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- Topic: Irish >
- "Léim leabhair."
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How can I tell from the audio that it's "I read books" and not "I read a book"? Do Leabhair and leabhar sound different?
A rough pronunciation:
- I read a book - Léim leabhar (laym lah-wur)
- I read books - Léim leabhair (laym lah-wir)
If you are finding it hard to pronounce that "ir" sound you can use an adjective e.g. Léim leabhar amháin (I read one book), Léim cúpla leabhar (I read a few books) or Tá mé ag léamh a lán leabhar (I am reading a lot of books), note that the singular is used here because "cúpla" and "a lán" make it clear the noun is plural.
They should, but the people here don't show the difference between the two for some reason. :/ I hope they fix this..... By the context of a sentence though, you can usually tell whether a word is plural or not. If it's not obvious which form is being used (plural or singular) I don't really know what can be done.
It sounds like "w" when near the vowels a, o, and u; it sounds like "v" when near the vowels i and e.
And those are called long vs slender, correct? Or something like fat or broad vs slender?
Correct. E and I makes adjacent consonants slender, while A, O, and U makes adjacent consonants broad.
"The book" is an leabhar. "The books" is na leabhair.
léim leabhar - "I read a book"
léim an leabhar - "I read the book"
léim leabhair - "I read books"
léim na leabhar - "I read the books"
Thanks. I'm so embarrassed I didn't pick up on that. I appreciate your help.
I see lots of comments about how they are spelled differently. On mine they are spelled exactly the same. But i guess it would have to be na leabhair.
my knowledge of latin is virtually zero, but i do remember the plurals in "i". Then i see the roots for book and for read and they definitely look latin to me! Perhaps it is the latin influence from the times of the Roman Empire?
Nevermind I see it. I am not sure how you tell books from book when you hear it.
Broad r - sounds like an American r Slender r - a vibrated r on the roof of your mouth. That's about as basic as I can get. But it's different in different regions of Ireland, too. Some people pronounce both slender and broad r as the same sound or sometimes one is trilled and the other glottal stopped.
This sentence was not recorded. There is no audio button, because there is no audio.
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I was given only two choices: "I read the book" and "I read books". Of course I picked the wrong one! What am I missing?
an leabhar - "the book", léim an leabhar - "I read the book"
leabhair - "books", léim leabhair - "I read books".
No.
Léim leabhair - "I read books"
Léim na leabhair - "I read the books"
