"Tá post ag an gceannasaí."

Translation: The boss has a job.

[Codester3]

I’m glad this one was written for me, as opposed to a “type what you hear”. I listened to it several times, and it always sounds like the Irish for “sweater” (gan-zee) to me.

I just came here to see if I’m alone in hearing that.

Of course, I knew prior to creating this post that someone would reply with some comment like, “Sweaters can’t have jobs”.

I’ll have you know that on the rare occasion that I wear a sweater (not much need in Texas), it has a VERY important job: to keep me warm. :)

I hope everyone has a spectaculous week!

[sean.mullen]

There's no /z/ sound in Irish; geansaí, 'sweater', sounds roughly like gyan-see. Gceannasaí has a schwa between the 'n' and 's', so roughly like gya-nuh-see.

[DominicCol12]

Really ?Most bosses I know don't really do anything. That's why their desks are always tidy !!!

[DavidTreth]

then they'll be in for a shock if they keep their job while their underlings get made redundant

[exeisen]

Should "a gceannasaí" also be accepted? Since it doesn't sound like the n in "an" is being pronounced here, and since we have no context, it doesn't seem like "their boss" (vs "the boss") is an unreasonable gloss.

[Knocksedan]

I don't believe that it is possible to have more than one answer for "Type what you hear" exercises - it's not an "alternative translation", the sound is only linked to a single Irish sentence.

It's just a bad recording that shouldn't be used by Duolingo.

(Note that this is an issue of the directions given to the speaker - her pronunciation might be perfectly acceptable in other circumstances, but it shouldn't be used in a teaching environment like this).

[DominicCol12]

Yes its like using Alex Ferguson on an audio teaching people to speak English !!!

[reneewritesem]

Any idea as to why "mail" wouldn't be a good translation of "post" here?

[Maria061202]

Because “post“ means “job“!

[ArthurPend]

How is the pronunciation here? Is it actually /pəst/? Or should it be more like /post/?

[galaxyrocker]

It shouldn't be /post/, no. <Póst> would be more similar to /pˠo:sˠt̪ˠ/. According to the Wiktionary article on Irish orthography, since the <o> is stressed, it should be /pˠɔsˠt̪ˠ/. And remember the velarization!

You can hear it pronounced in all three dialects here

[Cullen45967]

Why is the subject "gceannasaí" at the end of the sentence?

[sean.mullen]

There is no verb meaning "to have" in Irish, so you must use the construction Tá X ag Y (lit., "X is at Y") to mean "Y has X." Therefore, "The boss has a job." => "A job is at the boss." => Tá post ag an gceannasaí.

[Houtje2]

How would you say: the boss has mail?

[Bredacm]

Would you not just say 'Tá litreacha ag an gceanasai"

[Houtje2]

That might be an option. Thanks!

[MicheleTreCaffe]

...is not 'post' also used for when one receives letters and such?

[PlasticBiddy]

It is. Hover your cursor over the word and you'll see translations underneath.