Kia's Class

June 1 class

We completed the school year working with the first ten chapters of Buntús Cainte, reviewing basic grammar, sentence structure and mutations. More advanced students in the class worked on some extra exercises and presented dialogs to the newer students. We usually ended each class with a native listening exercise to train our hears to hear the language in its different dialects.

For summer, we will have a series of outings with a different Irish language theme at each. We begin Monday, June 15 at The Liffey (175 WEST 7TH STREET - SAINT PAUL, MN 55102 Located on the bottom of the Holiday Inn - kitty corner from Xcel Energy Center). Class times remain 7-9pm, but meet every-other week until fall.

April 20

Grammar Fun with Prepositions!

Nouns are put into the Dative case after simple prepositions. The term “case” applies to nouns and pronouns. The case of a noun or pronoun is determined by what the word does in the sentence. A noun or pronoun is in the “Nominative Case” when it is the subject of a sentence, or when it completes a “being” verb. A noun or pronoun is in the “Genitive Case” when it shows possession. A noun or pronoun is in the “Accusative Case” when it receives the action of a transitive verb, or when it serves as the object of a preposition. Another term for “Accusative” is ‘Objective.” A noun or pronoun is in the “Dative Case” when it is used as an indirect object.

We looked at some of the prepositions we have been discussing and the breakdown of their conjugation to aid us in understanding and remembering them. For example for the preposition “ag”:

agam = ag + mé
agat = ag + tú
aige = ag + é
aici = ag + í
againn = ag + muid
agaibh = ag + sibh
acu = ag + iad

Writing Fun!

We looked at how to write a short letter or note in Irish. I have handouts in class to assist in letter writing. It gives common words / phrases for the beginning, middle and end of letters and then we also learned some useful words / phrases to go in the body of a letter to make it a little more interesting, such as:

thairis in = besides that
'se mo mheas =in my opinion
dála an scéil = by the way
is mór an trua é = it's a great pity
is mór an t-ionadh é = it's a great wonder...

Obair Abhaile

Students were asked to write a short note as Gaeilge to bring to class and exchange to see if we can get the gist of the message without aid of dictionaries. Students who choose not to try the homework assignment will instead translate “A Midsummer Night's Dream” into Irish ;-).

Comments and questions are welcome via e-mail

(our e-mail address, broken down to reduce spam from 'spambots', is info at gaelminn dot org)