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- "I gcónaí!"
24 Comments
Wish Duolingo applied audio to all lessons. As a rank beginner I was not even close -- the pronunciation per link below is: "Ah GOO-ney." Thanks for the poster in a previous lesson who linked this. Amazingly helpful.
The audio is done by a real human, and DL has already had to replace it once (the original audio was spoken by a non-native, who made lots of mistakes). This is why they won't have complete audio for the course (especially because DL is still running in the red) and why you'll see some 2 year old comments about how bad the audio is.
For now, I do suggest sticking to Teanglann, and, if you know the IPA, go read the WIkipedia page on Irish orthography; it's a good descriptor of how it's used, and Irish orthography is fairly regular.
I'm not certain (this is a guess based on the above comment), but 'i' = 'in' and 'conai' = 'residence' so 'i gconai' comes from the concept of being 'in residence.' "Always" in this sense is almost like a state of being. Sort of how some language's word for "eternal" doesn't mean "forever" in reference to a timeline, rather it means "completely" in the sense of permeating something completely. I always sing. The joy of singing resides in me. It is in residence.
The first time this was shown to me, only the "gcónaí" part of "I gcónaí" was marked as the "new word" part, and the dropdown clarification/hint thing wasn't very helpful, either. FYI
So does "cónaí" ever show up again in Irish? Or is it only used after "I" in an eclipsed form to say "always"?
cónaí = residence
It shows up again. e.g. "Tá mé i mo chónaí i mBeal Feirste" = I am living in Belfast (this is the aspirated version of cónaí, same word though), literally "I am in my residence in Belfast".
I know this means Always because I have seen it now about 15 times.
I keep seeing this and think of Fault in Our Stars, and it repeats at least four or five times per practice. Perhaps not this exactly, but it keeps throwing "Always" at me in some way. Not sure if I should be annoyed, if there is a reason for this, or not, but I'm throwing this out there anyways
I have done this lesson as a review for perhaps a half dozen times. This repeats at least 3 times per review. Sometimes 4, sometimes 5. To be fair, sometimes it is presented as "I gcónaí? I gcónaí!". Perhaps this is something the course contributors think we will forget.
Well it can depend on personal preference too. Some people, for example, don't think of 'ice cream' as 1 word. Really, the difference isn't very useful to make, so long as the meaning and usage are clear.
