- Forum >
- Topic: Irish >
- "Léann siad na leabhair."
32 Comments
Anyone have a clear idea of the distinction between "siad" and "iad" as "they"?
Galaxyrocker is correct.
If you aren't 100% sure what the SUBJECT form is, look for the person or thing that performs the action: WHO (or what) drinks, eats, reads, etc?. Those will be sé/sí/siad.
Once you have that, look for the person or thing that receives the action: The child eats WHAT? I see WHOM? That's your OBJECT.
Remember that sentence from a lesson or two ago, "Itheann an leon na páistí"? (How could you forget?) The verb is itheann. WHO is eating? The lion, so he'd be the subject: sé. The lion eats WHOM/WHAT? The children. They'd be the object: iad.
About the copula--you know how in English we're not supposed to say things like "It's me" or "That's him"? Well, those constructions are correct in Irish! That's he/him!-->Seo é. (Literally "that him"--you can leave the verb out in this case.) He's a doctor--Is dochtúir é I'm sure there will be a lengthy lesson on this tricky verb later!
siad is the subject pronoun, iad is the object form. You would use iad when it's the object of the sentence, or with the copula (Is):
Mar shampla, Feicim go minic iad (I see them often); Is fir iad (they are men)
but
Ritheann siad
Which, to someone not practiced at hearing it, could sound like English "ly". But it's not really, and that should only be mimicked until you get the right sound /l'/ using the Celticist transcription scheme)
I'm never going to get anywhere with the audio-only transcriptions. Why doesn't ANYTHING in Irish sound like it's spelled? All I got out of that audio was "Leon ship macgowad." (Don't ask me how. That's what it sounded like to me.)
It does sound almost always the way it's spelled. Are you saying you expected a different language to be spelled the same way as English?
For this language, if you really want to learn it, you're going to have to go the extra mile and order a few books and go online and listen to Irish shows with captions. I've been sort of practicing for years and feel like you do. Don't give up though.
I'm sure you're right. But that didn't actually help me. I'm still terribly confused on this pronunciation.
Listen to http://www.teanglann.ie/ga/fuaim/leabhar and http://www.teanglann.ie/ga/fuaim/leabhair in whichever dialect you prefer.
Also http://forvo.com/word/leabhar/#ga and http://forvo.com/word/leabhair/#ga. I would suggest listening to BridEilis, who is a native speaker of Connemara Irish.
I would strongly suggest that you get a good Irish book (Gaeilge gan Stró or Now You're Talking, for example) that comes with CDs, if you cannot find an Irish class in your area.
Thank you! I've been trying to listen to Irish podcasts as well but I'm not advanced enough for them to actually make sense. Just trying to slowly get the sounds down.
Perhaps DuoLingo could look into offering a course in IPA. You're right; it's useful and not too hard. We learned the basics in high school.
You will do that in the best, most accurate manner, not missing any sounds, with (Best) an extended stay in the Gaeltacht (Next) a live class with a native or near-native speaker as a teacher (Next) a good textbook with an audio component (Worst) Duolingo, especially if you can't read IPA (most people can't)
If you're serious about learning Irish, you need to get a textbook. If you're not serious, it doesn't matter.
This video is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIokUII7LX0
Cait48: Most people don't know IPA yet, more than not being able to read it. It's pretty straightforward if you dig into it.
They could do an IPI for English speakers. I definitely know what IPI is but I can't read it.
Why is it wrong to say "They read books". Isn't supposed to be gramatically correct in english?
They read books: léann siad leabhair
They read THE books: léann siad NA leabhair <= sentence used in this exercise
I've spoken Irish and live in Ireland for a few years now but that pronunciation is brutal. If you can can you revise some of your audio please. For example "leabhair" is pronounced like "low-ed" rather than "low-er" which is not very understandable from a listener's perspective
This comment is so wrong it's scary. The audio on this course uses recordings of a native Irish speaker from Connacht.
English speakers who can't really hear the difference between a broad r and a slender r sometimes claim that the slender r is more of a "d" sound. It's not, and the speaker in this exercise properly pronounces the slender r sound in leabhair (you can compare it to the Munster example at teanglann.ie - the Connacht and Ulster examples use dialect pronunciations).
You can also hear other examples of words ending in ir at fuaimeanna.ie - it is not a "d" sound!
iad is 3rd person plural - "they"/"them".
muid is 1st person plural - "us"/"we".
