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Adjacent Identical Pronouns

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 2:10 pm
by Eòs Buidhe
Halò a h-uile duine,

I have a usage question about pronouns, specifically when the subject and object pronouns are the same and appear next to each other in a sentence.

Mar eisimpleir: "Canaidh i i." (She will say it.)

I understand that this construction is grammatically correct, but it feels a bit awkward stylistically. I’m curious how more fluent speakers tend to handle this in natural speech.

Do speakers usually:

*avoid the double pronoun by using a noun instead?
*use 'sin' or 'seo' instead (Canaidh i sin)?
*rephrase with a verbal noun (Bidh i ga ràdh)?
*or is 'Canaidh i i' actually common and unremarkable in everyday usage?

I’d really appreciate any insight into what sounds most natural in practice.

Mòran taing!

Re: Adjacent Identical Pronouns

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2025 11:56 am
by akerbeltz
i for it is quite rare unless you're referring to a biologically female entitity i.e. chunnaic i i 'she saw her', that's legit. Same as with e e, there's not avoidance of that as far as I'm aware, certainly not in speaking.

In writing, if your sentence is really complex and/or there are a lot of entities involved, I think it does happen that people somehow clarify who is doing what in some way. Changing the tense/aspect though (i.e. canaidh > bidh i ag ràdh), I don't think that happens as that changes the meaning significantly and doesn't clarify any better than canaidh i i.