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- "We speak English."
"We speak English."
Translation:Labhraímid Béarla.
20 Comments
2135
I read somewhere else that Labhraíonn is more "I speak this sometimes" than "I can speak this." So does this mean that sometimes we speak in English, whereas "Tá Béarla agam" would express that I can speak the language?
This sentence’s typical meaning would be “We usually speak in English”. However, labhair could be used for the ability to speak in a language — see the first example in definition #8 here.
This is really not acceptable in expressing that we have the ability to speak the language. As Rewjeo said, it really expresses that we sometimes speak English. It could be used in answer to a question such as, 'Which language do you speak at home?'
'Tá Bearla againn' is how it should be stated. The question form would be, 'An bhfuil Bearla agaibh,' - literally, 'Do you (pl) have English?'
269
Doesn't Béarla mean language. It kind of seems like calling English Béarla is like saying English is "The" language and Gaeilge is not.
So is there 1st person plural pronoun? Is it commonly dropped? Does meaning changed if it is included?
I know in Polish you can say "Mówimy po Polsku" (no pronoun) or "My mówimy po Polsku" but unless it is necessary to stress that "we speak Polish (and someone else does not)" the pronoun is dropped very often.