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Gaelic verbs don’t have what is known in English as the ‘perfect tense’, used to say you ‘have done something’. In Gaelic the simple past tense can also have a perfect meaning, Chaidh mi a Pharas (I went to Paris) or (I have been to Paris), but we can say explicitly that we have done something using the structure Tha mi air … which is like the English phrase ‘I am after …’ doing something. This structure causes inversion which we learned in [A2 Cuspair 9, 12].
Inversion happens with a direct object. With the definite article, it may look as if the direct object (noun) should be in the dative (prepositional) case after the preposition air, but in fact air introduces the whole verbal noun phrase, so the noun stays in the nominative (nominal) case:
Tha ceann air a’ chnogan
There is a lid on the jar
Ach:
Tha mi air an cnogan fhosgladh
I have opened the jar
Tha mi air an dinnear a dhèanamh
I have made/am after making the dinner
A bheil sibh air an cnogan fhosgladh?
Have you opened the jar?
Chan eil Sìne air am prògram sin fhaicinn
Jane hasn’t seen that programme
Bha iad air am biadh a cheannach
They had bought/were after buying the food.
A bheil sibh air an cnogan fhosgladh?
Have you opened the jar?
A bheil sibh air an leabhar a leughadh?
Have you read the book?
A bheil sibh air an leasan seo a leantainn?
Have you followed this lesson?
Tha sinn air gach prògram SpeakGaelic air BBC ALBA fhaicinn, tha iad cho feumail!
We have seen every SpeakGaelic programme on BBC ALBA, they are so useful!
Nach eil sibh toilichte gu bheil e air taigh ùr fhaighinn?
Aren’t you pleased that he has got a new house?
Chunnaic iad nach robh e air an obair–dachaigh a dhèanamh.
They saw that he hadn’t done the homework.
A bheil sibh air ur biadh a ghabhail fhathast?
Have you had your food yet?
Tha sinn cinnteach gu bheil sinn air damhan–allaidh fhaicinn.
We are sure that we have seen a spider.
Tha mi brònach gu bheil mi air a h–uile nì a th’ agam a chall
I am sad that I’ve lost everything I own/have.
Bidh iad air dinnear ithe mar–thà
They will have eaten dinner already.