How would I say...

MaryKirwan

"I thought I would fail"?

I can only think of each part of that sentence in terms of verb, so I can't form sentence that works o_o "Cheap mé", "go mbeadh" and "theipeann".

jamesnp

Cheap mé go dteipfeadh orm.

MaryKirwan

jamesnp wrote: »

Cheap mé go dteipfeadh orm.

And if I wanted to say I "had been failing", is that the imperfect tense? Or would the imperfect be more like "have been failing"?

Caiseoipe19

Bhínn ag teip.

jamesnp

Caiseoipe19 wrote: »

Bhínn ag teip.

I'd be more inclinded to say "bhíodh ag teip orm".

That's the imperfect, which carries the meaning "I used to be failing".

The perfect ("had been") doesn't really exist in Irish as a standalone tense, but can be constructed with bí — no matter how I twist it with teip, though, it doesn't sound right.

So, if you wanted to say I [had] failed the exam (for example), I'd just say "theip orm sa scrúdú".

-jp

Caiseoipe19

Ah damn, yes, go mo leithscéal!

mr chips

The way to say "I failed" on its own is "theip orm", but "I failed the exam" would be "theip orm sa scrúdú" as opposed to "theip an scrúdú orm". Scrúdú is the object of the sentence, rather than the subject.

Irish only has the aimsir chaite and the aimsir ghnáthchaite. "Bhíodh ag teip orm" would be fine, and you could also use the past habitual form of "teip", which would be "theipeadh orm sna scrúduithe" - as jamesnp says, this is more like "I used to be failing the exams", as opposed to "I had been failing the exams".

jamesnp

mr chips wrote: »

"I failed the exam" would be "theip orm sa scrúdú" as opposed to "theip an scrúdú orm".

Whoops, brain fart. You are of course correct.

-jp