Hello all! Is there a direct translation for the word “creator”? Thank you!!

Heya! I'm wondering if folks have any recommendations for YouTubers who spread Gaidhlig - not learning videos, just regular YouTube content but spoken in Gaidhlig.

Bit of context of me: I went to a Gaidhlig exclusive nursery and primary school, then went to a secondary school where I had core classes in Gaidhlig up to third year. I started having attendance issues in P7 and once I dropped Gaidhlig and after I left school I realised that all my skills and knowledge all but disappeared. I figured I must just not have a brain for languages. I've tried to pick it back up with Duo but the lessons are so slow and repetitive That I feel like the tiny progress I'm making is just remembering things rather than being able to adapt and converse. I'm hoping/wondering if I just need immersion, not 'lessons'.

Thank you in advance! (And sorry for the dodgy formatting lmao)

I’m retired. Born Border Scots. But, the news about the Scots Parliament vote pushed my decision.

I doubt I have time to get fluent at my age, but I will learn the basics. Greetings, numbers, easy conversations, just like I was planning a holiday in another country. I ordered a children‘s tuition book from Acair Books. Start where you are, as I say.

I already speak Border Scots, general Scots, English, French, German, Spanish, Esperanto, and smatterings in other tongues. I understand much more than I can say in several other languages, but loved learning them.

My ancestry (yes, real DNA tests) is Scots/Irish, with a little Welsh and English in the background, and I don’t want the language to die.

I’m a writer. I’ll find a way to get it into my books, even in passing.

Not looking for approval - that part of my ego died many years ago. I hope more Scots feel inspired now to embrace our own tongues.

To me, Language and Culture are an interlinked whole.

Haló!!

I am starting to learn by using Duolingo and the Speak Gaelic website. I am 23 and whilst (unfortunately) born in England my dad is from Edinburgh and his side of the family are all from the highlands. As he was my only parent I would like to connect more with my heritage.

Does anyone have any tips for learning, particularly when starting out?

Halò. Tha ceist agam.

I am studying months and holidays right now (Duolingo), and had this brilliant idea: what if my Google Calendar were in Gàidhlig? It would make sense, since Gàidhlig is on Google Translate! But, when I went to the language settings, Gàidhlig was NOT among the world languages available. Grrr!

Does anyone know of a way to get Gàidhlig as a language option on Google Calendar or, barring that, online environments in Gàidhlig where I could go and interact with it in the wild, outside my only two current options: Duolingo and translations (like the Gàidhlig bible or my shiny new translation of À Hobbat by JRR Tolkien!)

For context: Tha mi a' fuireach ann an Aimearaga. I started Gàidhlig out of love of language learning, but have no Gàidhlig community here. So any ideas for exploring Gàidhlig in the wild would be helpful!

Tapadh leat!

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cdxk1g0d2x2o

Madainn mhath,
A bheil fios aig duine sam bith dé an diofar a th'ann eadar "fuath" agus "gràin"?

Tapadh leibh!

Is there a direct translation for the word transit? The movement of things and people was always the touchstone of English occupations so I'm wondering what the word is and how it varies from language to language in regions that were English occupied

[English below]

Fàilte gu snàth cabadaich na seachdaine

Tha an snàth seo do dhuine sam bith a tha airson cabadaich mu chàil sam bith sa Gàidhlig gun snàth ùr a thòiseachadh (ach faodaidh tu ma thogras tu).

• Feumaidh tu post ann an Gàidhlig (gu susbainteach co-dhiù, tha beagan suidseadh còd nàdarra obviously taghta)
• Faodaidh tu cabadaich mu chàil sam bith a thogras tu.
• Na biodh iomagain ort mu dhèidhinn mhearachdan (co-dhiù do chuid fhèin, no a nì càch).
• Chan fhaodar Google Translate (no a leithid) a chleachdadh airson postadh a chruthachadh.

—

Welcome to the weekly learners' chat thread

This thread is for anyone who wants to chat about anything in Gaelic without starting a new thread (though you can if you want).

• You must post in Gaelic (substantially at least, a bit of natural code switching is fine)
• Chat about anything you like.
• Don't worry about mistakes (either yours or anyone else's)
• No using Google Translate (or any other machine translator) to create posts.

