JoP wrote:I guess what really interests us beginners is how to tronsloot infinitive phrases from English where they are very common. It seems that you have to nominalise the phrase using the verbal noun in Gaelic.
The phrases in some of the previous posts with the passive seem to use the possessive adjective plus the verbal noun - therefore the 'a' represents 'his' but in a phrase like 'tha mi a' dol a sheinn' the 'a' I seem to remember lenites the verbal noun because it represents 'do' or to.
So - how would we represent the following in gaelic. Here are my beginner's attempts and I'd be grateful if anyone could comment on them.
I want to sing - tha mi ag iarraidh a sheinn?
I want him to sing - tha mi ga h-iarraidh a sheinn?
I try to sing - tha mi a' feuchainn a sheinn?
I like to sing - Is toigh leam a sheinn?
I like to sing it - Is toigh leam ga sheinn
I like him to sing -
I'm getting a bit stuck with this - I presume it is some sort of nominal phrase like "Is toigh leam a sheinn" = it pleases me his singing?, but "Is toiigh leam a seinn" - I like her to sing?
I persuade him to sing - tha mi a' toirt air a sheinn
I persuade her to sing - tha mi a' toirt orre a sheinn
I teach him to sing - Tha mi ga h-ionnsaich a sheinn
I teach him to sing it - tha mi ga h-ionnsaich ga sheinn
I want to sing - Bu toil leam seinn, Tha mi ag iarraidh seinn
I want him to sing - not what you have - that's "I want him" followed by "to sing", i.e. "him" is object of "want". You'd probably need to say owt like "Tha mi ag iarraidh airson a sheinn" - no doubt others will ken a better way of putting it.
I like to sing it - 'S toil leam ga s[h]einn (depends whether "it" is a boy or a girl)
I teach him to sing - again, you've got "teach him", rather than "teach to sing" Really, you're teaching singing to him, n'est-ce pas? "Tha mi ag ionnsachadh seinn dha", mevvies.
Note that
a'/ag is short for
aig, while
a (and, before a vowel or fh-vowel, nothing) is (you could say) short for
do etc. Forms such as
ga,
gur etc. come from compressing "aig" with a personal pronoun, e.g.
a or
ur. They can only be used where the person is the direct object (just as in Welsh, though I don't spose that's much help).
Often, where you might stick in a "to" in English, you divven't need to in Gaelic, e.g.
I like
to sing - 'S toil leam seinn [Is toigh leam seinn to be precise]
I like singing - 'S toil leam seinn
You could call "singing" the verbnoun if you wanted to. However, once you start on more specific things, you get this:-
I like
to sing songs - 'S toil leam òrain
a sheinn
I like singing songs - 'S toil leam òrain
a sheinn
That is, if your verbnoun actually has a direct object itself, you stick it in front and add in the "a", with leniency. NB: not before a vowel etc, e.g.:-
I like teaching Welsh - 'S toil leam Cuimris ionnsachadh
I like getting parlattick - 'S toil leam pòiteach fhaighinn
Now, as for all this "what is an infinitive", "what is a verbnoun" nonsense, it's a fact that no two languages have a one-to-one into and onto mapping, so there's bound to be some subtle differences. What's important, however, is how the various languages actually work. It is not particularly helpful, in trying to foster that knowledge, to split hairs over what is or is not a verbnoun, an infinitive or whatever. Indeed, I strongly suspect that the vast majority of folk who are fluent in both Gaelic and English wouldn't know a verbnoun - or an infinitive - if one came up to them in the street and said "Hello". What they do know, however, is how to use both languages, which is rather more important.
