Talking about the weather (sentance structure)

Beer Werewolf

'ello for the 100th time, my apologies.

Tà an aimsir àlainn agus an grian aoibhinn inniu!!

Is that in any way correct? Have I missed anything out, what have I missed, is it in the wrong order? Also, is there a huge difference between the dialects? I've been learning the Munster one I think, but come across a lot of Northern Ireland sites which have a different one. I hear some cities speak a big mix of both. Eeeeek.

An gal gréine

More usually it would be "Tá an aimsir go hálainn agus an ghrian go haoibhinn".
Note the direction of the accent (síniú fada).
Grian is feminine , so it becomes An ghrian.
'Fuacht' is masculine so it is not 'an fhuacht' but 'an fuacht'= the cold.

You will certainly find all the different dialects in Dublin but the other cities woud stick heavily with their regions. It's best not to get too caught-up in dialects when starting out. If you have begun with one particular one, it might be best to stick to that for now.

Best of luck with those classes and good on ya for havin taken it up.

Beer Werewolf

I see, I see. It's the 'go' that keeps confusing me as well, people have tried to explain it and it's still getting me.
How do I know what is feminine and what is masculine?

I'm not sure why the fadas have switched direction! My keyboard is doing it in the same direction yours is, I don't know how to get it to go the other way, how on earth did it switch?! Weird!

áéíóú - testing

Thank you very, very much by the way! Much appreciated, sláinte mhaith agat!!!

EDIT: They seem to be working now. áááááááááééééééééééééééíííúúúóóóóó I don't get what happened! Tá brón orm... :S

Múinteoir

Beer Werewolf wrote: »

How do I know what is feminine and what is masculine?

It's stated in the dictionary beside each word.

An gal gréine

[quote=Beer Werewolfs
How do I know what is feminine and what is masculine?

Like French with Le and La, it's a case of remembering which word is masculine and which is feminine from your own experience.

staryplough

tá an ghrian ag soilsiú - the sun is shining

tá an aimsir go hálainn - the weather is beautiful

pog it

Heya Berewolf, well one thing I have covered a lot in my little study so far is gender of nouns, and there are no hard and fast rules to tell you which word is feminine and which is masculine!

But there is good news! The end of the noun will give you a good indication of what gender the noun is! There are a few exceptions here and there ok ( as friggin always with irish ) but they are really good general guidelines and if you follow them you'll be right nine times out of ten- at least.

I have these notes all typed up already so I'll just copy and paste- I got most of it from 'Leabhar Gramadai Gaeilge'- page 28, but added here and there from other grammar books.

The side part is the endings: the second examples of nouns

MASCULINE nouns:

Consan fada leathan (long broad consonant ending)
Slite beatha (job titles)

án/ód/ús: arán bradán meascán cnapán
aire: cabaire
(ái)ste: coláiste
amh: gaineamh
a (with two syllables) : cóta
ach (derived from noun): Éireannach
(e)adh: cuireadh geimhreadh samhradh
(a)í: ceannaí leabharlannaí sclábhaí rúnaí
ch: cléireach coileach fathach oifigeach coimhthíoch
éad: buicéad céad lipéad paicéad
éal: buidéal ospidéal scéal
éar: coiléar féar móinéar páipéar
éir: báicéir siúinéir tincéir
eoir/óir: bádóir, cladóir feirmeoir múinteoir
ín: báisín cailín cillín púirín
(i)úir: saighdiúir táilliúir
as: doras
s (leathan): bus cleas costas fios
ún: botún colún oinniún príosún
úr: casúr colúr pictiúr rásúr
ar: pórtar

pog it

Feminine nouns: (endings and examples):

Consan caol ag an deireadh
Teibí
Guta ag tús agus ag deireadh an fhocail: aire aithne

(a)íl: béicíl feadaíl osnaíl
(e)áil: sábháil tarrtháil
(a)ilt: meilt oscailt
(a)int: caint seachaint
áint: tiomáint iomáint
(a)íocht: filíocht, eagraíocht, litríocht siamsaíocht
aois/ís: calaois gaois mailís coicís
chan: athbheochan
(a)irt: bagairt imirt
(e)ach: báisteach gríosach
(e)acht: Gaeltacht gluaiseacht mallacht exception is comhlacht and one syllable nouns
úil: barúil
úint: canúint
lann: amharclann bialann leabharlann exception is anlann
eog/óg: bábóg bróg cuinneog fuinneog
is: uirlis
seach: cláirseach
ach: báisteach mass nouns


Also.. Berewolf, be careful just with nouns ending in -ach. They are both masc and fem..

pog it

Re. the dialects.

