Dè a' dol?

[ithinkitsnice]

'S mise Scott agus bidh mi ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig aig an Sgoil Ghàidhlig faisg air far a bheil mi a fuireach.

'S e dealbhaiche a th' annum, ach 's e oileanach iar-cheumnach a th' annum an-dràsta cuideachd.

Bidh mi a' dol (no 'thèid mi'?)* dhan Eilanan Siar a-rithist tràth an ath-bhliadhna, mar sin tha mi 'n dochas gur urrain dhom bruidhinn ri daoine anns a' Ghàidhlig nuair a tha mi ann.

* I get the literal difference, not sure which is the best way to express future plans in Gaelic?

[GunChleoc]

Thèid mi.... nuair a bhios mi ann.

[MarcMacUilleim]

* I get the literal difference, not sure which is the best way to express future plans in Gaelic?

When we covered this topic in An Cùrsa Adhartais (http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/en/cursaichean ... -adhartais), the teacher said that, unlike some parts of Gaelic grammar, there is no hard and fast rule here other than not to use the Gaelic present continuous (tha mi a' ...) where English tends to when talking about future events (e.g. I'm going to Glasgow next month).

As to whether to use thèid mi or bidh mi a' dol, he said that the more regularly something happens in the future, the more likely Gaelic would use the continuous form (bidh mi a'...), especially if you're using words like 'gach', 'a h-uile', 'gu tric' etc, but if something happens rarely or is a one-off, that will more likely use the simple future (thèid mi). The examples he gave were:

Gach DiDòmhnaich bidh mi a' dol dhan eaglais.
versus
Uaireannan thèid mi dhan eaglais DiDòmhnaich.

[GunChleoc]

Gaelic tends to put time expression at the end of the sentence though:

Bidh mi a' dol dhan eaglais gach DiDòmhnaich

Uaireannan, thèid mi dhan eaglais DiDòmhnaich, or:
Thèid mi dhan eaglais DiDòmhnaich uaireannan.

In the first of these 2, "uaireannan" is emphasized a bit. There are more methods of empasizing something, but I guess it
's better if you look at them when you have learned more grammar.

[MarcMacUilleim]

LOL!

[GunChleoc]

Cha robh mi a-mach ort-sa a thaobh a' ghràmair, a Mhairc