Grammar question

wireless101

I have noticed that sometimes 'airgead' is used and sometimes 'airgid' is used. In what situations are these used? The same goes for 'sport' (can't do fadas), sometimes 'spoirt' is written. Can somebody clarify this for me?

tolosenc

An Tuiseal Ginideach (the genetive case). When two nouns come together, the second is delined into this case, basically equates to inserting the word "of" in English.

eg:
An airgead = the money.
An méad airgid = the amount of money.

wireless101

obl wrote: »

An Tuiseal Ginideach (the genetive case). When two nouns come together, the second is delined into this case, basically equates to inserting the word "of" in English.

eg:
An airgead = the money.
An méad airgid = the amount of money.

So whenever you would be using 'of' if it was English, the spelling changes?

Múinteoir

wireless101 wrote: »

So whenever you would be using 'of' if it was English, the spelling changes?

For most words in the singular, yes. Though not all. Certain words like 'Baile' don't change, even in the genitive case. Only a minority of words change when they're in the plural form. The Tuiseal Ginideach fundamentally indicates possession or a relationship between two nouns.

You actually have a similar situation in English, whereby you indicate possession/relationship between two nouns. If you have a house that belongs to John, you don't write 'John House', you write 'John's House'. 'John House' would make no sense and would not indicate the relationship between John and the house.

Similarly in Irish, 'Teach Seán' is just like 'John House' and makes no sense. Whereas Teach Sheáin. means 'John's House'.

wireless101

Múinteoir wrote: »

For most words in the singular, yes. Though not all. Certain words like 'Baile' don't change, even in the genitive case. Only a minority of words change when they're in the plural form. The Tuiseal Ginideach fundamentally indicates possession or a relationship between two nouns.

You actually have a similar situation in English, whereby you indicate possession/relationship between two nouns. If you have a house that belongs to John, you don't write 'John House', you write 'John's House'. 'John House' would make no sense and would not indicate the relationship between John and the house.

Similarly in Irish, 'Teach Seán' is just like 'John House' and makes no sense. Whereas Teach Sheáin. means 'John's House'.

I see why it's there, but is there any rule of thumb I can learn to know when to use 'airgead' and when to use 'airgid?'

PurpleFistMixer

I learned it like this:
Use the tuiseal ginideach,
1) after certain phrases you gotta learn, ie Timpeall na tíre, ar fud an domhain, etc.
2) after "-ing" phrases, ie, ag lorg oibre
3) after quantities, ie a lán airgid
4) cases of possession, ie tús an scéil

Think that's it.. I don't know the TG all that well, never learned the declensions...

Múinteoir

wireless101 wrote: »

I see why it's there, but is there any rule of thumb I can learn to know when to use 'airgead' and when to use 'airgid?'

It'll be in the Tuiseal Ginideach (i.e. airgid) anytime that it's preceded by another noun. If it's a stand alone noun, it'll be airgead.

Tabhair airgead dom. (No other noun preceding or affecting it)

An mála airgid (In the genetive case because it's preceded by another noun; mála).