Tag Archives: case
Saying ‘Hi’ to Aoife or Tadhg in Irish: Direct Address Forms for Names in the New Video ‘When You Order Coffee with an Irish Name’ Posted by róislín on Aug 19, 2018
(le Róislín) Names like “Caoimhe” or “Bláthnaid” may seem unusual to people outside Ireland or the growing “cibear-Ghaeltacht.” And this may include baristas ar fud an domhain (around the world), or everywhere the Irish diaspora has spread. This issue was dealt with delightfully in the new video ‘When You Order Coffee with an Irish Name,’ which…
Mí na Bealtaine: May, Mothers, Memorial, Mint Juleps, and Macaroons! Posted by róislín on Apr 30, 2017
(le Róislín) OK, so what do all those words in the title have in common besides, starting with the letter “M” in English? Well, May, Mothers and Memorial (in the U,S.) are a shoo-in — holidays (laethe saoire) during the month of May (mí na Bealtaine). So are Macaroons and Mint Juleps. Maybe I should…
Bia le Beoir (Aguisín): One More Irish Phrase for a Beer-friendly Snack Food, Cuid / Part 1 Posted by róislín on Mar 23, 2017
(le Róislín) Well, it may not have quite the linguistic sizzle as the phrase “pork scratchings” (US equivalent “cracklins” or “cracklings”), aka “fried pork rinds,” but here’s the Irish for the bia sneaice in the picture above, quite straightforwardly: craiceann muiceola friochta (skin + of pork + fried). [Agus seo aguisín don aguisín seo: no sooner…
Cén sórt éin? Cén sórt crainn? — Learning Irish from the Christmas Carol ‘Dhá Lá Dhéag na Nollag’ (12 Days of Christmas) Posted by róislín on Dec 20, 2016
(le Róislín) Cén sórt éin mé? Cén sórt crainn a bhfuil mé ann? Yes, you’ve probably guessed the answers, given the season that’s in it. The bird is a partridge and the tree is the pear tree from the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” In a whole slew of previous blogposts, we’ve looked…
A Brief Visit with ‘An Tuiseal Ginideach’ Plus a ‘Mioncheistiúchán’ (showing possession or adding description in Irish, plus a little quiz) Posted by róislín on Aug 11, 2016
(le Róislín) Before we completely move away from the “samhradh, samhraidh, an tsamhraidh, and samhraí” theme and the related vocabulary covered in recent blogposts (naisc thíos), I thought it would fun to look at a nice succinct list of examples of “an tuiseal ginideach” (the genitive case), based on Liam Ó Muirthile’s own description of…
Irish Christmas Terms without the Word ‘Christmas’ — Quiz Yourself! Posted by róislín on Dec 23, 2015
(le Róislín) One of the first Christmas blogs I wrote in this series was about Christmas phrases that don’t have the word “Christmas” in them (nasc thíos). Every time we use the word Christmas in Irish (Nollaig, Nollag), we have to be aware of the ending (“-aig” or “-ag”) and whether or not to include…
‘-aig” ag Nollaig nó ‘-ag’ ag ‘Nollag’? (When to say “Nollaig” and when to say “Nollag” for the Irish word for ‘Christmas’) Posted by róislín on Dec 11, 2015
(le Róislín) It’s that time of year again, and while the Christmas season may make us feel “holly jolly” and “berry merry,” but we might not always feel that way when confronted with the decision of “tuiseal ginideach” or not “tuiseal ginideach.” And what’s the “tuiseal ginideach,” anyway? It’s the form of the word used…