Use of air

[AlexAkimov]

I've seen air pop up a couple of times as follows:

* Tha iomadh dealbhan agam timcheall air an t-sèomar - I have several pictures around the room
* Tha mi a' coimhead air film - I am watching a film

Neither of these sentences seems to contain the word on so what is the general rule for adding air in constructs like above, or is it very specific to certain situations, verbs etc?

Pòl.

[akerbeltz]

With Gaelic, you must stop literal tr*nsl*t**n as soon as possible in your learning progression. The best way in this case is to always try and learn verbs/nouns/etc together with the prepositions they normally take i.e. timcheall air usually appears together, in the case of looking at something, coimhead air appears together. There are some general-ish patterns like a patient being often marked with air but your best bet really is to learn vocbulary in bigger chunks that you would in English.

[AlexAkimov]

Cheers, Michael. That's good advice re: bigger chunks. I do usually try to string new words, grammar etc into sentences as a way to remember them better. Aidh, literal tr*nsl*t**n is a bad move, but every so often I can't help myself

As an aside, would these two sentences be correct:

* Tha fios agam air a' bhùidsear anns a' Phloc - I know the butcher in Plockton
* Tha cuimhne agam air a' bhùidsear anns a' Phloc - I remember the butcher in Plockton

Pòl.

[akerbeltz]

* Tha fios agam air a' bhùidsear anns a' Phloc - I know the butcher in Plockton

No. To know (be acquainted with) uses the expression eòlach air

* Tha cuimhne agam air a' bhùidsear anns a' Phloc - I remember the butcher in Plockton

Yes, that is correct.

[AlexAkimov]

So, "I know the butcher in Plockton" would be:

Tha mi eòlach air a' bhùidsear anns a' Phloc

Tha sin ceart?

[Sealanach]

Others will hopefully answer that, but just to mention, for “knowing someone” (as opposed to knowing something) I learnt: is + aithne + do + (knower) + (NOMINATIVE person known)

is aithne dhomh Màiri (I know Mary)
is aithne dha mise (He knows me)
B’aithne dhuinn na ballaich We used to know the lads.
An aithne dhut an t-Ollambh Roibeard? Do you know Professor Robert?

Literally, “Is acqaintance to you, the Professor Robert?”

Going back to your original question, Gaelic favors matching prepositions with verbs because it has a prepositional case, but no accusative case, and this is particularly pertinent to pronouns, which could otherwise get confusing. Of course, it could be accomplished with word order, but why waste a damn good declension? (There is some word order logic too of course)

[faoileag]

In my experience there is a slight difference between is aithne dhomh and tha mi eòlach air.

Is aithne dhomh Màiri - primarily meaning I know who she is, I would recognise her in the street. I may or may not know her personally. 'S aithne dhomh Nicola Sturgeon.

aithnich, ag aithneachadh - recognise

Tha mi eòlach air M. - I am familar with her, I know her to speak to, I may even know her well.
Tha mi eòlach air Mairi, ach chan eil mi eòlach air Nicola.

Tha èolas agam air / tha mi eòlach air M - knowledge of something, familiarity with it. = -ology (Greelk) in English.
cruinn-eòlas, geography
eòlaiche - an expert
reul-eòlaiche - astronomer

[akerbeltz]

Aidh, na thuirt faoileag a thaobh aithne/eòlach

[Níall Beag]

* Tha mi a' coimhead air film - I am watching a film

This one is probably the easier one to think about.

Consider that in English we "look at" things. Why at? Lots of foreign learners of English want to talk about "looking something", because in their language, there is no "at" when they look. "coimhead air" may not mean the same thing as "look at", but the logic behind it is the same.