheann sí iasc achan Aoine.
She always says that she eats fish every Friday.

One conveys the sense that she is just saying it now while the other implies that she says it all the time.

Mise le meas,

Lúcas

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Fear_na_mbróg
Member
Username: Fear_na_mbróg

Post Number: 302
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 09:22 am:   Edit Post Print Post

Nail on the head!

Very very short explanation:

Right now: Táim ag dúnadh an dorais.
Present Habitual: Dúnaim an doras.

Except for...

Right now: Tá sé imithe!
Present Habitual: Bíonn sé imithe gach am a sroichim.

As for the "Deir" Vs "Deireann", I wasn't aware of that at all Lucas. When I was in school I was simply told that "Deireann" was an alternate form of "Deir". I myself use "Deir" exclusively, as in:

Right now: Deir sé nach ndéanfaidh sé é.
Present Habitual: Deir sé "Hello!" do gach éinne a bhfeiceann sé.

Perhaps I should actually be saying "Deireann sé Hello".

All I can say is that I had a 100% fluent, perfect grammar Irish teacher for 5 years, whom I never once heard say "Deireann". Notice that I said "whom" just there... maybe it's the same situation as with "whom" in English -- for instance, I would consider myself to have immaculate English grammar, but... you won't hear me say:

That's whom I saw!

You'll hear me say:

That's who I saw!


One could argue that it's not immaculate grammar... but that's just the way it is. And if that's just the way it is, then there ain't nothing wrong with the grammar, it's simply an alternate form! So maybe "who" is valid in the place of "whom", and "Deir" is valid in the place of "Deireann". Or perhaps it's like the situation with "done" Vs "did". I myself would never say:

I done it.

I'd say:

I did it.

Though there's many people who'll say the former. Unlike "whom" Vs "who", this particular example isn't accepted and it is in fact a grammatical error. Maybe in the future "done" will become accepted as an alternate past tense form of "do"... ? I'd say that it will.
(Just a side note: People tend to think that people who would use "done" in the above are just plain stupid; well, these same people never make the same mistake with "taken" Vs "took", so it looks like this particular word is just irregular in their heads.)

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Alevans
Member
Username: Alevans

Post Number: 151
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 04:41 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

To clear things up, or muddy the waters further...

My conclusion on this subject was that the English present tense IS a present habitual tense.

For example:

(Habitual)
I go to the store every day.
Téim go dtí an tsiopa gach lá.
Je vais au magasin tous les jours.

(Specific time given)
I am going to the store now.
Tá mé ag dul go dtí an tsiopa anois.
Je vais au magasin maintenant.

No native English speaker would say "I go to the store now." So the plain English "present" is really a present habitual. On the other hand, in French, there is no difference -- the present is also used as a present habitual.

I had to figure this out when I found that Learning Irish called it the "present habitual", but most other literature just called it the "present".

--Al Evans

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Antaine
Member
Username: Antaine

Post Number: 92
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 11:27 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

but in english, like in french you have present, past, future perfect tenses (i am going vs I go)

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Fear_na_mbróg
Member
Username: Fear_na_mbróg

Post Number: 304
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 04:53 am:   Edit Post Print Post

The same with German. To say your doing something "right now", you use the present tense in conjunction with the German word for "now" (which is "heute"), eg.

I'm eating my car.
Ich esse mein Auto heute.
(I haven't done German in a few years, so the above may be a little bit off)

In English and in Irish, the present tense is the present habitual tense and we use "I am __ing" or "Táim ag _____" to say we're doing something right now. Irish even goes one step forward to seperate "tá" and "bíonn".

--

"siopa" is masculine, so get rid of the "t".

go dtí an siopa.
in aice an tsiopa.



©Daltaí na Gaeilge