15 Comments
How do you listen for the difference in sound between "comhartha" and "comhrá"? I cannot hear a difference.
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Strictly speaking, comhartha is a 3-syllable word, but the middle syllable is so short, that the first two syllables are practically a diphthong - "cooer-huh". So it's like "co-war-huh" but the "war" bit is so quick that you can barely make it out.
I remember someone asking a similar question and it was answered but I forgot where I found it and so... yeah I'm going to ask again. :D Is "Is e..." used when the "it" has a definitive particle ("an") and "Is ... e" used when the "it" does not have a definitive particle? Because I remember back in Basics 1, there was "Is fear e" and sentences that use the "Is...e" instead of "Is e...".
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That's the case, but remember the definite article [an] won't be there where there is a phrase in the genitive case: e.g. 'Is é namhaid an phobail é' = He's an enemy of the people; where the final é refers to him, and the first é is there because 'namhaid an phobail' is definite but in the genitive case, so loses the first 'an'.
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What is the difference between comhartha and comhartaíocht? (Is the first the noun, the second an adjective?)
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They’re both nouns. To restrict their meanings around the word “sign”, comharthaíocht might be better thought of in the abstract, like English “signage”.
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So which is strictly more correct: Is é seo an comhartha or Seo é an comhartha? Or are they interchangeable?
"Is é seo an comhartha" is more complete, but it's not much different than "this is the sign" and "this's the sign".
