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Out and About

A2
Dashboard
sg-star
Complete for 2 points

A' faighneachd airson cead

Asking permission

To ask permission to do something, we can use the verb faod (may, might). This verb only has future and conditional tenses. We can see below the two forms of the future tense, faodaidh and faod.

Am faod?

May/might?

Nach fhaod?

May not/might not?

Faodaidh

May/might …

Chan fhaod

May not/might not

Faod

When using faod with verbs without a direct object (so in sentences like ‘May I sit here?’ or ‘You can’t smoke’), the rule to remember is that we don’t use a’/ag in front of the verbal noun, or lenite it, so: Am faod mi suidhe.  Chan fhaod thu smocadh.

 Dol  how ever typically becomes a dhol in this situation. Some dialects also do this with tighinn: =

Am faod mi tighinn a-steach?

May I come in?

Chan fhaod! Chan fhaod thu tighinn a-steach.

You may not. You may not come in.

Am faod sinn falbh a-nis?

May we go now?

Faodaidh. Faodaidh sibh falbh a-nis.

You may. You may go now.

And from our conversion, we saw and heard:

Am faod mi suidhe an seo?

May I sit here?

Faodaidh gu dearbh.

You may indeed.

Dèan suidhe!

Have a seat.

Am faod mi tighinn a-steach?

May I come in?

Faodaidh gu dearbh.

You may indeed.

Nach fhaod mi deoch fhaighinn dhut, Anna?

Can’t I get you a drink, Anne?

Faodaidh gu dearbh.

You may.

Am faod mi an taigh-beag agad a chleachdadh?

May I use your toilet?

Chan fhaod, gu mì-fhortanach.

You may not, unfortunately.

Faodaidh tu an taigh-beag a chleachdadh a-nis!

You may use the toilet now!

We’ll return to some of these sentences in the next section.