Nì mi beagan ceartachaidh air do chuid sgrìobhaidh
I'll correct your text a bit:
[s]Tha[/s]
Is urrainn dhomh [s]a bhruighinn[/s] Gàidhlig
a bhruidhinn nas fheàrr a-nis. [s]Nach an Gàidhlig a tha brèagha?[/s]
1. Nach eil Gàidhlig brèagha? 2. Nach ann brèagha a tha a' Ghàidhlig? Tha mi [s]air[/s]
aig [s]ann (lesson) 5[/s] 1. leasan a còig 2. a' chòigeamh leasan ach tha mi a smaoineachadh [s]chan[/s]
nach eil an [s]"Colloquial Gaelic"[/s] leabhar "Colloquial Gaelic" math
.
Glè mhath! Cha robh sin dona idir
Carson nach eil an leabhar math? Tha mise a' smaoineachadh gu bheil e ceart gu leòr. Tha "Teach yourself Gaelic" math cuideachd.
1. I read that there are two pronouns for "thou": thu and tu. What's the difference?
Eh, stick with "thu" right now. "tu" appears in certain grammatical situation, because it's actually de-lenition of "thu" (in Irish Gaelic it's regularly "tú"). But don't worry about that right now, "thu" is alright for the situations and patterns you encounter right now.
2. I read that with expressions like "[s]tha[/s] is urainn dhomh, bu chòir dhomh" etc, infinitive must follow, and the infinitive is lenited. But then I found these phrases:
Attention: There is NOTHING like an infinitive in Gaelic. Forget that
I know that most books use this word and it's very misleading.
Gaelic verbs have a stem, and a verbal noun. The verbal noun is the thing that is very often formed with an -(e)adh ending, like:
sgrìobh -> sgrìobhadh.
The verbal noun is a bit like a present participle in English or other languages.
Tha mi a' sgrìobhadh = (literally:) Is me at writing.
This is fundamental for understanding a lot of important patterns in the language.
Now, with some phrases the verbal noun is lenited by a preceding preposition "do" or "a", for example:
Tha mi ag iarraidh taigh a cheannachd = (literally:) Is I at wanting house to buying.
It is very important to keep in mind that this is NOT an infinitive, even if it might superficially look like that from an English perspective.
Look at some more sentences with direct objects in the form of nouns and pronouns:
Tha mi ag iarraidh ubhlan a cheannachd = I want to buy apples.
Tha mi ag iarraidh an ceannachd = I want to buy them (literally: Is me at wanting their buying)
Chan urrainn dhomh do thuigsinn = I can't understand you (literally: Not-is ability to-me your understanding)
Chan urrainn dhomh Alasdair a thuigsinn = I can't understand Alasdair.
Chan urrainn dhomh a thuigsinn = I can't understand him (literally: Not-is ability to-me his understanding)
Chan urrainn dhomh Màiri a thuigsinn = I can't understand Màiri.
Chan urrainn dhomh a tuigsinn = I can't understand her (literally: Not-is ability to-me her understanding)
As you see, the verbal noun is lenited or not lenited according to the possessive pronoun preceding it.
Actually I think this is still a bit difficult for you and you should do it step by step and not too much at once
3. My book says nothing (yet?) about relative clauses in Gaelic. In phrases like "I want to go", "I will try to speak", "He told her to sing" etc, what verb forms do I use in Gaelic where English uses infinitives? Infinitives as well? Is there any pattern how to form infinitives?
This has actually nothing to do with relative clauses, it's the pattern I've shown you above. But I do think you should stick to more simple patterns for a while and practice them step by step...
Cùm ort leis a' Ghàidhlig!
M