Grammar Hints - Vicipéid

# Grammar Hints

### Ón Vicipéid, an chiclipéid shaor.

This is an English-language page for questions and answers relating to Irish Grammar and for resolving problems. Please use this page for asking any questions regarding grammar and usage. Panu Petteri Höglund 17:33, 16 Iúil 2006 (UTC)

## [athraigh] Article Usage

### [athraigh] No double definiteness in Irish

For English-speakers, it is entirely counterintuitive that Irish does not allow definite article before a noun which is followed by a definite noun in genitive. The idea is, that one definite article makes the whole phrase definite. Thus, we have:

Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann = English: the president of Ireland

I: fear an phoist = E: the man of the post

I: Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá = E: the United States of America (Mheiriceá is the genitive form of Meiriceá, which as a proper noun is inherently definite, although it does not take an article)

### [athraigh] Hosts of people, lots of things: use the article

Another important point is, that before plural nouns expressing great quantities, you are supposed to have the article:

tháinig na mílte duine ansin = thousands of people came there

## [athraigh] Vocabulary

### [athraigh] Longfort is not "port"

For your information: longphort or longfort (stupidly enough, the second one is the official orthography) does not mean "port", but rather a military stronghold. The words for "port" are cuan, calafort, caladh, and port.

### [athraigh] Don't use "aon" for "one (of them)"

Please don't use "aon" for "one (of them)", i.e. don't write "aon acu". It is never or almost never used by native writers (the only text where I have seen it was folklore written down from a terminal speaker of a dying dialect, which IMHO marks it as Anglicism). Instead, use:

- duine acu for "one of them" if "they" are people

- bean acu for "one of them" if "they" are exclusively women or girls

- fear acu for "one of them" if it needs to be especially stressed that the one is a man

- ceann acu for "one of them" if "they" are things or animals.

So:

one of the girls = "bean de na cailíní", one of them = "bean acu"

one of the boys = "duine de na buachaillí", one of them = "duine acu"

one of the screwdrivers = "ceann de na scriúirí", one of them = "ceann acu"

## [athraigh] Years: "sa bhliain 2006", not "i 2006"

It is an Anglicism to write, for example, "i 2006" for "in 2006". This bad habit is widespread even among fluent speakers, but this does not make it any better, because "sa bhliain 2006" is the better usage (see Ó Dónaill's dictionary, for example). Please take the trouble of writing "sa bhliain" instead of "i".

"Sa bhliain 2006" (= "sa bhliain dhá mhíle sé") is in itself somewhat funny, because the main rule would actually postulate "i mbliain a 2006" (= "i mbliain dhá mhíle a sé"). However, "sa bhliain 2006" seems to be the most acceptable usage. As I said, the usage "i 2006" is widespread even among fluent Gaeilgeoirs, but anyone who has learnt his Irish by reading Gaeltacht authors knows that WE can do better.

Panu Petteri Höglund 12:53, 2 Lúnasa 2006 (UTC)

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