"Íocann an madra don chat."
Translation:The dog pays for the cat.
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Wow either the Irish land is so magical that animals walk and talk and do the shopping and the cooking or duolingo just ran out of sentences to use..
The sillier sentences help me to understand the grammar involved without thinking about it too hard, like i would be with sentences that make sense.
Yes. This is why i love Duolingo. No learning of ' tourist phrases' off by heart.
I just love this sentence....I always think of the cat doing something bad (like knocking something breakable down) but not getting caught, and then the dog gets nailed for the crime....
Does this mean that the dog pays a bill owed by the cat, or that the dog is purchasing the cat?
The former — don chat is used for paying on behalf of the cat. (As an gcat would be used instead for purchasing the cat.)
Similarly confused. Is that how it's meant to be pronounced? Or an error in the speech?
In Connacht Irish, certain d's are pronounced g. Aside from this example, dul is usually pronounced gul in Connacht Irish.
Cad atá ag dul dó? - https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4775581
Tá sé ag dul faoi obráid - https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11806896
I meet people from Connacht and Munster every day, but I never heard one that makes the "D" sound so much like a hard "G" as in this audio. It's more like the softer "J". A new experience for me.
Íocann an madra leis an gcat.
(The usual English phrasing would be “The dog pays the cat”.)
does the word 'Íocann' translate only in the sense of monetary payment or also in the English idiomatic 'pay for it' retribution sense also?
Sóinseáil = Change Airgead = Money/Silver Cheannaigh = Bought Just thought this would be useful
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Is "for the" here in the sense of paying the shopkeeper to receive the cat, or paying in the cat's place?
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I think because "don" is a contraction that includes the definite article: don = "do + an" So, "don" is "for the" whereas "do" is "for a"
There is nothing to cause lenition there - in the nominative case an only lenites feminine nouns, but madra is a masculine noun.
The answer accepted for "iocaim don fhear" was "I pay the man" so one is incorrect
I can't find any íocaim don fhear exercise, but if it accepts "I pay the man" then it is incorrect (or it's a béarlachas using do for "to" instead of "for").
Íocann tú don mhairteoil - "You pay for the beef"
Íocaim don chailín - "I pay for the girl"
Íocann sibh don fhear - "You pay for the man"
"You pay for the man" - Íocann sibh don fhear
It may have been "Iocann se don fhear". Whatever the case, it occurs repeatedly and "[...] pay[s] the man" is always accepted. Thanks for the correction.