New Zealand Ghosts & Other Haunts

Hi all
Ciamar tha sibh

Here is lesson 4:

In sentences like 'John is young', 'James is tired' we use the verb tha. In gaelic, the word order is slightly different, the verb comes first such as:

Tha Iain òg John is young (ha ee-in og)
Tha Anna beag Ann is small (ha anna beg)
Tha Màiri toilichte Mary is happy (ha maar-ee toll-itch-uh)

Pronouns

mi(se) = I (me(-suh))
thu(usa) = you (sing & inform) (oo(-suh))
e(san) = he (eh(-san))
i(se) = she (ee(-suh))
sinn(e) = we (shinn(-eh)
sibh(se) = you (plur & form) (sheev(-suh))
iad(san) = them (ee-ad(-san))

The part in brackets are the emphatic tence (to put emphise upon), for example: Tha mi fuar (i am cold) and Ciamar a tha thusa ( How are you)

However, in gaelic there are two verbs 'to be',tha and is. In sentences like ' I am John', 'you are Ann', 'he is James' we use is. When using 'is', we usually the emphatic tense.

Is mise Iain I am John ( is miss-suh ee-in)
Is tusa Anna You are Ann (is du-sa anna)
Is esan Seumas He is James (Is ee-san shay-mus)
Is ise Peigi She is Peggy (is is-uh pegg-ee)
Is sinne an clas Gàidhlig We are the Gaelic class (is shin-nuh an clas gah-lick)
Is sibhse an tidsear You are the teacher (is seev-suh an teed-shur)
Is iadsan Màiri agus Calum They are Mary and Calum ( is ee-add maar-ee ag-us caal-um)

Difference between 'is' and 'tha'

In sentences like 'John is young' and 'she is Ann' we refer to 'young' and 'Ann' as being predicates (what is being said about the subject of the sentence) of the verb 'to be'. A useful rule of tha and is.:

When the predicate is a noun, use is
When the predicate is anything else (adjective, adverb etc), use tha.




That's it for now, i'll get back to you soon. These verbs are very important if you want to construct any sentence, next time i'll cover the negitive form of the verb 'to be'

Tapadh leibh

Taye

Tapadh leibh, Thanks for continuation. Phantastically made!

Wabun Wind

Hi Wabun Wind

Thanks for the good comment you made
Taye