"Tá bia ón bhfear."

Translation: The man wants food.

[ngarrang]

need. want. This infuriating. Only Duolingo seems to make the distinction for Ta and teastaigh.

[dfpeterson]

The worst part that the hints tell you that it is needs, but when you submit it says that the correct answer is wants.

[galaxyrocker]

Some dialects do, actually. teastaigh can't mean 'want' in Connemara. And, as far as I know, the bí ó structure can't mean need

[mizinamo]

What's further confusing is that "want" in English can sometimes mean "need".

[EmeraldBear]

To me this looks like it should be translated as "Food is from the man." I'm quite confused, could someone please explain?

[dfpeterson]

Irish has a very different way of expressing "want" and "have" than English. To say that someone wants something is to say that is from them. To say that they have it is to say that it is at them. To say "I want food" you would say "Tá bia uaim" or literally "food is from me" (and to make things more complicated, ó + mé = uaim. You will just have to memorize the Irish prepositional pronouns.) To say I have food it's "Tá bia agam" or literally "food is at me." Likewise, "you want food" is "tá bia uait" and "you have food" is "tá bia agat." Keep practicing and you'll figure it out.

[EmeraldBear]

Ok, thankyou very much :)

[Peter-Arthur]

I'm still confused

[BrianEllio16]

Think of "food is from me" as "The food is away from me" or
"I am foodless".

[T.Spammage]

This was what I was looking for. "From" is being used as a current location, rather than an originating location.

[Chris804944]

That's what i just learned and how I think of it.

[Chris804944]

This is extremely helpful. Thank you!

[Macu17ab]

Great explanation, thank you

[herredave]

I like to think of "uaim" as "lacking to me".

[mcdermottc1]

Why "ón" rather than "ó" as in the tips and notes?

[Ishoki02]

Because "ó an" > "ón"

[SeanMeaneyPL]

There are other examples in DL where bí...ó is given as as "needs".

[becky3086]

Ok, now I am totally confused. This is the same sentence I just had but written completely different.

[galaxyrocker]

There difference is in the ón. The other sentence had ó without the <n> that comes from the definite article.

[Neal356674]

Hmmmm....so this could mean either "The man wants food" or "Food is from the man" depending on context, correct??

[Venamis1]

So we have two sentences: 'Tá bia ó fhear'
'Tá bia ón bhfear'
Why is the first one lenited and the second one eclipsed?

[SatharnPHL]

ó lenites. ó + an eclipses. (ó + an gives ón).

ar, faoi, roimh, thar, trí and um also lenite without an article, and eclipse with an.

[ColmDuffy]

Where is th "an"

[mizinamo]

Inside the ón.

ó + an = ón

[Darren242763]

How is it the man when theres no "an"

[SatharnPHL]

ó + an -> ón

[grainemhaol]

I think I understand this generally, but how would you then say 'The man wants the food' & 'The food is from the man' please?