Fòram na Gàidhlig

LilithNoor wrote:Learn Gaelic seems to think the present is acceptable in such cases - Speaking Our Language Ep 11/5

'Nuff said. Please take everything on Speaking Our Language with a HUGE pinch of salt...

Doesn't "Cha bhi mi a' dannsa" mean "I won't dance"? Yes, but in this sense it conveys the English "can't" which is often used to mean "don't", regular action (or, in this case, inaction!) in the future. And is it not acceptable to use "tha" for the near future? Gaelic is quite a bit stricter with ...

Mairead wrote:Chan urrainn dhomh a dannsadh

Chan urrainn dhomh danns(dh) or, more naturally, cha bhi mi a' dannsa

Mairead wrote:tha mi a' dol dhan chéilidh aig mo chàraid ath-oidhche

bidh mi a' dol

LilithNoor wrote:Am bi caraid dhomh (or mo charaid?)

Am bi caraid agam (or mo charaid?)

LilithNoor wrote:Not sure where and when the dh gets added to dannsa

It's regional, as far as I am aware, though dannsa is more usual these days: http://www.faclair.com/?txtSearch=dancing

poor_mouse wrote:"ag" before vowel & "r"

Not all verbal nouns beginning with 'r', cf: a' ruigsinn

poor_mouse wrote:Bi mi a' dannsa(dh)

Bidh mi a' dannsa(dh)

Mairead wrote:Tha mi a' coimhead air an telebhisean [I think so, anyway]

That's certainly how I'd say it. Ionnairidh is indeed listed in Am Faclair Beag as meaning 'watching', but I've never heard it used in the context of television, not that that means that it can't be!

a bheil Seacais do 'cainnt do mhàthar'? Firstly, you're asking here if one noun (Czech) is another noun (mother tongue), so you can't use bhith. Instead, you need the assertive verb is . Secondly, cainnt is the way that someone speaks a language rather than the language itself. For French speakers,...

Also: There are those who will tell you that you absolutely have to use a bhith in between '"S toil" and a verbal noun e.g. '"S toil leam a bhith a' snàmh" and there are others who will tell you that that is utter nonsense and that "'S toil leam snàmh" is absolutely fine. Whichever you end up using,...

LilithNoor wrote:Tha beagan obair-dachaigh agam.

Tha beagan obrach-dachaigh agam - beagan, like mòran, cus etc takes the genitive:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beagan

Feumaidh me ag ionnsachadh an tràth caithte. I must learn the past tense. Feumaidh mi an tràth caithte ionnsachadh. Inversion with direct object apart from when you don't (see below). Tha mi a nighe na h-aodachaich-leapa. I'm going to wash the bed linen. "Tha mi a' nighe an aodaich-leapa" means "I'...

LilithNoor wrote:Coisichte mi gun oifis

Choisich mi dhan oifis - "gun oifis" would mean "without an office".

LilithNoor wrote:agus bha mo chotan bog-fliuch.

... mo chasan...

Agnieszka wrote:glè tioram

...glè thioram...

GunChleoc wrote:"a-nis" always means a change (e.g. you just arrived there).

Really? / Gu fìor?

Surely comparing how things are expressed in Gaelic to how they are expressed in English is as pointless as comparing them to how they are expressed in any other language...?

Yes indeed. I wonder, though, if it's a symptom of the language gradually losing its gender of nouns, in keeping with a recent thread describing the increasing tendency to use 'e' instead of 'i' when referring to inanimate feminine nouns. I know several native speakers who refer to both 'beatha' and...