"The child has a strawberry."

Translation: Tá sú talún ag an bpáiste.

[Froggybangbang]

I'm given both bpáiste and pháiste by duolingo, which is correct? (And is i the second option pronounced fáiste?)

[emel1ssa]

Both are forms of páiste, but bpáiste has undergone eclipsis while pháiste has undergone lenition. Eclipsis (explained fully in the tips and notes for this section) applies in this case because the phrase "ag an" precedes the word, requiring you to add a b and make it bpáiste. In other cases (described in tips and notes for lenition), pháiste might be required.
As for the pronunciation, I haven't yet heard a recording of pháiste, but based on other words (phéitseog) I believe that would be correct.

[Froggybangbang]

Thank you so much! I'm always on mobile and duolingo doesn't provides the notes yet for the app. Makes this learning experience a bit more complicated haha. Thanks again!

[Gwynne737944]

I keep seeing references to tips and notes but i do not have access to the desktop site:(

[SatharnPHL]

There is no "desktop site".

www.duolingo.com is a website that you can access in the Web browser on your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

[DanSheppar1]

This is not always the case. My android tablet, on receiving a duolingo url in its address bar simply switches context to the duolingo app from the browser app. I have to use a desktop or laptop to avoid this behaviour and read the notes

[SatharnPHL]

Then go into the settings for the Duolingo app and tell Android that you've changed your mind about that. (You should have been asked for permission to do that when you started using the Duolingo app).

Android Settings/Apps/Duolingo/Set as Default.

Change "Go to Supported URLs" from "In this App" to "Always ask" or "In other app".

(The prompts might be slightly different in different versions of Android).

[twig54691]

Why the "b" in paiste?

[another-dave]

Is there any relationship between sú and sú talún?

[SatharnPHL]

Is there any relationship between "straw" and "strawberry"?

The masculine noun sú means "juice". The feminine noun sú is use for certain red berries: sú talún - "strawberry", sú craobh - "raspberry".

So there are two different words sú - there is nothing unusual about that (Some examples from English: right=correct/not left, left=remaining/not right, ring=on a finger/sound of a bell, match=game/the same/light a fire, etc).

[another-dave]

Thanks! Yeah knew it wasn't unusual but as a learner it's good to spot where there are relationships to help remember but trying to tell apart from "false friends" is hard on your own.

Thanks!

[Jalal_pac]

is that mean the strawberry has a child ?

[galaxyrocker]

No. "The strawberry has a child" would be Tá páiste ag an sú talún

[Jalal_pac]

well ive seen some mistakes -_-

[DaphneGool]

Im on the eclipses lesson and it's giving me pháiste as the answer, don't know why when I haven't learnt about lenition yet

[LazCon]

Thanks SatharnPHL. This conversation has been enlightening and I think I'm finally beginning to grasp 'ta' ... :-)

[Umaimah1176]

Its wrong! because it has to be súha talún

[SatharnPHL]

It's not wrong. Sútha talún is the plural - "strawberries". This exercise requires the singular "a strawberry" - sú talún.

[Somewhat_Owlish]

[[Tá sú talún (Object) ag (Verb) an bpáiste (Subject)]]
[[The Child (Subject) has (Verb) a Strawberry - land juice (Object)]]

[SatharnPHL]

tá (verb) sú talún (subject) ag (preposition) an bpáiste (object).

Irish doesn't have a verb that means "have". It uses a completely different construction, and the subject in English is not the subject in Irish.

[Somewhat_Owlish]

Thanks that makes a lot more sense. I'm new to this and was making assumptions. My bad. But I'm sure the strawberry is definitely the object, because the child is the subject which possesses the strawberry, unless a more detailed explanation of this concept arises.

Could one say tá sú talún ag an bpáiste aige? or would that be redundant?

The "ag" versus agam/aici/aige, etc mixed me up

VSO makes more sense than OVS, though, VOS.

[Somewhat_Owlish]

I confess I'm a little confused just letting the word order kinda sink in lol

What do you mean by the subject is different? As far as I understand linguistically the subject is the actor of the sentence and this is most likely a traducible concept to most languages

[SatharnPHL]

The child is the subject of the English verb "have". Sú talún is the subject of the Irish verb bí.

Languages like Irish, Russian, Hindi and Korean don't have a verb that means "have", so the fact that the child is the subject of "have" in English is irrelevant.

[Somewhat_Owlish]

I think I get it now, the "verb" is two prepositions split (tá ... ag) across the object.

If you care to could you please explain more about what this Gaelic specific distinction in conceptualisation of a subject is? I always learned the subject (in functional discourse grammar, at least) as the actor of the sentence. does it have something to do with this complex interrelationship between the position of these conjunctive particles? where does bí fit in?

thanks for this conversation it's interesting

[SatharnPHL]

tá is not a preposition, it's a verb - the present tense form of the verb bí.

Tá sú talún ag an bpáiste - "The child has a strawberry"
Bhí sú talún ag an bpáiste - "The child had a strawberry"
Beidh sú talún ag an bpáiste - "The child will have a strawberry"

Irish doesn't have a verb for "have", so it uses a completely different construction. There is no "actor" in "the child has a strawberry", because there is no "action". "the child" is the subject of the verb, but that's simply a convention, and Irish uses a different convention.