"I listen to the story."

Translation: Éistim leis an scéal.

[VaclavH]

I believe I read somewhere else that le+an becomes leis... so should the answer then really be "leis AN sce(fada)al"?

[galaxyrocker]

le an becomes leis an not just leis

[Peter559873]

Why is it literally 'le an an sceal' then?

[galaxyrocker]

It's not. When le is followed by an it becomes leis, and it has nothing to do with another an being added.

[sclare92]

Is there a direct translation that would make more sense in my American brain? I just translated leis and it said with but I can't figure out how that makes sense.

[galaxyrocker]

''I listen with the story'. Leis can mean 'with him/it', but in this case it's just leis because of an following it.

[MyIrish-is4.me_]

I am with sclare92. Doesn't leis mean "with". I couldn't find anything in the options given that meant "to" the story.

[soupandbread]

Éist + le means 'listen to' in Irish.

[Ailis_Colquhoun]

Thank you! I was incredibly confused like those two were!

[moryssa33]

So just to make sure I understand... I get Eistim, because I'm the one listening... is it "leis" because it's referring to "an sceal"? Meaning why leis instead of liom? I have in my notes that "eist (le)" means "listen (to)", but I didn't realize the "le" part needed to be conjugated as well, and I'm not sure what it's based on for this sentence.

[galaxyrocker]

It's leis because le needs to become leis when it appears before an or na. It has nothing to do with the speaker of the sentence.

[momx3kids]

Is eisteacht a 2nd conjugation verb? Why is that last i in eistim not accented?

[JoanThe3rd]

would it ever be éistim léi (or libh, leat, etc)? is it leis in this case because the object is masculine? or is it just Always 'leis' specifically when éist le is followed by an or na?

[TellTheSeal]

In this sentence, "leis" does not mean "to him;" rather, here, "leis" means "to" (and yes, "le" or "leis" can mean "with," but in English, of course we say "listen to" rather than "listen with," so I'm going to use "to" rather than "with" throughout this answer). The point is, yes, "le" + "sé" = "with him" / "to him" but here "le" simply becomes "leis" before "an:" "leis" is simply the form that "le" takes when followed by "an," as you observed. (As in English, "an" is the form "a" takes when followed by a vowel: it's just a different form of the same word).

This "leis" has nothing to do with the gender of the object:

Éistim leis an scéal. = I listen to the story ("scéal" is masculine).
Éistim leis an nuacht. = I listen to the news. ("nuacht" is feminine).

And yes, you can say "éistim léi" but that would mean "I listen to her:"

Éistim leis an bhean. = I listen to the woman.
Éistim léi. = I listen to her.

Éistim leis an bhfear. = I listen to the man. (here, "leis" is "to" / "with").
Éistim leis. = I listen to him. (here, "leis" is "to him" / "with him").

So, gender does matter if you are using "le + pronoun:"

Éistim leis an scéal; éistim leis. = I listen to the story; I listen to it.
Éistim leis an nuacht; éistim léi. = I listen to the news; I listen to it.

Edit: Changed "Éistim leis an fear" to "Éistim leis an bhfear."

[SeanGLEJohnENG]

Why wouldn't - éistim don scéal - be a valid answer. Doesn't don roughly translate into for the/to the? I get - éistim leis an raidió - as in Irish you listen with rather than to, but here it's a story, presumably not over a raido. Am I overthinking this?

[SatharnPHL]

It wouldn't be a valid translation because that's not how Irish speakers say "I listen to the story".

Why do you "look at" but "listen to"? The preposition used is simply a convention, it doesn't actually mean anything, and Irish doesn't use the same conventions that English does.