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Ionnsachadh

B1
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Complete for 2 points

Beagan briathrachais

A little lingo

At level B1 we’ll be using more briathrachas gràmair (grammar vocabulary). We’ll keep it simple for now!

Let’s look at four parts of speech you’ll find in most sentences.

Firstly, let’s take a look at gnìomhairean (verbs) and ainmearan gnìomhaireach (verbal nouns.)

Gnìomhairean is Ainmearan Gnìomhaireach

Verbs and Verbal Nouns

ciallaich! | a’ ciallachadh

mean (intend)! | meaning

creid! | a’ creidsinn

believe! | believing

cuir! | a’ cur

put! send! | putting, sending

dèan! | a’ dèanamh

make! do! | making, doing

freagair! | a’ freagairt

answer! | answering

innis! | ag innse

tell! | telling

ionnsaich! | ag ionnsachadh

learn! | learning

mìnich! | a’ mìneachadh

explain! | explaining

tuig! | a’ tuigsinn

understand! | understanding

can! (abair!) | ag ràdh

say! | saying

cuimhnich! | cuimhneachadh

remember! | remembering

Ainmearan

Nouns

Most sentences will have an ainmear (noun), and here are some you might use in learning situations. Remember that in Gaelic, nouns can be feminine (boireann, f) and masculine (fireann, m).

ainmear (m)

noun

briathrachas (m)

vocabulary

brìgh (f)

meaning, essence

buadhair (m)

adjective

faclair (m)

dictionary

foghlam (m)

education

gnìomhair (m)

verb

gràmar (m)

grammar

mearachd (f)

mistake, error

gnè (f)

gender

And you’ll see that buadhair and gnìomhair are on that list. This is because the words for these are all nouns!

Buadhairean

Adjectives

To add descriptive features to nouns, we use buadhairean (adjectives), for example:

ciallach

sensible, reasonable

mì-chiallach

meaningless, absurd

cruaidh

hard, difficult

doilleir

dark, gloomy

doirbh

difficult

soirbh

easy

furasta

easy

luath

quick

slaodach

slow

soilleir

clear, bright, light (in colour)

Abairtean is seantansan

Phrases and sentences

And we can put these together to form abairtean (phrases or expressions) and seantansan (sentences).

An can thu sin nas slaodaiche?

Can you say that more slowly?

Chan eil sgot agam.

I don’t have a clue.

Dè tha sin a’ ciallachadh?

What does that mean?

Dèan a’ chùis air …

Manage it/manage to do …

Dèan an gnothach air …

Succeed at …/get the better of …

Tha e agam air bàrr mo theangaidh.

I have it/It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Thèid agam air sin a dhèanamh.

I can (manage to) do that.