Ok broadly speaking- and I mean broadly - there are 3 main dialects but regional differences in all- Munster Irish, Connaught Irish and Ulster Irish- but there is a difference between Kerry and Cork Irish in Munster, and then between Mayo and Galway in Connaught.

I think the Munster Irish is lovely- it's the closest to what most students are taught in school, but Connemara Irish has its own charms as does Ulster, but the thing about Connemara and Ulster that I have found as a learner, is that you have to have an accent to go with it, and it's hard to 'put on', whereas Munster accent is easier to do! The Munster Irish is thriving anyway and it is very rich so I reckon you should stick with it.

While you're learning it's good to learn from all dialects, but definitely for later on, you should have a listen to them all and choose which one most pleases your ear and go for it!

seaner

As for the 'go hálainn' 'go hiontach' etc... I asked the same question on this. As I thought that "go" made the word an adverb. So you wouldn't say the weather is wonderful(ly) etc, as far as i know there are a few adjectives that take 'go' all the time, even though they don't neccessarily make adverbs, they are simply exceptions to the rule.

But if someone else knows something more than me, please feel free to let me know!

Beer Werewolf

Wow!

A lot of information for me here! -Writes it all down in Irish notebook- Yes, I'm that determined to learn it. I have little time on my hands but am struggling through determinedly.

Firstly: Which dictionary? Online? Or should I buy one...can anyone recommend a good online site? And yes, experience is probably going to help.

Secondly: While I am now getting how to construct the simple sentence such as "tá an aimsir go hálainn" (Staryplough), how would I say "This is beautiful"? (For example) is it "Seo í hálainn"? or is this only for describing a person?

Thirdly: Pog it, what a brilliant list! I'll copy that to word and print it out. Thank you very much for taking the time to write that out for me, very helpful! Makes sense to me, I'll try and memorise that. I'm finding that even though there's a lot to learn and it seems a lot, I'm picking things up here and there. Brilliant! I reckon I'll stick to Munster, that seems to be what I've learned so far, though I guess since I'll be heading over that way in 2011, I'll hang around and see what's going on but I'll hope to know enough of the language to converse by then.

Fourth: Seaner: What's hard is I suck at metalanguage (what a verb/adverb etc is). I can write good grammar, I instinctively understand it, but when it comes to naming things...huh? Haha. I suppose that's why they say learn your own language properly first. I guess learning another one teaches me something.

Thanks all for your examples and such. Helps me so much! Go raibh míle maith agaibh!

pog it

You have to get good dictionaries!

There is one online -www.focal.ie- and it's a tremendous help, esp for modern terms- but it's constantly being developed and for that reason there are as yet a lot of gaps remaining.

You need a good dictionary to learn a new language- here are the two you need: you can get them from www.litriocht.com- or google for prices- try amazon, etc.

Irish - English: 'Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla' (Niall O'Donaill)
English -Irish: 'English-Irish dictionary' (Tomás de Bhaldraithe).

In terms of Irish learning resources, it'll be the best money you spend!

An gal gréine

Tá seo go hálainn/ Tá seo galanta =This is beautiful

pog it

An gal gréine wrote: »

Tá seo go hálainn/ Tá seo galanta =This is beautiful

I would say 'Tá sé seo go hálainn'.. The 'seo' shouldn't be naked here

Beer Werewolf

Thanks, pog it, I'll check that out. Why is the sé there as well? What do you mean by naked? Sé is 'he' or 'it' right?

Bah, I must go or risk being late to class. I'll check it out on the computers at Uni, think I read something somewhere, so much information and so many differing opinions.