Fòram na Gàidhlig

My Gaelic is poor, and I don't know how to ask many questions. How do I say:

'could the boys'

or

'can the boys'

Any help would be appreciated.

Tapadh leibh.

can't tell you unless you give us an entire sentence

Dè cho bochd a' Bheurla agad, a Shiorraidheachd?

Can the boys - Cuir na balaich ann an canastair!

Could the boys - "Tha mi duilich, ach chan eil mi san oifis an-dràsta. Ma tha sibh ag iarraidh eadar-theangachadh fhaighinn, cuiribh e don sheòladh post-d agam, umasbijo.king@canan.borg.sc"

Have fun!

'Could the boys continue' was the sentence I need to know how to say, but any help about how to say something like 'could' in Gaelic in general would be appreciated.
It's one area of the language I really have trouble with.

Ma sheallas tu mun chuairt anns a "Ghràmar is Gnàths", tha mi air freagairt a chur mu dheidhinn seo fhathast.

Can - can
Could - canaibh

(believe that and you'd believe owt!)

Dè seòrsa "can"? Could the boys continue:-
a) Were the boys physically able to continue?
b) Were the boys allowed to continue?

Seall air a' phost eile.

Siorraidheachd wrote: how to say something like 'could' in Gaelic in general would be appreciated.

As Seonaidh said, there are different "could"s. It's always a problem that you can't tr*nsl*t* 1:1 from one language to the next. Which is why machine tr*nsl*t**n sucks so much.

One method of tr*nsl*t*ng 'could' is to use the conditional form of the verb (or however one calls that one, I mean the one where you lenite and add -adh), but then the next problem is that 'continue' is ambiguous as well, so we'll need more context.

Could as in "allow" would be faodaidh I guess.

seeing as its also a question, channainsa;

Am faod na balaich airson an da chuid

works for both i reckon

There are many ways to render this depending on larger situation. The thing to do is bring the whole situation to mind (I said sentence originally, forget the sentence) and ask yourself, how would a native speaker say it in situation? The idiom is such that any word for word rendering would be incomprehensible.

Siorraidheachd wrote:My Gaelic is poor, and I don't know how to ask many questions. How do I say:

'could the boys' Am b' urrainn na balaich X a dhèanamh?

or

'can the boys' Am faod na balaich X a dhèanamh? or Am b' urrainn na balaich X a dhèanamh? depending on the context.

Any help would be appreciated.

Tapadh leibh.

You could use either, but it really depends on the context.

However, i think "Could the boys continue" would be: Am b' urrainn na balaich a' dol air adhart le sin a dhèanamh? - Could the boys continue (Lit: go forward) doing this?

with urrainn you need do/dha, and you don't have a'/ag with cas mu seach