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A’ Ghalltachd

B1
Dashboard
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Complete for 2 points

Bilingual transcription: An guth fulangach

Bilingual transcription: The passive voice

Watch this clip where Joy gives us some of her useful tips and favourite phrases.

Up till now, we’ve always used verbs with a subject: Tha mi… Chunnaic iad…

Except when giving orders or instructions: Fosgail an doras! Gabh gu do làimh chlì!

But Gaelic has a form of the verb ‘to be’, Tha, Bha, which doesn’t need a subject.

Instead of saying Tha daoine… orTha iad…we can say Thathar: Thathar ag èisteachd, People are listening.

Thathar ag ràdh gu bheil am port-adhair dùinte. They’re saying (or It’s being said) that the airport is shut.

And in the past tense, Bhathar ag iarraidh gun atharraicheadh an Riaghaltas an lagh. They were wanting the Government to change the law.

In this impersonal mode, all the forms of the verbs change in the same way.

So instead of the question A bheil, we can say A bheilear, instead of An robh, An robhar?

An robhar ag iarraidh atharraichean mòra? Were they wanting big changes?

And chan eil becomes Chan eilear, Cha robh Cha robhar.

Cha robhar ag iarraidh ach atharraichean beaga. They only wanted small changes.