Hallo a h-uile duine (hello everybody)
'S e uair a bhith ag obair leis a' Gha\idhlig againn a th'ann.
(It's time to be working with our Gaelic.)
Let's look up a regular verb in the dictionary, for example one we saw last
time: mothaich - notice. You'll notice that there are two entries for
verbs, the first "mothaich" is what is called the root of the verb. The
second entry "mothachadh" is the verbal noun or participle.
OK, how do you form the past tense of a regular verb? Right, you start with
the root and you lenite it, so "I noticed" is "mhothaich mi". But what if
the root starts with a vowel or an "f" ?
An example with a vowel would be "o\l" - drink. To say "I drank" it becomes
"dh' o\l mi".
If the verb begins with an "f" then you lenite the "f" AND you use our
friend "dh", so that to say "I answered" it becomes "dh' fhreagair mi".
For those of you with Teach Yourself Gaelic, this is all covered on pages
117-119.
Are you still with me? OK, I'm going to give you some regular verbs, and I
want you to make up two sentences with each verb, one in the present, the
other in the past. For example, using the verb "cuir" I'll say
1. Tha mi a' cuir air an solas (I am putting on, or turning on, the light.)
2. Chuir mi air an re\idio (I turned on the radio).
Now it's your turn. The verbs are (and if you don't know them you'll have
to look them up):
du\in du\nadh
fo\n fo\nadh
ionnsaich ionnsachadh
seinn seinn
sna\mh sna\mh
Tha mi 'n do\chas gum bi spo\rs agaibh .
I hope you will have fun.
Sla\n leibh,
Eideard
PS Tha mi a' de\anamh mearachdan cuideachd bho a\m gu a\m (LOL). Cuiribh
ceart na mearachdan agam ma tha sibh a' mothachadh iad, ma
's e ur toil e.
PS I make mistakes too from time to time (LOL). Please correct my mistakes
if you notice them.
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