infinitive/verbal noun

Jay Pentatonic

Ok, up to here I'm finding easy...

If I want to use the infinitve, I use the verbal noun without the "ag" thing,
e.g

Tá áthas orm caint leat (I'm happy to talk to you)
Níor mhaith liom ithe milséain (I would not like to eat sweets)

(I'm ignoring the ones with prepositions for now )

But I'm a little stuck here,
To say "I like learning Irish", is it...

"Is maith liom ag foghliom Gaeilge"
or
"Is maith liom foghliom Gaeilge"

Is there any way to know the difference between "I like leaning Irish" & "I like to learn Irish"

Sorry if this seems a little pedantic, but it's been driving me bleedin' mad for weeks!!! :mad:

craoltoir

Is maith liom gaeilge a fhoghlaim.

Níor mhaith liom milseáin a ithe.

Jay Pentatonic

Ok, I see how I messed up there (the whole direct object thing;))

Anyway, I've got another question.
How are sentences that have 2 "to"s structured. as in,

"I like to listen to music"

I managed to butcher this one up,

"is maith liom le ceol a éisteacht" :eek:

I'd appreciate any info,

GRMA

Ceilteach

Jay1989 wrote: »

Ok, I see how I messed up there (the whole direct object thing;))

Anyway, I've got another question.
How are sentences that have 2 "to"s structured. as in,

"I like to listen to music"

I managed to butcher this one up,

"is maith liom le ceol a éisteacht" :eek:

I'd appreciate any info,

GRMA

Okay, here goes;

To - get the ag part of the verb
I like To go swimming
Is maith liom dul ag snámh
I have To stay at home
Tá orm fanacht sa bhaile
I hate To watch (look at) the television.
Is fuath liom féachaint ar an teilifís
I am able To read and write
Tá mé ábalta léamh agus scríobh


Two different ways to use this structure;
1. Verb is followed directly by a word that’s not a noun
Téigh go dtí an phictiúrlann
Tar anseo – Is maith liom teacht anseo
Éist leis an raidio – Níl an t-am agam éisteacht leis an radio
Féach ar an bpictiúr – Ba mhaith liom féachaint ar an bpictiúr
Cabhraigh leis an mbean – Tá sé tabhachtach cabhrú leis an mbean
Taisteal ar an mbus – Tá orm taisteal ar an mbus
Fan sa bhaile – Ní maith liom fanacht sa bhaile

2. Verb is followed directly by a noun
IF IT’S A NOUN, SWITCH IT AROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bris an fhuinneog – Níl mé ábalta an fhuinneog a bhriseadh
Dún an doras – Dúirt an múinteoir lion an doras a dhúnadh
Foghlaim an Ghaeilge – Tá sé deacair an Ghaeilge a fhoghlaim
Oscail an leabhar – Dúirt mé leis na páistí an leabhar a oscailt
Déan an dinnéar – Ní maith liom an dinnéar a dhéanamh
Ól tae – Níl sé go maith duit tae a ól
Ceannaigh éadaí – Tá sé costasach éadaí a cheannach
Tarraing pictiúir – Is maith le páistí pictiúir a tharraingt




This works in all cases, the only thing that requires a bit of thought is when a verb in English like "watch" or "help" requires a preposition in Irish "Féach ar", "cabhraigh le".
Watch the TV (TV Is a noun, you'd expect to switch it around but... in Irish it's not watch the TV, it's look at / at the TV)
Féach ar an teilifís - ní raibh am agam FÉACHAINT AR an teilifís

Similarly...
Help the woman (the woman is a noun, you'd expect to switch around but.... in Irish it's not help the woman , but help /assist with the woman so...)
Cabhraigh leis an mbean - Duirt sé liom CABHRÚ LEIS an mbean
Also there may be case where

Finally you may need to use a bit of cop-on in the sense that
Cuir ort do chóta (it's to be understood that ar is a part of the verb Cuir ar and therefore the first thing after the verb is the noun "do chóta" so it switches around


In a bit of a hurry at the moment so i hope that's clear enough. but if you've any other ceisteanna, post them up and i'll get back to you

Jay Pentatonic

Hey, thanks a lot, great explanation.:)
I just have another question.

Are there going to be a few verbs that are an exception?
I mean,

"Cad a bhí an cailín a dhéanamh ar scoil?" I read that this meant "what was the girl doing at school?" shouldn't it then be "ag déanamh"?

also, I read "is mian le Dónall snámh" meant Dónall wants to swim, shouldn't it be "a snámh?" or something?

Ceilteach

"Cad a bhí an cailín a dhéanamh ar scoil?" I read that this meant "what was the girl doing at school?" shouldn't it then be "ag déanamh"?
Okay, in the case above, it’s not very nice Irish either way and would more correctly (and not as horribly sounding) and more natural be said as cad (é) a bhí á dhéanamh ag an gcailín ar scoil”
I can only assume that you heard somebody say the above and that in the speed of speech you heard the above, if the person speaking was to write down what they said it would be Cad a bhí an cailín ag déanamh ar scoil but the ag gets shortened to an a’. Most probably Conamara??

also, I read "is mian le Dónall snámh" meant Dónall wants to swim, shouldn't it be "a snámh?" or something?

The above is an example of the cases I cited in the first set of example above

Is mian le Dónal snámh
Dónal likes swimming / to swim

pog it

Could you write, á with verbal noun like in say, 'á luchtú' at the end of a sentence without something like 'aige' or 'aici' following after 'luchtú'?

Nuair a bhí an leathanach á luchtú.

(When the page was loading).

Or must it be 'ag luchtú' in this context?

Ceilteach

You’re spot on with the first suggestion.
The second way you mention is a very common mistake and technically would mean that the page was loading something
So Bhí an duine ag luchtú an leathanaigh or
Bhí an leathanach á luchtú ag an duine

pog it

Ah cheers for clearing that up for me. I'm going to visualise ag ---- as physically happening or getting done and á

---

as being done on the side.

Makes sense to me anyway