Fòram na Gàidhlig

Tha mi ag iarraidh a dhol a dh'òl cofaidh I know one is grave but they sound two similar when I say them unless I pause for a breath after a dhol

akerbeltz wrote:

Tha mi ag iarraidh a dhol a dh'òl cofaidh I know one is grave but they sound two similar when I say them unless I pause for a breath after a dhol

If you have to pause for breath, then you're probably over-pronouncing your weak vowels and not running stuff together right. As a rule of thumb, then you have a weak vowel at the end of a word hitting a vowel in the next word, then drop the schwa (if there is one, if there's two, drop either, comes out the same way anyway). So your sentence is really (vertical lines indicate weak breaks i.e. if you have to breathe, breathe here):

Tha mi 'g iarraidh | dhol a dh'òl | cofaidh
/ha mi gʲiəRɪ ɣɔLə ɣɔːL kɔfɪ/

Níall Beag wrote:

jasonleitch wrote:As far as word order is concerned, when the present participle or the verbal noun or 'infirmitives' has an object (or everything i'm concerned with at the moment) i.e.
càr a cheanneach
or using ag iarraidh
ag iarraidh càr a cheanneach
ag iarraidh cofaidh òl
ag iarraidh cofaidh ag òl

This causes inversion? Where inversion is the object before the verb it applies to; but when using "verbs of motion"? with again all of the above namely the infirmitive or to [insert verb here] the word order follows like the enlglish (apart form tha mi):

Tha mi ag iarraidh a dhol a chluiche ball-coise

lit. I am wanting to go to play football

Where the verb precedes the object? Because I will probably make this mistake a lot until I have a vocab dense enough to freely read materials without any help.

Yes.

As far as the example Bha a' chaileag a' cluich leis a' chù this seems to have a word order consistent with the first examples where whatever is applying to the verb as an ... indirect object? i.e. the dog, follows the verb,

a' cluiche leis a' chù
leis a' chù a' cluiche

there is no verb of motion so shouldn't it be the latter?

No, for two reasons.

One: inversion only affects direct objects -- nouns without prepositions. "leis" = preposition -> indirect. If you're playing football with the dog, "football" is the direct object.

Two: this is an "ag" situation. "Tha mi a' cluich(e) ball-coise" -- I am playing football. When the verbal noun follows ag or the shortened form a', it means someone is/was/will be doing something, and there's no inversion.

This is actually the reason that some people talk about the "infinitive". They call the verbal noun "present participle" when it's with "ag", because in those situations it acts similar to doing etc in English. They call it the "infinitive" in other places because it acts similar to to do in English. It's a bit of a half-truth, but it's OK as a rule of thumb. If it can only be "doing", and it can't be "to do", it mostly doesn't invert. If you can use "to do", it mostly does, except with verbs of motion (cos it's a different "to", and because you would mostly say "and" in English anyway).

Mostly.

also one last thing =D tell me there is a way to distinguish in speech between Tha mi ag iarraidh a dhol a dh'òl cofaidh I know one is grave but they sound two similar when I say them unless I pause for a breath after a dhol

You've got to get your vowel length right. If it's a long vowel, say it long. Even if you have to exaggerate and make it reeeeeeeeeeaaaaally long, make you long vowels long and your short vowels short, and prove to your brain that it's an important distinction.