All this wind and rain might be giving you a sore head, so let’s use structures we’ve already learnt to talk about what’s wrong.
ceann
a head
goirt
sore
A bheil … air?
Does he have a … ?
This literally translates as ‘is a … on them?’.
A bheil ceann goirt oirre?
Does she have a sore head?
A bheil ceann goirt air?
Does he have a sore head?
A bheil ceann goirt ort?
Do you have a sore head?
We already know this structure.
In Gaelic if someone is suffering from a physical ailment, we state that it is physically on them! We’ll meet this concept in the future with thirst and hunger. It means we can use our old friends the prepositional pronouns.
air + mi | orm | on me |
air + thu | ort | on you |
air + e | air | on him / it |
air + i | oirre | on her / it |
air + sinn | oirnn | on us |
air + sibh | oirbh | on you |
air + iad | orra | on them |
We also use the same prepositional pronouns if we want to know what is wrong with someone.
Ceàrr
Wrong
Dè tha ceàrr?
What’s wrong?
Dè tha ceàrr air?
What’s wrong with him?
Dè tha ceàrr oirre?
What’s wrong with her?
Dè tha ceàrr orra?
What’s wrong with them?
As this question has a tha in it, we know how to answer it.