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[kittydesade]

The te-form of a verb plus the helping verb　おく describes an action performed in preparation for something.

明日しけんがあるんで、今晩勉強しておきます。
Since there will be an exam tomorrow, I will study (for it) tonight.

さむくなるから、ストーブをつけておきました。
I turned the heater on by way of precaution, because it was going to get colder.

ホテルをよやくしておかなくちゃいけません。
I must make a hotel reservation in advance.

... of course, then there appears to be a grammar point that isn't explained at all in the grammar section that has exercises in the exercise section. So we have Grammar I, II, and III and exercises I, II, III, and IV. Oh book. Right, doing all the ones for which there is grammar explication, and then the other and trying to extrapolate and research. Argh.

Example:　みちこ：　でんちを買う　－－　みちこさんはでんちを買っておきます。
１．メアリー　水と食べ物を買う
メアリーさんは水と食べ物を買っておきます。
２．スー　お金をおろす
スーさんはお金を下ろして起きます。
３．ロバート　お金をかりる
ロバートさんはお金を借りておきます。
４．山下先生　家をうる
山下先生は家を売っておきます。
５．たけしのお母さん　ほけんに入る
たけしのお母さんはほけんに入っておきます。
６．ともこ　大きいかぐをすてる
ともこさんは大きい家具を捨てておきます。
７．たけし　たくさんたべる
たけしさんは　たくさん食べておきます。




Addressing a person by name:
You put 'A' before the name, which then requires lenition.
Máire, A Mháire (pron. a wáre)
Pádraig, A Phádraig (pron. a fádruig)
Síle, A Shíle (pron. a híle)
Siobhán, A Shiobhán (pron. a hován)

Not all consonants are affected by lenition:
Liam, A Liam
Niamh, A Niamh

Most male names ending with a broad consonant (one preceded by a, o, or u) change that to a slender (adding i before it).

Dónall, A Dhónaill (pron. a ghónuil)
Tomás, A Thomáis (pron. a homásh)
Séamas, A Shéamais (pron. a hémuish)
Peadar, A Pheadair (pron. a faduir)


There is no verb to have in Irish. Instead you use a phrase which combines tá (there is) with ag (at)
Tá carr ag Máire. - Mary has a car. (Lit. There is a car at Mary)
Tá clann ag Síle. - Sheila has children.
Tá teach ag Seán i gConamara. - John has a house in Connemara.

Ag cannot be followed by a pronoun (mé, tú, etc). Instead there are special 'personal' forms of ag which incorporate both preposition and pronoun:
agam - at me
agat - at you
aige - at him
aici - at her
againn - at us
agaibh - at you
acu - at them

The ai in aige and aici are pronounced e instead of a.

Tá deartháir agus deirfiúr agam. I have a brother and a sister.
Tá rothar nua aige. He has a new bicycle.
Tá teach deas acu. They have a nice house.
An bhfuil carr aici? Does she have a car?
An bhfuil nóiméad agat? Do you have a minute?

Most Irish prepositions have personal forms such as these - you have already met dom (to me) and duit (to you). They are often reinforced for contrast or emphasis (by adding e after nn, sa after broad consonants and se after slender consonants).

Tá Toyota ag m'athair ach tá Ford agamsa. My father has a Toyota but I have a Ford.
An bhfuil carr agaibhse? Do you have a car?
Tá feirm againne. We have a farm.

To know is expressed by an idiom which literally means to have knowledge.

Tá a fhios agam (pron. tás) I know (lit. I have its knowledge.)
Níl a fhios agam (pron. níleas) I don't know.
Tá a fhios againn é sin. We know that.

However, the ordinary word for knowledge is 'eolas.'


Something to remember that I learned on the way home last night. When my aunt and mother's family lived in Spain they had a family staying with them, sort of in that nebulous social status that's more intimate than a servant is here, I think? But still, there was someone who did the gardening and someone who helped out in the home, because I get the impression my grandmother was often alone with five children. And they, this family, had two children of their own, a boy and a girl, and when the girl was very young she was also very ill. And the family promised, because Spain is incredibly religious and mostly Catholic, that if she got better they would make a pilgrimage to Fatima. But the family didn't have the wherewithal to go. So one day when my grandfather was away in Angola, my grandmother packed both whole families (one mother, five children, one set of parents, two children) and some aunts apparently, into a Volkswagen minibus, and took off caravanning with some football/soccer team players (this part was kind of hazy) to Fatima to make the pilgrimage.

And this is the woman who helped raise me. My grandmother. Oh my grandmother.

Fucking brr, too. It was in the sixties two days ago, now we're lucky if we get above 45 during the day. It's not even really the cold that I mind, it's the rapid temperature changes that are no doubt going to sock my immune system right in the sweet spot. Also I need to lay in a store of hot cocoa and actually make myself convert to tea or something. And still brr. I have double layers of socks on, I'm probably going to have at least three layers on above. Ah well. Winter, and all that.

Getting back to Nano after focusing on OBB for a bit was, in fact, way easier than I expected. And not counting today's writing since today's barely begun, I'm not actually behind. Just barely not behind, but still not actually behind. And it's the weekend, so I have all weekend to bash that out, possibly bash out an entire draft of the mecha story for BigBang Mixup over the weekend. Given the minimum requirement is 10k, that is entirely doable over the weekend now that I have the basic structure. Go go vengeance porn! And then there's boy-witches if I ever figure out where the hell that one was going, and SPN fic, and I got a fair amount of mental floss shorts done yesterday! Which, I hope, did pretty nicely to kick me back into the writing groove. Today, Mecha stuff while I'm at work, and then more Black Ice when I get home. SPN fic wherever I end up cramming it in, probably at home so I can rewatch stuff, and then ... you know, since the original prompt only spanned the first season, I'm not sure where to take it once I've done that. Although suddenly I have this urge to write John Winchester (adult, JDM-shaped) fic again. I take this as a good sign since I have to edit JDM-shaped protagonist stuff in the new secular year. On the other hand, this also means I will be viewing everything with the dirty mind of a fourteen year old boy, sigh.

Right right. Ugh, don' wanna go to work. Don't want to go anywhere that involves setting foot outside in the fucking freezing weather. Ah well. Suck it up, buttercup. You have places to go, things to label, boxes to ship, and people to see.