{"id":454,"date":"2010-10-11T17:23:09","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=454"},"modified":"2010-10-14T11:30:07","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T11:30:07","slug":"more-on-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-i-ngaeilge-or-when-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-also-means-%e2%80%9cafter%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/more-on-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-i-ngaeilge-or-when-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-also-means-%e2%80%9cafter%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"More on \u201cBefore\u201d i nGaeilge, or, When \u201cBefore\u201d Also Means \u201cAfter\u201d!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve recently discussed seven ways to say \u201cbefore\u201d in Irish (cheana, roimh, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair, ar tosach), <\/strong>based on one reader\u2019s question.\u00a0 You might remember that I promised a few more, and here\u2019s the first of several.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to say \u201cthe day before yesterday\u201d or \u201cthe year before last\u201d there is a specific word for this purpose, \u201car\u00fa.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Curiously, \u201car\u00fa\u201d <\/strong>can also be used for future dates, like \u201cthe day after tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Here are the main examples, and frankly, I don\u2019t think there are many more possibilities with this particular word:<\/p>\n

ar\u00fa inn\u00e9, <\/strong>the day before yesterday<\/strong><\/p>\n

ar\u00fa ar\u00e9ir, <\/strong>the night before last<\/strong><\/p>\n

ar\u00fa anuraidh, <\/strong>the year before last<\/strong><\/p>\n

ar\u00fa am\u00e1rach, <\/strong>the day after tomorrow<\/p>\n

ar\u00fa amanathar<\/strong>, the second day after tomorrow<\/p>\n

So \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d can mean both \u201cbefore\u201d and \u201cafter\u201d!<\/p>\n

What part of speech is this intriguing, seemingly self-contradicting word?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s not very clear.\u00a0 Some dictionaries give no part of speech for it and others just say that it\u2019s used in adverbial phrases but don\u2019t pinpoint it as being an adverb.\u00a0 Other sources say it is<\/em> an adverb.\u00a0 My interpretation is that the word doesn\u2019t really mean \u201cbefore\u201d or \u201cafter,\u201d as such, but instead has an \u201cadditive\u201d function.\u00a0 So it\u2019s better to think of it as a particle (like the vocative or numerical particles in Irish), rather than being a specific part of speech.\u00a0 While a definitive part of speech for it could be handy, it\u2019s not really necessary for practical use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curiously, this structure isn\u2019t used with \u201cseachtain<\/strong>\u201d (week), \u201ccoic\u00eds<\/strong>\u201d (fortnight), or \u201cm\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d (month).\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in case you\u2019re wondering, the other words for \u201cbefore,\u201d i.e. our prepositional \u201cgroup of seven,\u201d wouldn\u2019t be likely candidates for use in the phrases that specifically mean \u201cthe day\/night\/year before yesterday\/last night\/last year. \u201d \u00a0If you use \u201croimh<\/strong>\u201d with \u201cinn\u00e9<\/strong>,\u201d you end up with a much longer phrase, \u201can l\u00e1 roimh an l\u00e1 inn\u00e9<\/strong>,\u201d and you don\u2019t get the advantage of the succinctness of \u201car\u00fa inn\u00e9<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 The other six choices (cheana, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair, ar tosach<\/strong>) couldn\u2019t be used in this context at all.\u00a0 So I\u2019d really recommend memorizing the five phrases above and using them where appropriate.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

And a final point regarding \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes the Irish interjection \u201cara<\/strong>\u201d (angl.<\/em> arrah, yerrah, etc.) appears as \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Not often, in my experience, but it\u2019s possible.\u00a0 Context should establish the distinction (\u201cAr\u00fa,\u201d a d\u00fairt s\u00e9 \u2026<\/strong> \/ \u201cArrah,\u201d he said \u2026).\u00a0 If \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d isn\u2019t followed by an adverb of time, it is likely not the same \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d we\u2019ve been talking about above.\u00a0 This interjection \u201car\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d has a fascinating variety of meanings in and of itself, such as \u201cnow,\u201d \u201ctruly,\u201d or \u201creally,\u201d and is often simply left as \u201cara<\/strong>\u201d or anglicized as \u201cArrah, ” as in “Arrah, not at all!\u201d\u00a0 Ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile!<\/strong><\/p>\n

See you again roimh i bhfad <\/strong>(before long)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve recently discussed seven ways to say \u201cbefore\u201d in Irish (cheana, roimh, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair, ar tosach), based on one reader\u2019s question.\u00a0 You might remember that I promised a few more, and here\u2019s the first of several.\u00a0 If you want to say \u201cthe day before yesterday\u201d or \u201cthe year before last\u201d there…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11859,11862,11861,11860,10663,85,5667,11653],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-after","tag-ara","tag-arrah","tag-aru","tag-before","tag-interjection","tag-irish","tag-roimh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}