Irish Grammar Help!

samapp

Hi so basically I am not that great at making sentences in irish! I keep translating like I do in french literally from english which is wrong but its all I know! So if I want to say : I wanted to buy/to go/to hear etc... (i.e. the infinitive after a verb what would I say) Like in french I want to go is Je veux aller, aller being the infinitive but in irish I dont think you can say Theastaigh mé teann. Its wrong isnt it? So any help is appreciated!

By the way,
I am kind of freaking out over irish. Until now, Im just into 5th year I have basically been learning off answers and not makingany effort with the language. I am trying to change starting now. I am learning vocab every night and I am trying to grasp the grammar. If I combine this effort with learning the poems and all that stuff off by heart do you think an B1-A2 is achievable? I got a B in JC higher. I fear since I left it till now to start it might be too late? Any words of wisdom?

cGirl

Right, can't help you by explaining the Irish grammar, because to be honest I never learned Irish grammar, I could just speak the language and just knew what went where and what form it was in if it sounded right. It helped being around native speakers.

samapp wrote: »

By the way,
I am kind of freaking out over irish. Until now, Im just into 5th year I have basically been learning off answers and not makingany effort with the language. I am trying to change starting now. I am learning vocab every night and I am trying to grasp the grammar. If I combine this effort with learning the poems and all that stuff off by heart do you think an B1-A2 is achievable? I got a B in JC higher. I fear since I left it till now to start it might be too late? Any words of wisdom?

You're only in 5th year now, chill out, if you learn your vocab and try with the grammar you'll be grand. You got a B in the JC, so I'm sure an A or B is perfectly achievable if you push yourself. DON'T learn the poems off by heart, that's a complete waste of time, the poems are on the paper. Are you doing HL? If you do An Triail as your drama, don't learn quotes. Again, there's no need, they don't want them. Concentrate and focus your attention on getting your grammar right, that's where the majority of the marks go in the Irish exam. Your content is actually worth very little, especially in the aiste section. Learn you Stair very well too, because unless they **** up in your year like they did in mine, it's an easy 30 marks.

lasair

Hi....
I would reccommend gettin an irish grammer book such as http://www.cic.ie/product.asp?idproduct=349&variables=catalogue.asp%3Ftype%3D0%26txtsearch%3D%26sel_category%3D4%26sel_author%3D0%26sel_subcategory%3D18

dont panic..you still have a year...you can also pick up really good irish books second hand now like Diogras (it has a green cover), inside it does the poems, pros and everythin you need to know in easy irish as well as hons and comes with a little dictionary after each poem or pros...

look at test papers each yr doesn realy change, you can start on questions and keep buildin them up. Memorise the answers... I'm an irish teacher so if ya need help feel free on pm me at anytime during the next 2 years...

poetryinmotion

samapp wrote: »

By the way,
I am kind of freaking out over irish. Until now, Im just into 5th year I have basically been learning off answers and not makingany effort with the language. I am trying to change starting now. I am learning vocab every night and I am trying to grasp the grammar. If I combine this effort with learning the poems and all that stuff off by heart do you think an B1-A2 is achievable? I got a B in JC higher. I fear since I left it till now to start it might be too late? Any words of wisdom?

Look at it this way.i got a B in the JC from what irish i had since primary school.i can honestly say i didnt do any minute bit of study.I just learned off a really general essay for the LC n if u learn off a few sentences on every poem and story ur sorted.i had some stuff learned off for the question that came up on 'An bhean og' this year.i just wrote down what i learned off and threw the question in here and there.checked my script and got full marks for that question.i know people say you shudnt learn off but i got 166/180 from basically learning off in paper 2.the system they have is there to be exploited so why shudnt you exploit it to maximise ur marks

poetryinmotion

lasair wrote: »

dont panic..you still have a year...you can also pick up really good irish books second hand now like Diogras (it has a green cover), inside it does the poems, pros and everythin you need to know in easy irish as well as hons and comes with a little dictionary after each poem or pros...

Diogras?? really???you think thats good.i had that book and didnt use it once.notes in it are useless(our irish teacher told us that but for some reason didnt change to a different book.oh well i guess thats why he's an idiot) and theres basically no stuff for the oral in it.the best use i ever had for it was when i threw it in the fire one cold night

lasair

Diogras is the best book...that and a revision book... I spent this summer flicking through different books and I am still using it.....

poetryinmotion

lasair wrote: »

Diogras is the best book...that and a revision book... I spent this summer flicking through different books and I am still using it.....

god the other books must be crap then.oh well maybe its just a case of opinion then.i wont argue with the irish teacher

LimeFruitGum

Nollaig MacCongail's Irish Grammar Book is excellent. And it is in English :-)

I used it in college but I think an LC student would find it dead handy.

degausserxo

samapp wrote: »

Hi so basically I am not that great at making sentences in irish! I keep translating like I do in french literally from english which is wrong but its all I know! So if I want to say : I wanted to buy/to go/to hear etc... (i.e. the infinitive after a verb what would I say) Like in french I want to go is Je veux aller, aller being the infinitive but in irish I dont think you can say Theastaigh mé teann. Its wrong isnt it? So any help is appreciated!

Bhí mé ag iarraidh ________ a cheannach/ bhí mé ag iarraidh dul chuig ______/ bhí mé ag iarraidh ________ a chloisteáil.

If the sentence is 'I want to ______', it's gonna be 'Bhí mé ag iarraidh -whatever- and then the second verb to the end of the sentence in the infinitive, which should be in the form a + verb, e.g. bhí mé ag iarraidh an t-amhrán nua ó Radiohead a chloisteáil. When the verb is in the infinitive it'll have an 'a' before it, which'll give the verb itself a 'h', a fheiceáil, a bheith.

Also, get yourself to a gaeltacht (I personally reccomend www.arainnmhor.com/colaiste !) cause imo it's easier to grasp grammar and such when you hear it being constantly spoken correctly as opposed to learning it yourself.

Sorry if any of this confused you!

By the way,
I am kind of freaking out over irish. Until now, Im just into 5th year I have basically been learning off answers and not makingany effort with the language. I am trying to change starting now. I am learning vocab every night and I am trying to grasp the grammar. If I combine this effort with learning the poems and all that stuff off by heart do you think an B1-A2 is achievable? I got a B in JC higher. I fear since I left it till now to start it might be too late? Any words of wisdom?

The majority of the marks in Irish go for grammar and vocab (e.g. only 20/100 marks in the aiste are for ideas, 80/100 are for vocab and grammar.) Even in the listening comp, where you think you'd be okay just writing what you're hearing, you can be hit with the aul tuiseal ginideach. (e.g. In our listening comp this year, one of the answers was travel price or something, and instead of 'praghas taisteal' it'd be 'praghas taistil', yano? As far as poetry and prose go, know what the poem means inside out instead of learning off answers, that way if a question comes up and you've no answer prepared, you can waffle, given that you've good grammar and vocab. A B1/A2 is definitely achievable if you don't have a sh*teload of little fecky grammatical mistakes.

To summarise: grammar and vocab.

Les_Rebels123

Havent read through the entire thread, just read the first one
Samapp, have you tried www.englishirishdictionary.com.

you could try it :P