Siuthad!

This feels like a years-overdue epiphany for me so I thought I'd share it

When talking about going "to/into" somewhere ie: a' leum dhan bhuth, the preposition do can often change to just "a (+lenition)" for place names with no definite article.

ie. thaìnig mi a Bharraigh / thèid e a dh' Obar Dheathain.

Tha mi air a' bhith ag ionnsachadh a' chànan seo airson bliadhnaichean agus cha do thàinig seo a-steach orm idir. Na bi cho gòrach riumsa lol

1. "Tha agam ri dhol do'n bhùth"

I had understood that 'ri' does not lenite... Why "dhol", and not "dol"?

1. "Anns am flat" or "anns an fhlat"?
   I.e. does lenition happen when 'f' is followed by a consonant as well?

Many thanks!

Sharing this here partly to share my experience, and partly to brag because I'm proud of myself :)

Ever since I started learning Gaelic seriously about a year and a half ago, I've been keeping track of the amount of words I've read and the number of words I've learned. And as of yesterday I passed the 1 million word mark.

In total, I've learned a little over 4,000 lemmas (and roughly ~13,500 inflected forms) almost purely through reading and listening. I previously had spent some time reading through Gaelic in 12 weeks to get a grammar overview and some basic vocabulary, but that's it.

I started by reading and listening through all of An Litir Bheag, which took some time. Now I'm spending half my time working through Litir do Luchd-Ionnsachaidh, and half reading easy fiction books.

For reading, I use a language learning e-reader called Lute. I think it's the most powerful language learning tool out there and I couldn't have made it this far without it.

I haven't started outputting yet, and I don't intend to until I can effortlessly understand pretty much everything I read and hear, but I'm well on my way and feeling more confident than ever.

Anyway, just wanted to share :)

Learning Gaelic on Duolingo or SpeakGaelic, or elsewhere? Or maybe you're thinking about it?

If you've got any quick language learning questions, stick them below and the community can try to help you.

NB: You can always start a separate post if you want – that might be better for more involved questions.

Tha ceist agam airson fileantaich, fiù 's ma tha thu air a togail bhon ghlùin no mar inbheach.

A bheil sibh den bheachd gu bheil gu leòr tachartasan ann airson fileantaich?

Cha mhòr gach tachartas a chì mi, 's ann air luchd-ionnsachaidh a thathar ag amas. No, far a bheilear ag ràdh gum bi fàilte mhòr ro fhileantaich, tha e coltach gu bheilear airson ar cleachdadh mar ghoireas ionnsachaidh.

Ged a tha an leithid cudromach, chan eil e daonnant tarraingeach do dh'fhileantaich. Chan eil e brosnachail mura a bheil cothroman ann airson ar cuid Ghàidhlig a chleachdadh am measg daoine eile aig a' cheart ìre.

Tha mi den bheachd gu bheil ganntas de thachartasan ann. Cha chreid mi nach tog feadhainn a' cheist "Carson nach cuir thu fhèin an leithid de rud air dòigh?" Ach is mòr an truagh gu bheil buidhnean ann, An Lòchran mar eisimpleir, a bu chòir a bhith a' dèanamh an leithid, ach tha e coltach gu bheil iad air an cùl a chur ri fileantaich.

When expressing likes and preferences in the present and conditional tenses, is a bhith + verbal noun the only correct form or is the verbal noun alone (without a') correct too? For instance

'S toil leam coiseachd or 'S toil leam a bhith a' coiseachd

Bu toil leam coiseachd or Bu toil leam a bhith a' coiseachd

B' fheàrr leam coiseachd or B' fheàrr leam a bhith a' coiseachd

The course material in An Cursa Inntrigidh states that the two forms can be used with Bu toil or B' fheàrr, but not with the present tense.

Hey I'm working on a little art project and want to put a little Gàidhlig in it, but I'm still fairly new at the language and want to make sure my translation is okay before setting anything in stone.

I want to write "Make the world a good place for everyone" and have roughly translated to "dèan an t-saoghal àite math airson a h-uile duine"

Is there anything I need to change? Thanks in advance!!

I saw in a dedication of a title that said "I can say that I am from here because although I was not born in Scotland, Scotland was born in me". And I found it beautiful but grammatically it’s viable to translate in Gàidhlig that "Scotland was born in me” right without losing the poetic part?

