Difference between "Mo [word]" and "an [word] agam"?

[Samidamaru]

Apologies in advance for the simplicity of this question. Could somebody explain the difference between these two phrases when trying to describe as yours, for instance "my wife".

I am led to believe the correct/common form is: "a' bhean agam" [Literally: a wife is at me ?]

Would: "mo bhean" also be correct, or 'mo' used in a different case, perhaps when describing what 'my wife' is doing?

Tapadh leibh,
Sam

[GunChleoc]

There is a good article on that on Akerbeltz: http://akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Po ... n%C3%A8amh

Curiously, people say "mo bhean", but "an duine agam"

[Samidamaru]

That is an interesting read, thank you for the link.

Even more curiously, in the faithful old "Speaking Our Language" series, they seem to encourage "a' bhean agam": https://youtu.be/_cL6EGzVWIA?t=1009

[akerbeltz]

Idiomatically speaking, SOL does a number of weird things, like its insistence on using mas e do thoil e, which make me wonder if this was a course written in English first and then translated. Though it's possible that some people just use a' bhean agam.

[Samidamaru]

Apologies for diverging here... What's the difference between mas e ur toil e and mas e do thoil e ?

(Though I thought SOL used the former https://youtu.be/SIuvJON0cqQ?t=1143 )

Thank you for your help as always, akerbeltz .

[ithinkitsnice]

Apologies for diverging here... What's the difference between mas e ur toil e and mas e do thoil e ?

They're essentially the same thing, except the first ('ur') is equivalent to using 'sibh' (polite or plural 2nd person) and the second ('do' + lenition) is equivalent to 'thu'.

Akerbeltz is probably referring to the fact they use that structure at all, as opposed to 'do' v 'ur'. He's written about that too…

http://www.akerbeltz.org/index.php?titl ... _please%3F

[Samidamaru]

Ahh I see! Is there anything he hasn't written about ? Always a very usual and interesting read though so thank you for the link (and of course Akerbeltz for writing it).