- Forum >
- Topic: Irish >
- "Do you help or does he help?"
"Do you help or does he help?"
Translation:An gcabhraíonn sibh nó an gcabhraíonn sé?
18 Comments
I'm wondering as well. I hot this wrong using one, and the answer they gave used one of each of the others.
cabhair is a noun meaning "assistance"
cabhraíonn is a verb meaning "help". an gcabhraíonn tú = "do you help" This is the "correct" answer.
cabhraír is an alternative to cabhraíonn tú (along the lines of cabhraím / cabhraíonn mé). It's the usual form in Munster, but considered old-fashioned elsewhere - although you do hear it outside Munster. I think this answer should be accepted as an alternative, but Duolingo might not - it could cause confusion when no mention is made of it in the notes!
I was marked wrong for "An gcabhraíonn tú nó an gcabhraíonn sé" it said I should have used sibh. I reported it as either should be accepted as there is no context to determine plural or singular.
Without context, yes. tú is singular 'you' sibh is plural (i.e. "y'all").
I checked in the Incubator, and yes, tú is accepted as an alternative to sibh in this sentence :)
Why is there a g before 'cabhraíonn'? Is there a name given to the grammar rule for the g or something else?
This is an example of eclipsis, a grammar rule and initial mutation you would have been introduced to early in the tree (In the Eclipsis skill, right next to lenition and represented by a cog). In the present tense verbs are eclipsed (if possible) after the interrogative particle"an"
cabhraíonn tú nó cabhraíonn sé? What's wrong with this instead of "sibh" ?
the problem with your answer wasn't the tu/sibh. The problem is that you did not put "an" before the verb. without the "an," it is just a statement, like if you left out the "do" in the english sentence.
"sibh" is the plural (many) form of you, and "tú" is the singular (one) form of you.
