Fòram na Gàidhlig

Hallo, is mise Laura. Tha Beurla agam, agus tha mi ag ionnasachadh Gaidhlig.

I've been learning for about three months now. I'm almost through the Teach Yourself Gaelic, and am pleased with how much I can read, but feel amazingly inept at actually putting anything into words myself. I look forward to learning more here and meeting people who share my interest.

Hallo, a' Chlarsach

Fàilte!

Dear Harpo, Na gabh dragh! Tha Beurla agad: de mu dheidhinn cananan eile? A bheil thu eolach air an leabhar "Teach Other People Gaelic"? Uill, 's docha gum bi an larach seo coltach ri rudeigin mar sin dhut.

A Chlarsach, Divven't fret like. Thou speaks English: what about other languages? D'ye ken the book "Teagaisg Gaidhlig a Dhaoine Eile"? Wye, mevvies this site will be a bit like that for yees.

Halo à Chlarsach.

Wow! Three months and your almost finished TYG? I'm impressed.

Seonaidh wrote:Dear Harpo, Na gabh dragh! Tha Beurla agad: de mu dheidhinn cananan eile? A bheil thu eolach air an leabhar "Teach Other People Gaelic"? Uill, 's docha gum bi an larach seo coltach ri rudeigin mar sin dhut.

A Chlarsach, Divven't fret like. Thou speaks English: what about other languages? D'ye ken the book "Teagaisg Gaidhlig a Dhaoine Eile"? Wye, mevvies this site will be a bit like that for yees.

Tha beagan Ghearmailteach agam. Nuair mi feuch facal coimhn, thig Ghearmailteach tric a-mach. Tha mi ionnsachadh Ruise bliadhnaichean air ais. Chan eil facal coimhn.

Sile-- I think the mere three months shows up in the Grammar!

Please, anyone, feel free to show me how I should have said:

"I speak a little German. When I try to remember, often German comes out. I studied Russian years ago. I don't remember any words."

I could have worded that better-- I'm struggling to even find a way to word what I want to say with the knowledge I have so far. When I try to speak Gaelic, my brain keeps switching back to German and throwing out German words.

Macht nichts

One thing at a time - here's a bit for you:

Gearmailteach - a German person
a' Ghearmailtis - the German language

The same pattern goes for most nationalities/languages

Nuair a dh'fheuchas mi ri facal a lorg / Nuair a dh'fheuchas mi ri facal fhaighinn - I'm not sure which one is better. dh'fheuchas is the so-called relative future tense.

Bha mi ag ionnsachadh...

Chan eil facal agam nas motha or Chan eil cuimhne agam air facal nas motha.

Rinn thu glè mhath!

Halò a Chlarsach! Tha thu a'dèanamh anabarrach math airson dìreach trì mìosan - cha robh mi cho math ri siud airson 's dòcha sia no seachd mìosan! Cheannaich mi TYG còrr is dà bhliadhna air ais agam chan eil mi air an rud uile gu lèir a leughadh fhathast!

Cuideachd, faodaidh tu a ràdh: "Nuair a tha mi a' feuchainn ri facail chuimhneachadh..."
Hi! You're doing really well - it took me 6/7 months to get that far. I got TYG more than 2 years ago - still not read it all!

You could say: "When i try to remember words..."

Halò a Chlarsach! Fàilte ort

*Alasdair* wrote:Halò a Chlarsach! Tha thu a'dèanamh anabarrach math airson dìreach trì mìosan - cha robh mi cho math ri siud airson 's dòcha sia no seachd mìosan! Cheannaich mi TYG còrr is dà bhliadhna air ais agam chan eil mi air an rud uile gu lèir a leughadh fhathast!

Cuideachd, faodaidh tu a ràdh: "Nuair a tha mi a' feuchainn ri facail chuimhneachadh..."
Hi! You're doing really well - it took me 6/7 months to get that far. I got TYG more than 2 years ago - still not read it all!

You could say: "When i try to remember words..."

I am starting on my second read-through, doing ALL the exercises this time, to get a better grasp on grammar and sentence structure. It seems there are really two verbs in each sentence? tha or some form of it, plus the actual verb (walk, talk, buy, listen, etc.)???

Yep, that's the kind of tenses you start with as a learner. The same thing can happen in English BTW when you say "I am learning"

There are other tenses that just use a single verb as well, but not for the present tense.

Some examples:

Tha mi ag ithe - I am eating
Bha mi ag ithe - I was eating
Bidh mi ag ithe - I will be eating

But:

Dh'ith mi - I ate
Ithidh mi - I eat (usually, regularly) / I will eat

GunChleoc wrote: Ithidh mi - I eat (usually, regularly) / I will eat

I am only in my second Earann at SMO. But here we learned that to express a regular action you would also use the future tense

For instance: I go by train every morning
Bidh mi a' dol air an trèana a h-uile madainn

Dè a tha thu a' smaoineachadh mu dheidhinn sin
What do you think about that?

Moran taing, GC and GO.

Tha e cuideachail .... to see it laid out like that.

Tha mi duillich... my brain keeps switching back to German constructions and can't even begin to figure out how to structure the rest of that sentence.

That's correct, GreatOrt.

Bidh mi ag ithe and ithidh mi are both different kinds of future tense. They will probably teach you the second one later during the course, because you can't do everything at once

So, you can stick to Bidh mi ag ithe for now until you feel comfortable tackling the other form.

You mean, you're on your second earring and they haven't yet introduced you to the conditional pluperfect passive subjunctive? Deary me! Next you'll be telling me they've not done the genitive case or some such. Or first-person verb forms. Or even impersonal ones.

Now, here's one for you who are into English - meself or myself? themselves or theirselves? himself or hisself? Now, compare this rather curious mixture of fossilised case-system remnants with how you'd put it in Gaelic - isn't Gaelic easy-peasy!

Well, until you get to, e.g., "nam biomaid ag ithe"...(were we to be eating)

"It's helpful to see it laid out like that" - a lot of people would use "airson" (for, because of), but it may be a little OTT.