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- Topic: Irish >
- "Tá sú ag an bportán."
62 Comments
It's a Simpsons reference. Google Simpsons crab juice. And Mountain Dew is a soda in the US.
i know i live in California but i dont watch the simpsons..i just dont think that mountain dew is a juice
Well there's a scene where Homer is presented with a choice of beverage between mountain dew and crab juice. Home replies., "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww! I'll have a crab juice!"
Wow, for this section I really wish I could see the "Tips and Notes" on my phone. :-(
I can sometimes bring up Duolingo on my phone's browser and you can usually see the tips in it. Try it and see if that works.
I’m curious about what this sentence is actually saying. I’ve come up with a few plausible explanations, but I can’t know for sure...
1 - The crab has a refreshing veggie/fruit-based beverage to enjoy with his morning corn flakes.
OR
2- The crab has been properly cooked, so when I bite into one of his legs at Red Lobster, the folks sharing my table get squirted with his juicy goodness.
3 - The crab is able to exert his political power in his corner of the local reef.
I simply can’t tell from context...
This is a lesson on eclipsis. That is a feature of the language that adds a letter and changes the pronunciation (but doesn't change the meaning of the word) in certain situations.
Yes but why is it there what is the rule that causes eclipsis in this case?
In this sentence: 3. Preposition + Definite Article Eclipsis occurs after certain prepositions where they are joined by the singular definite article an: Preposition + singular definite article: ag an, meaning "at the"
This was all from the information given at the beginning of this lesson
I’m curious as to where the information was given...when I started the lesson (actually, EVERY lesson thus far), it just asked the first question. Of course, I got it wrong, having no understanding of the subject matter.
I had to ask Uncle Google what an eclipsis was, since the site didn’t give me any information on it whatsoever.
The desktop version of the website has notes that tell you how to use certain features of the language.
Not only does the mobile app not have these notes, it doesn't even tell you you can get more information on the website!
I wish duolingo would have a brief explanation like what you just wrote, hattic. Thank you. Very helpful.
Can someone please break down this sentence structure please? Because when I hover my mouse over the word "ag", it says "at", but I don't see "at" in the translation.
So, Irish has no verbal equivalent for "have." However, they can still express ownership. They do this by using the preposition for "at". So, literally, if you have something, something is "at" you in Irish.
Well, strictly speaking Irish uses "ag" (at) to express possession (which is not necessarily the same thing as ownership). For ownership you need "le" (with).
Tá peann ag Liam : Liam has a pen
Tá an peann le Síle : The pen is Síle's (belongs to Síle)
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i think my earlier post was incorrect given that "ag" is preceded by the subject rather than the direct object as i mistakenly thought. so, i think it is .
Thanks :D But now I get how it means "The crab has juice." Sometimes Irish has different ways to say common things we say in English, so I'll just have to get used to that.
Honestly, I'd have a MUCH better chance to translate if it were something anywhere in the realm of reality. Or maybe the rhealm of rhreality? :-}
Juiced up crabs, men in the fridge, paul drinking wine before he drinks the cat. What is this world coming to :) lols!
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In the pronunciation, I hear exactly: Ta súil ag an bportan, and not: Tá sú ag an bportán.
I am using the program on a tablet,. Is this why I'm not getting all these helpful tips everyone is speaking of :(
The Tips and Notes are only available through the Web interface, not through the apps. If your tablet has a browser, you should be able to use that to be able to read the Tips and Notes.
Thanks scilling. I'm now using the desktop to take advantage of tips and notes and the tougher grading scale. Just using the tablet for refreshing memory or maintaining my streak when the day is getting late :)
I suppose if I saw this I would definitely make a comment on the juice-wielding crab
So if you were to say 'The crab drinks juice' you'd say 'Ólann an portán sú' but 'The crab has water' is 'Tá sú ag an bportán'. Now I'm confused, because it seems that 'The crab' and 'Juice' have switched from one end of the sentence to the other in the Irish translations. Does anyone know why?
In "Ólann an portán sú," 'an portán' is the subject of the verb 'ólann', and 'sú' is the direct object: the crab does the drinking, and the juice is what gets drunk.
Because of how Irish handles posession, though, it's NOT the case (grammatically) that the crab "does the having" in "Tá sú ag an bportán," nor (again, grammatically) that the juice gets had. Irish lacks a verb 'to have', and instead says that a thing "is at" whomever or whatever has it. So for the crab and its juice, the juice becomes the subject of the verb 'tá' ("is"), while the crab becomes the object of the preposition 'ag' ("at"). Their grammatical roles have switched: the juice is what is, and the crab is where it's at.
Since Irish uses a Verb --> subject --> object word order for most sentences, the positions of 'portán' & 'sú' in the sentence also switch to reflect their changed roles.
It's worth pointing out that Irish is not unique in lacking a verb for "have" - other language like Russian, Hindi and Korean use similar structures instead of a standalone verb.
Does anyone know why there is a b infront of crab? And a g in front of cat in another question
Many of the simple preposition (ar, ag, le, ó etc) cause eclipsis when they are used with the singular definite article an.
ag an gcailín, ar an mbord, leis an bhfear, ón gcathair, roimh an bportán, etc.
