Fòram na Gàidhlig

Hi,

Chan eil mi cinnteanach gu bheil tha seo ceart airson "I know that you can hear me, but are you listening?" :

Tha fhios agam gu bheil 's urrainn dhut gam chluinntinn, ach tha thu gam èisteachd?

A bheil tha sin ceart?

Tapadh leibh.

Beagan ceart, beagan ceàrr!

I think you have just learned the gu bheil construction, and 'gam', and are now trying to apply them in various contexts? Very good tries , but it doesn't always work!
The chances are, if you're following a course or a book, you haven't actually got to the point of applying them in 'more advanced' grammar yet, so don't worry too much.

"Chan eil mi cinnteanach gu bheil tha seo ceart airson" - if you have 'bheil', you don't need 'tha' as well. 'bheil' and 'tha' are two parts of the same verb, 'bi' (to be). > Chan eil mi cinnteach gu bheil seo ceart

A connecting issue in the next sentence too. You can't combine gu bheil and 's urrainn. the S in 's urrainn is short for 'is', a totally different verb 'to be' (Gaelic has two), used for other things than 'bi'. So you say gur urrainn (gu + 's urrainn)

Tha fios agam gur urrainn dhut mo chluinntinn

The 'mo chluinntinn' belongs to a phenomenon called inversion, which you may not have had yet. It follows 's urrainn and many other modal verbs (e.g. feumaidh mi - I must) and introductory verbs (e.g. tha mi ag iarraidh) which are followed by another verb with an object.

'S urrainn dhomh cluinntinn. - I can hear.
'S urrainn dhomh an t-òran a chluinntinn - I can hear the song
'S urrainn dhomh do chluinntinn - I can hear you.

By the way, you don't actually need 'S urrainn for 'can' in this situation. Gaelic likes to use the continuous form for 'can' if actual physical ability is not being stressed, in other words "are you hearing me?"

> Tha fios agam gu bheil thu gam chluinntinn, ach a bheil thu ag èisteachd rium? (listening to me)


Easy when you know how!

Hi, thanks a lot for the thorough reply.

I'm doing weekly classes at the local Gaelic School, I learned all the individual bits ('gu bheil',''s urrain', gam [verbal-noun] etc) over the last couple of weeks and I was having a stab at conjoining them — had a feeling it was a bit of a car crash though.

if you have 'bheil', you don't need 'tha' as well

I actually knew that, that was carelessness…

You can't combine gu bheil and 's urrainn.

… and that's equally obvious now you point it out …

So you say gur urrainn (gu + 's urrainn)

Tha fios agam gur urrainn dhut mo chluinntinn

… although I would not have known this was the solution, excellent. Think I see what's happening. I'll look inversion up.

Tha fios agam gu bheil thu gam chluinntinn…

So (roughly) "I know that you are hearing me…" would suffice? That said, I think in my mind the sentence was "I know that you can (emph) hear me…" so would it make sense to use 'urrainn' in that case for emphasis?

thu ag èisteachd rium

I know 'èisteachd rium', I think I had it in my head I'd have to use the 'gam' type prepositional pronoun before the verbal noun here rather than after. Is this is something to do with the fact 'èisteachd' is normally followed by a prepositional pronoun ('ri-') rather than just a pronoun?

Thanks again.

Is this is something to do with the fact 'èisteachd' is normally followed by a prepositional pronoun ('ri-') rather than just a pronoun?

Yes, everything to do with it. That’s the reason for it.

ithinkitsnice wrote:

thu ag èisteachd rium

I know 'èisteachd rium', I think I had it in my head I'd have to use the 'gam' type prepositional pronoun before the verbal noun here rather than after. Is this is something to do with the fact 'èisteachd' is normally followed by a prepositional pronoun ('ri-') rather than just a pronoun?

Thanks again.

Yup, just like you can't drop the preposition in the English "are you listening to me?" -- "are you listening me?" would sound odd -- neither can you drop the preposition in Gaelic.

Great, thanks for the help everyone.