"Bidh mi ann a dh'aithghearr."

Translation: I will be there soon.

[Veroniquesfrench]

I was wondering about when to use "ann" and when to use "an-sin" to say "there". Thanks to anyone who can help. :)

[Andrew717858]

My understanding is that 'bidh e ann a dh'aithghearr' means 'He/it will be in attendance/in existence soon', while 'bidh e an-sin a dh'aithghearr' means 'He/it will be in that particular place soon'. In English we'd usually just use 'He/it will be there soon' for both, though in speech 'there' would be stressed to mean the second version.

[Veroniquesfrench]

Moran taing, Anndra! That makes a lot of sense now. Bliadhna Mhath Ur, agus tapadh leibh a-rithist.

[Alastair649040]

what's the origin of dh'aithghearr: what does dh' mean?

[silmeth]

I am not entirely sure in this case, but I think generally a dh’ comes from old do to, lenited to dho and then shortened to just a, and then for some reason doubled to a dh’ before vowels (cf. how ‘regular’ do in Gaelic becomes do dh’ before vowels) eg. in infinitive-like constructions like aran a dh’ithe to eat bread, lit. bread to/for eating; or eg. compare trì bliadhna a dh’aois three years old with Irish trí bliana d’aois.

So I would guess a dh’aithghearr comes from do ‘to’ + ath- ‘next, following, re-’ + gearr ‘short’, meaning something like to-a-next-short-while or for a short following moment.

But that’s just my guessing. ;-)

[Alastair649040]

Fascinatingly obscure but so helpful: I am still stumble on "a th" but will be much more cautious now I know. Thanks.

[Markatansky]

My Gàidhlig teacher explained it as there being a need sometimes to break up similar sounds that were close together and so sometimes folk added dh' to the beginning of a word that began with a vowel. In the case of dh'ith for example, it'd be quite difficult for a listener to hear otherwise.

[Alastair649040]

can you use "sin" for this? What would "I will be here soon" or " I will be in soon"?