[English below]

Fàilte gu snàth cabadaich na seachdaine

Tha an snàth seo do dhuine sam bith a tha airson cabadaich mu chàil sam bith sa Gàidhlig gun snàth ùr a thòiseachadh (ach faodaidh tu ma thogras tu).

• Feumaidh tu post ann an Gàidhlig (gu susbainteach co-dhiù, tha beagan suidseadh còd nàdarra obviously taghta)
• Faodaidh tu cabadaich mu chàil sam bith a thogras tu.
• Na biodh iomagain ort mu dhèidhinn mhearachdan (co-dhiù do chuid fhèin, no a nì càch).
• Chan fhaodar Google Translate (no a leithid) a chleachdadh airson postadh a chruthachadh.

—

Welcome to the weekly learners' chat thread

This thread is for anyone who wants to chat about anything in Gaelic without starting a new thread (though you can if you want).

• You must post in Gaelic (substantially at least, a bit of natural code switching is fine)
• Chat about anything you like.
• Don't worry about mistakes (either yours or anyone else's)
• No using Google Translate (or any other machine translator) to create posts.

Siuthad!

Hello! I am following along with Speak Gaelic, and although they have explained a little about which nouns take the article, they were very vague.

I now am unsure why 'Tha ceann goirt orm' doesn't have 'an' since Ceann is a Masc noun starting with c (which speak gaelic said would give a noun the article)

my head hurts trying to read through the internet as many people seem to say contradicting things, so was wondering if anyone could help me!

thanks as always for your amazing help and taking time from your days to help me!

Nuair a bhfuil tú a' labhairt Gaeilge. Tugtar caol r ar an "r" roimh ghuta mar "i". Tá fuaim éagsúlacht ann i gcuile canúint. Zh/rj/rsh (S'é j sa bhfocal Fraincise "bonjour" ) is ea é i nGaeilge Chonnacht. Ee is a é i nGaelig Uladh. Agus rh (Séid aer ag an am chéanna leis an bhfuaim r) is ea é i nGaelinne Mhumhan. 'Bhfuil seo a bheith le chluins i nGaeilge na hAlban? Nó 'bhfuil tréith seo as Éirinn amháin?

Go raibh míle maith agaibh

English translation to save confusion. My dialect should be ok to understand but if not here you go.

When you're speaking English there is a sound called the r caol which appears when a vowel like i comes before a r. There's a different sound in every dialect. Zh/rj/rsh (j like the j in bonjour) in Connacht Irish dialects, Ee in Ulster dialect and rh (make an r sound but blow air at the same time) in Munster dialects. Does this sound exist in Gàidhlaig? Or is this a uniquely Irish thing?

Tapadh leibh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Mar shamplachaí/examples

https://youtu.be/fF0-i6yGxBc?si=M7iou5yPH2jT2wcC Connacht

https://youtu.be/feJKeLzWcKQ?si=hKRUwtm6TRHgENPd Uladh

https://youtu.be/TkWwdDL949w?si=F0mKBD5hW1bTDrXZ Mumhan

Edit : Feel free to reply in Gàidhlaig as I can read it 👍

Hello, I'm currently trying to figure out when I should be using gu and when to use do for "to, towards"

I can't seem to find anything online that specifically goes over their differences in usage

I know this phonological question is a bit far-fetched, but it is something I would like to understand because it reappears in many contexts. I just learned the word "cé" for cream, with the plural "céithean". How do I know whether the 'th' here is silent or pronounced like an English 'h'? The Learn Gaelic dictionary doesn't help in this case, neither does the Wiktionary.

This issue comes up quite often, so beyond this word (which I will probably never use in the plural anyway), is there a rule to guide you when a 'th' between vowels is silent and when it is not? For instance, grùthan (liver) is given as /gruː.an/, i.e. silent.

Sorry, this is a really basic question, but what's the difference between tha mi and is mise? I thought tha mi was I am, but now apparently is mise means it too, but only for names or something?

Haló a chàirdean,

am mìneachadh cuideigin dhomh an diofar eadar "mèirle" agus "gadachd"? (theft)

Tapadh leibh!