Reading Number 1
You may be suffering from grammar overload at this point so perhaps we could take a break for some reading. To begin with, here are a few Irish proverbs. Unfamiliar vocabulary is at the right.
| 1. | "Pós bean aniar (1) agus pósfaidh tú aniar." | (aniar, "(from the) west") |
| 2. | "Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin." | (aon, "any", "one") (mar, "like") (tinteán [m.], "fireside") |
| 3. | "Imigh leis an saol agus tiocfaidh sé thart." | (saol [m.], "world") (tiocfaidh, "will come" [irreg.]) (thart, "around (to you)") |
| 4. | "Ceannaigh droch rud is bí gan aon rud." | (droch, "bad") (rud [m.], "thing") (is = agus) (gan, "without") |
And the classic:
| 5. | "Labhair Béarla liom agus brisfidh mé do phus." | (labhair... le, "speak... to") (Béarla [m.], "English language") (pus [m.], "face", "mug") |
The "irreg." after "tiocfaidh" in number three means that its an irregular verb. There are ten completely irregular verbs in Irish. I'll mark irregular forms where they come up in the reading, but bear in mind that you normally can't form one tense of the irregular by using another, e.g. "tiocfaidh" (will come) is no help in finding out the past tense of "come" (which is actually "tháinig"). We'll be learning one or two irregular verbs at a time in the upcoming lessons.
At this point we have just enough grammar to start regular readings in each lesson. In the next lesson we'll look at a 19th-century love song from Connacht.
