1. Does anyone here speak Gaelic?
A bheil e: "A bheil duine an-seo bruidhinn Gàidhlig?"
2. Do any of you here speak Gaelic?
A bheil e: "A bheil duine sibh an-seo bruidhinn Gàidhlig?"
Mòran taing!

Good point. Sorry. It is more like "anyone at all", isn't it? I've been out of Scotland too long....An Gobaire wrote:An additional point I would like to make is that I think "sam bith" is often over-used when tr*nsl*t*ng "any..." from English into Gaelic.
I know this is an old post, but it brings up a point I wanted to ask about: why can't one say 'Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig' for 'I speak Gaelic'? I know that 'Tha Gàidhlig agam' is used for this phrase, however I thought that the for the present tense in Gàidhlig, using the verbal noun express both the progressive and simple present, i.e. both 'I am speaking Gaelic' and 'I speak Gaelic'. Why is that not the case with 'Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig'?Seonaidh wrote:
The point is, the literal tr*nsl*t**n of "speak" tends not to be used in this context. If somebody says, e.g., "Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig", it means that the man/boy in question is currently rabbiting on in Gaelic, not that they are proficient in it (although it would tend to follow...).
e = heI know this is an old post, but it brings up a point I wanted to ask about: why can't one say 'Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig' for 'I speak Gaelic'?
You can say Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig but it just means something else. Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig means he is speaking Gaelic, right now, maybe holding a speech or talking to a neighbour. Gaelic differentiates this act of currently speaking IN a language from the general ability of speaking in a languages. So does English, if you think about it. He speaks Tabasaran means he has the ability to do so but may or may not be doing so right now. He is speaking Tabasaran on the other hand means that he is doing so right now in this moment. Since this is a pretty important distinction, it's hardly surprising that Gaelic has a way of separating out the two. Otherwise you couldn't tell the difference.I know that 'Tha Gàidhlig agam' is used for this phrase, however I thought that the for the present tense in Gàidhlig, using the verbal noun express both the progressive and simple present, i.e. both 'I am speaking Gaelic' and 'I speak Gaelic'. Why is that not the case with 'Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig'?
Just for stating your general competence/ability, no, you have to stick to tha Gàidhlig agam. You CAN say 's urrainn dhut Gàidhlig a bhruidhinn but you'd use it in a different way... imagine someone asked you to present a paper at Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig and to clarify that the audience will all be fluent or that there will be simultaneous tr*nsl*t**n, they tell you that you can (in meaning, more like to have the "opportunity") to speak Gaelic i.e. there will be nothing to prevent you from doing so. That would, before you ask, also work with Faodaidh...Also, is it possible to say 'I can speak Gaelic', like we would say it English (i.e. expressing our ability to speak Gaelic)? For this phrase, would it be correct to say '’s urrainn dhomh Gàidhlig a' bruidhinn' ? (Not sure about the inversion, I think 'bruidhinn' goes at the end, right?).
I meant to type 'mi' instead of 'e' for 'I speak Gaelic' - sorry about the confusion! Your answer has pretty well told me everything I need to know anyway. Gaelic does seem to be a weird language in that there are a lot of simple ways of saying things in other languages that just can't be translated into Gaelicakerbeltz wrote:e = heI know this is an old post, but it brings up a point I wanted to ask about: why can't one say 'Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig' for 'I speak Gaelic'?
mi = I
You can say Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig but it just means something else. Tha e a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig means he is speaking Gaelic, right now, maybe holding a speech or talking to a neighbour. Gaelic differentiates this act of currently speaking IN a language from the general ability of speaking in a languages. So does English, if you think about it. He speaks Tabasaran means he has the ability to do so but may or may not be doing so right now. He is speaking Tabasaran on the other hand means that he is doing so right now in this moment. Since this is a pretty important distinction, it's hardly surprising that Gaelic has a way of separating out the two. Otherwise you couldn't tell the difference.
Just for stating your general competence/ability, no, you have to stick to tha Gàidhlig agam. You CAN say 's urrainn dhut Gàidhlig a bhruidhinn but you'd use it in a different way... imagine someone asked you to present a paper at Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig and to clarify that the audience will all be fluent or that there will be simultaneous tr*nsl*t**n, they tell you that you can (in meaning, more like to have the "opportunity") to speak Gaelic i.e. there will be nothing to prevent you from doing so. That would, before you ask, also work with Faodaidh...Also, is it possible to say 'I can speak Gaelic', like we would say it English (i.e. expressing our ability to speak Gaelic)? For this phrase, would it be correct to say '’s urrainn dhomh Gàidhlig a' bruidhinn' ? (Not sure about the inversion, I think 'bruidhinn' goes at the end, right?).
The difficulties for each language lie in different places. Overall, Gaelic is no weirder than English, it's just that you're used to the sheer madness of it.Gaelic does seem to be a weird language in that there are a lot of simple ways of saying things in other languages that just can't be translated into GaelicAt least not easily anyway. I would have thought that the verb 'to be able to' was a staple of most languages, but in Gaelic isn't it used like in English, for expressing stuff like 'I can (do this, do that etc)', or to ask questions like 'can you (do this, do that)?' etc, or is it only for the verb 'bruidhinn' where it doesn't work like English? It would be good to know what the pattern is.