Seall far a bheil mi gu ruige seo!
Sorry there hasn't been a post for a few weeks. There was no Gaelic class last week and I forgot to post an update the week before.
So far, we've learnt about a few of the different ways of saying 'the'*. The word for 'the' changes depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and whether it is in the nominative case or the dative case.
Masculine nominative
an before c, d, g, l, n, r, s, t
am before b, f, m, p
an t- before a vowel
Examples: an taigh, an ceann, an leabaidh, am peann, am bàta, an t-ìm, an t-achadh
Masculine dative (the dative is used after prepositions)
a' with the following noun aspirated (an h is inserted after the first consonant, except d and t)
an before a vowel
Examples: leis a' pheann, air a' bhòrd, anns an achadh
Feminine nominative
a' with following noun aspirated if starting with b, c, f, g, m, p
(There are more rules but this is all we've learnt so far for feminine nouns)
We've also learnt a few things about the verb Bi (To Be, as featured earlier)
The present tense has four forms:
tha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Tha mi sgìth - I am tired
chan eil - this is the negative form Ex. Chan eil mi sgìth - I am not tired.
a bheil - this is the positive question form Ex. A bheil thu sgìth? - Are you tired?
nach eil - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Aren't you tired?
The past also has four forms like the present tense:
bha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bha mi sgìth - I was tired
cha robh - this is the negative form Ex. Cha robh mi sgìth - I was not tired.
an robh - this is the positive question form Ex. An robh thu sgìth? - Were you tired?
nach robh - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach robh thu sgìth? - Weren't you tired?
The future has four forms, but there is also an extra form after words like question words:
bidh - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bidh mi sgìth - I will be tired
cha bhi - this is the negative form Ex. Cha bhi mi sgìth - I won't be tired.
am bi - this is the positive question form Ex. Am bi thu sgìth? - Will you be tired?
nach bi - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Won't you be tired?
cuine (etc.) bhitheas - the relative form Ex. Cuine bhitheas tu air ais? - When will you be back?
*And I thought German was bad... At least der, die and das are a little more different from each other than an, a', an t-, etc.
