Priming the Fuse of Inquisitiveness
uair sa mhí – once a month
uair sa choicís – once a fortnight
uair sa tseachtain - once a week
I was puzzled as to why two words took a seimhiú (h) whereas ‘seachtain’ took an urú, t before.
POF responded, as Gaeilge, that it would probably take 10 minutes to go down a route of Irish grammar explanation. He had not planned that tricky road for the class that night but explained that it was down to words being masculine and feminine; that they are treated differently; and, that when the time was right for each of us, we would probably take ourselves down the tricky road.
Fair enough, I thought.
Nominative & Genitive
Walking in Skerries that fresh morning two weeks ago, I realised that I had more information than I had thought and maybe that rocky road is not too far away.
Filed away upstairs is an understanding that with quite a number of words in Irish, the nominative singular and genitive plural are spelt alike and that genitive singular and nominative plural are similarly spelt alike – fear/man; bád/boat are two examples. Toilet is another
Spending a Penny at School
As the question was posed by one person and as that person only ever wanted one toilet, ‘leithreas’ has been recognised in my grey matter as singular. I have since checked and now know that ‘leithris’ is the nominative plural.
Hence why I stopped on my stroll in Skerries.
The building appears to provide only one toilet for Irish speakers but more than one for English speakers.
That is, of course, if the sign is to be believed or even read…..