"The boy has a dog."
Translation:Tá madra ag an mbuachaill.
19 Comments
- 22
- 21
- 13
- 11
- 6
- 4
Can someone explain why both "... an buachaill" and "... an mbuachaill" are required?
I got this question as a tick-the-boxes, and only ticked "an mbuachaill", which it marked incorrect and it suggested that both "... an buachaill" and "... an mbuachaill" should have been correct.
But as far as I was aware, "buachaill" needs to get an uru after "an", no?
- 25
- 1630
flint72, the same thing happened to me. Out of curiosity, I looked at my copy of the Christian Brothers’ New Irish Grammar, and it states “The article (an) eclipses a noun in the singular after [several prepositions], unless we choose to aspirate [lenite]” — thus, both “ag an mbuachaill” and “ag an bhuachaill” would be required to select all correct answers, but unfortunately the introductory notes to this section don’t mention that possibility. I suppose that that’s the price of having eclipsis and lenition in separate sections.
- 12
- 8
- 7
- 7
- 6
- 3
- 3
From what I remember from school, both were acceptable, depending on the dialect, but I only marked the one with the uru and was marked down for it. It doesn't seem to mention anywhere that the 'h' after a 'b' is acceptable though...
- 15
- 11
- 7
- 6
This should accept "ag an mbuachaill" as the correct answer. You can't expect everyone to know the different dialects.
- 11
- 10
- 6
- 5
Is there a way to tailor the code to take into consideration what has been learned already—and what hasn't? If it's true that one of these answers belongs here in the eclipses section, and one in the lenition section, and the lenition section comes second in the course…you see the problem. It seems sort of crappy to be docked points if one isn't prescient.
Preposition + definite article is accepted as leniting in the Caighdean, because it's a natural part of Donegal. The CO accepts both
- 18
- 18
- 17
- 17
- 16
- 16
- 15
- 15
- 15
- 13
- 12
- 12
- 12
- 12
- 12
- 12
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 11
- 10
- 10
- 9
- 9
- 8
- 8
- 7
- 7
- 4
- 1316
Except, of course, the one indicated as the only proper answer does not show eclipsis, as here, but rather lenition.
- 16
- 15
- 7
- 6
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 2
The influence of substandard dialects on this course is rather disappointing. Caighdeán does not use "ag an bhuachaill".
This comment is both judgmental and historically ignorant. Classical Irish used "ag an bhuachaill" for the dative case and "ag an mbuachaill" for the accusative case. Southern dialects eventually ended up removing "ag an bhuachaill" and Northern dialects lost "ag an mbuachaill". Neither choice is substandard, simply parallel evolution.
However the course should go with one choice for consistency.
- 13
- 9
- 8
- 4
- 3
- 2
What do you mean by "substandard dialects"? :( :( :(
It is the caighdéan that is artificial.
