Basic Gåildhig Sentences #1
(âGĂĄildhigâ is the native word for Scottish Gaelic)
Currently on my 43 day streak on Duolingo, and thought Iâd post some basic sentence patterns for GĂĄildhig (gah-lik). When I first started studying Japanese what got me through a lot of conversations was learning sentence patterns (which were heavily emphasized by the podcast I was listening to), that I could pop new words into when I learned them, instead of learning a lot of vocabulary I would forget easily.
So hereâs the sentences Iâm seeing most commonly, mostly from Duolingo and LearnGaelic! And some words to fit into them for the absolute beginners.
âWords in parentheses are pronunciations of the previous wordâ
âThis isâ, âIsâ, and âIt isnâtâ.
Seo _____ (shoh _____) // This is _____.Â
Tha _____ (hah _____) // It is _____, or _____ is _____
Chan eil_____ (hahn eel_____) // It isnât ______, or ______ isnât _____
Seo is translated to âThis isâ, since they are both demonstrative pronouns. Seo cofaidh (shoh cawfee) means âThis is coffeeâ. You, in this situation, are demonstrating that this is, indeed, coffee.Â
Tha is usually translated as âIsâ or âIt isâ. It can be used similarly to Seo, but is a personal pronoun rather than demonstrative. It is a third person pronoun much like âheâ or âsheâ (which in GĂĄildhig is e (eh) and i (ee) respectively). Tha grĂ indeag (ha granyak) is âItâs a hedgehogâ. Tha grĂ indeag stampa (hah granyak stahm-puh) is âThe hedgehog is cute.â. In the last sentence, rather than being âIt isâ, it functions more like âisâ.Â
Finally, Chan eil is the negative form of the previous two. Chan eil uisge-beatha (hahn eel ooshka beh-heh) means âThis is not whiskeyâ or âIt is not whiskeyâ.Â
And⊠thatâs it! Hereâs ten more phrases to practice your GĂĄildhig!Â
Dulich (doo lichk) // Sorry
HĂĄlo (hah loh) // HelloÂ
TĂŹoraidh (cheerie) // Goodbye
Cimar a tha sibh? (kimahr a hah shiv) // How are you?
Tha mi gu math (hah mee goo mah) // Iâm fine
Tapadh leat OR Tapadh leibh (tahpah let OR tahpah leiv) // Thank you (casual and formal, respectively)
Mas e do thoil e (mass e doo holl eh) // Please (if using in a sentence, it comes after whatever you are requesting. Pasta mas e do thoil e is âPasta, pleaseâ. And yes, pasta is pronounced the same
a trĂŹ (ah tree) // Three