linguoboy wrote:kevin wrote:**) Changed the verbal noun to a finite form - is this the "go" thing you meant? Of course Ciarán's version is a much better translation, but is this still a correct sentence?
Go eclipsis, which before vowels is realised as n, i.e. go n-ullmhaíonn. But the whole thing sounds so awkward to me, I can't be sure it's 100% correct. Something about the sequence of tenses doesn't ring true, but I'm not sure this isn't interference from English.
A note on bhfuil in the previous clause: I would prefer the habitual form, mbíonn. It's more in keeping with the implied recurring nature of the whole sequence of events.
I didn't understand from reading the English that this part was meant to be habitual (given that the whole thing is written in the simple present). If it is, shouldn't the first verb also be in the present habitual "Bíonn ag déanamh" tense? (i.e. Bíonn sé ag teacht ón obair...). I also don't know if replacing a verbal noun structure "chun é a dhéanamh" with a clause with a finite verb "go ndéanann tú..." is possible here, but I may be letting English interfere there (as English wouldn't have a finite verb clause there - " He comes home earlier so that he has enough time to prepare the dinner", not *"He comes home earlier so that he has enough time that he prepares the dinner", unless you used auxiliary verbs - "that he could prepare the dinner"/"that he may prepare the dinner" - and accordingly I wouldn't have a problem with "Bíonn sé ag teacht abhaile ón obair níos luaithe (chun) go mbíonn dóthain ama aige gur féidir leis an dinnéar a dhéanamh".)
linguoboy wrote:kevin wrote:***) Ciarán chose the simple present. Is it better? Why?
Chaithfeá sin d'fhiafraí do Chiarán. It's not better or worse, but it does belong to a more literary register. I suspect he was simply following the model of the English.
Well, in the English it's a story told in the present simple. This isn't the normal way to express these things in English in conversation, so why convert it to something more conversational in Irish? Maybe for the next one we should have a dialogue of some kind, so we can practice less literary uses of tenses.
linguoboy wrote:kevin wrote:****) I am confused again with the gender to use. My original version has "a hobair", i.e. feminine. Last time we said better agree with the grammatical gender, so I'm making it "a chuid obair" now. Ciarán has "a obair" (looks masc. to me) and "aici" (fem.) Giving up.
Maybe we should simply give her a name and be quit of this nonsense. FWIW, I agree with your version.
mar atá sé--Ciarán had the more idiomatic solution here (mar atá an scéal, though personally I would've gone with a simple cheana (féin).
I realised that that would probably be idiomatically different in Irish, so I looked up how to say it, and the dictionary said "mar atá an scéal" (and I've seen similar uses of "scéal" before, so it seems quite natural. I didn't know about "cheana féin", but I just looked it up and it does look like a better translation.