Halò is mise Tòmas (that_guy_)

[that_guy_]

Halò is mise Tòmas (that_guy_). Tha mi (??) ionnsachadh (na?) Gàidhlig air trì mìosan. Tha mi à Alba. Tha mi a fuireach ann (an/am?) sasainn an-dràsta. Is toigh leam ionnsachadh (na) Gàidhlig ach mi chan eil math! Tha mi dèan fiughair ri ionnsachadh (à/aig?) sibh!
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Hello, my name is Thomas (that_guy). I (have been??) learning Gaelic for three months. I am from Scotland. I live in England just now. I like learning Gaelic but I am not good! I look forward to learning (from?) you!

[GunChleoc]

Halò is fàilte ort!

Cha robh sin dona idir!
That wasn't bad at all.

Tha mi 'n dòchas gum bi am fòram seo feumail dhut
I hope this forum will be useful to you

Some hints:

Tha mi ag ionnsachadh

ann an Sasainn

Is toigh leam Gàidhlig ionnsachadh ach chan eil mi math (tha thu co-dhiù - you are though!)

Tha mi a' dèanamh fiughair ri ionnsachadh bhuaibh.

[Gràisg]

Halò Thòmais, fàilte chridheil ort

A bheil sneachd agad?
Do you have any snow?

[that_guy_]

Tapadh leibh, an dà chuid! Tapadh leibh, ach chan eil Gàidhlig mhath agam idir, Chan eil fhathas. Cha d'fhuair (mòr/mhòir?) sneachd agad, beag nis ged, Tha e fuar! De an ort?

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Thankyou, both! Thankyou, but I don't have good gaelic at all, not yet. Haven't had (much) snow, a little now, it is cold! What is "ort"?

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Although I say i've been learning for 3 months, i've probably had less than 5 hours dedicated time to gaelic at the moment. I don't have much time to practice unfortunately. I have bought Morag Macneill's book as well as the 'teach yourself gaelic' pack I'm also trying to use the beag air bheag website. Do you still have Skype meetings etc, I would also like to improve my oral! Thanks!

[GunChleoc]

ort = air + thu

Prepositions can combine with personal pronouns in Gaelic

[Seonaidh]

You "ort" to know that...but, of course, it is not said like "ought", a bit more like "orrsht" (you'll find Gaelic speakers waggle their R's somewhat...)

Tapadh leibh, an dà chuid! Tapadh leibh, ach chan eil Gàidhlig mhath agam idir, Chan eil fhathas. Cha d'fhuair (mòr/mhòir?) sneachd agad, beag nis ged, Tha e fuar! De an ort?

yet, still etc: fhathast (was it a typo?)

haven't had much snow, a little now: I wouldn't have guessed that from the Gaelic! The English is missing "we". You could mevvies say "Cha d' fhuair sinn mòran sneachda...", but better might be "Chan eil sinn air mòran sneachda fhaighinn...". As for "a little now", perhaps "beagan a-nis" or "beagan an-dràsta" - what is "beag nis ged", "small ness though"?

Main point at this stage probably:-
beag - small (little) [adjective]
mòr - great (big) [adjective]
beagan - a bit (few) [noun]
mòran - a lot (much, many) [noun]
In English, "a bit OF ...", "a lot OF ...", so in Gaelic you should really use the possessive case after "beagan" or "mòran" (though this is more often observed in the breach...)

Anyway when

Halò Thòmais, fàilte chridheil ort

A bheil sneachd agad?
Do you have any snow?

you probably got the "Hel-lair Thomas, hearty welcome" and ""Is there snow at thee?" OK - and now, of course, with GC's explanation, the "ort" fits into place nicely for you. If all you'd wanted to do was to answer the snow ceist, you could hae said:-

"Tha, tha sneachd agam" or "Chan eil, chan eil sneachd agam"
(Yes/No, there is/isn't snow at me)

A couple more Qs:
1: A bheil teaghlach agad?
2: A bheil falt donn ort?
- just for a wee bittie practice with the conjoined pronouns (or however you want to think of them).

[that_guy_]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback, it is helpful.

Seonaidh, I interpreted your q's as:

1: Do you have any family?
2: Do you have brown hair?

I'm not sure how correct these are, particularly unsure about the second one lol!

So I might rely:

1: Tha. Tha mi seilbhich màthair agus aon bràthair. A bheil teaghlach agad sibh fhein?
Yes. I have a mother and one brother. Do you have any family yourself?
2: Tha. Tha mi falt donn.
Yes. I have brown hair

As i say, i'm still very much an early beginner. I have a feeling i've not interpreted these questions correctly though. Let me know!

[Seonaidh]

a) You got the Q's right (but there was no "any" in the first).

b) You need to realise that "tha mi" is "I am", not "I have" (likewise "A bheil mi?" is "Am I?" not "Have I?" and so on). When "I have" is "I have got" etc. - but ONLY when that actually refers to the act of getting - you can use forms based of "faighinn", e.g. "Fhuair mi ticead" - "I got a ticket" - NOT "I happen to have a ticket". This is hard to explain, because it comes quite natural to me, being the same sort of concept as in Welsh.

Anyway, to say "I have" in the sense of possessing (e.g. a house or a family), you obviously wouldn't say "Tha mi a' faighinn taighe" - that would mean than you are currently engaged in the act of getting the house. Neither, of course, can you say "Tha mi taigh", which would mean something like "I'm house-ish" (you can only have adjectives, not nouns, in that sort of set-up) - it doesn't even mean "I am a house"!

So, rather then you possessing the house, you have to express your ownership in terms of a property of that house, in essence "A house is owned-by-me", or "A house is at-me", i.e. "Tha taigh agam".

With hair, it's not so much "at-you" as "on-you". You put "Tha mi falt donn", which doesn't actually make sense in Gaelic. "Tha mi donn" would - "I am brown" - but that's an adjective. The nearest it looks like is "I am brown hair". What you need to say is something about the brown hair, i.e. that it's on you, i.e. "Tha falt donn orm".

c) "Tha mi seilbhich..." - no doubt, you looked up "own" or "Possess" and your faclair said "seilbhich". The right way to say "I am owning" would be "Tha mi a' seilbheachadh" - but I doubt that your mother and brother are actually your property! Rather, you'd say something like "Tha teaghlach agam - tha màthair is aonar bhràthair agam" - but that's raising other points of grammar apart from the "at-me" thing, so just look at the first bit - "Tha teaghlach agam". Literally, this is "is family at-me".

d) Quick responses - question uses "agad" (at-thee" or "agaibh" (at-you), your reply will use "agam" (at-me) or, possibly, "againn" (at-us). Similarly, question uses "ort" (on-thee) or "oirbh" (on-you), your answer will use "orm" (on-me) or maybe "oirnn" (on-us).

e) You have "A bheil teaghlach agad sibh fhèin?", which literally might be "<question> is family at-thee you self?". You're mixing "thou" forms and "you" forms - and you've got one too many! The right way to ask is either "A bheil teaghlach agad fhèin?" or "A bheil teaghlach agaibh fhèin?", depending on how familiar or formal you want to be.

Tha, tha teaghlach agamsa. Tha mac agam, agus 's e Peadar an t-ainm a th' air. Tha piuthar agam cuideachd - 's e Sorcha an t-ainm a th' oirre.
(all names have been tronsloted into Gaelic to convict the innocent)

[that_guy_]

Thanks for the feedback, clearly I still have a very long way to go!!