"Don't pick that up, it is dangerous."
Translation:Na tog sin, tha e cunnartach.
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I know this is probably a really, really, really stupid question, but why is it "tha e cunnartach" and not " 's e cunnartach a th' ann?" I read the tips for each subject but don't remember any rules about this. Thanks for any light you can shed on this!
I think it may be "tha e cunnartach" because it is describing the item rather than defining it. There is a paragraph or two somewhere in the tips about this distinction, but I've forgotten exactly where it is. Hopefully one of the mods or another course participant can pinpoint where it is. BTW, your question is not a stupid one at all!
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The tips about defining and describing are in "food 3". The tips are great but not always easy to remember where they are :)
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No. Why should there be? An exclamation mark (as it is called in British English) is used in some languages, most notably German, to mark all imperatives. This is not the convention in English. If you do it people think you are German. Am Faclair Beag, (Faclair.com, left column), does it in the English but not the Gaelic, which is a bit inconsistent. For example, he (i.e. the German-speaking author) defines tog (no !) as lift! I have always thought this is a misunderstanding anyway. Although both tog and lift can be used as imperatives, I have always assumed these are the forms in the dictionary simply because they are the verb stems. Dwelly (the right column) does not use these marks, nor do most other dictionaries of Gaelic or English.
On the other hand, the Welsh Duolingo course has deliberately decided to use the mark to identify imperatives
Yfwch yn araf! = Drink slowly!
For convenience on this course, we will generally add an exclamation mark after the commands to make them easier to identify. (Welsh notes, Commands 1)
Note that there is no issue in modern Welsh dictionaries as the verb stem is not used as the imperative, and the form given in the dictionary is the verb noun anyway. D