"An bhfuil seacláid ó chailín?"
Translation:Does a girl want chocolate?
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"Does a girl want chocolate?" Am i the only one who hears these said in Jaqen H'ghars voice?
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Hi, Duolinguists! In Focloir.ie, I am seeing the "tá ... ó" construction used for both "want" and "need." Is there any way in practice to distinguish when it's being used for one or the other? Is it just a matter of context? Or in practice are there ways that native speakers make the distinction? Thanks!
- 1997
I must admit I don't understand the logic behind the sentence at all here... where is it that we know she "wants" it?
It's a phrasal verb in Irish, bí ó. In some dialects teastaigh ó can mean it, as well as bí ag iarraidh
I don't understand at all how they get does a girl want chocolate out of this
Irish doesn’t have a standalone verb “want”; it uses phrasal verbs instead to mean “want”, and one of those phrasal verbs is bí ó. The interrogative verbal particle an starts a question, and fuil is the form of bí that follows a verbal particle. Because this an causes eclipsis, fuil becomes bhfuil. Thus, An bhfuil X ó Y? means “Does Y want X?” Neither seacláid nor cailín has a definite article, so An bhfuil seacláid ó chailín? means “Does a girl want (a) chocolate?”.
"bhfuil" is a form of the verb "bí". You can think of it as replacing "tá" in certain circumstances, in this case after the interrogative (question) particle "an". "tá" can mean "is" or "are" (or "am") depending on the subject eg "Tá sé anseo" = "He is here", "Tá siad anseo" = "They are here". And similarly with "bhfuil" ("An bhfuil sé anseo?", "An bhfuil siad anseo?")
