Okay, new to Irish here. Anyhow, when using the progressive tense and speaking about doing something to a thing which is a brand/product name, do you just lenite the product name after the verbal noun like with a person's name or is something else done? For instance,

1. Tá mé ag ceannach Mhac Mini anois. = I am buying a Mac Mini now.

2. Tá mé ag ithe Twinkie. =? I am eating a Twinkie. <-- No lenition with "Tw-"??

3. Tá mé ag ithe Snickers. =? I am eating a Snickers (candy bar). <-- No lenition with "Sn-"??

4. Tá mé ag ól Shamrock Shake. =? I am drinking a Shamrock Shake (from McDonald's). <-- No lenition with "Sh-"??

Also, how do you specify a quantity with these? Do you just insert the number between the verbal noun and the product name (eclipsing or leniting as needed) or is the grammar totally different? For instance,

1. Tá mé ag ceannach dhá Mhac Mini anois. = I am buying two Mac Minis now.

2. Tá mé ag ithe dhá Twinkie. =? I am eating two Twinkies.

3. Tá mé ag ithe dhá Snickers. =? I am eating two Snickers.

4. Tá mé ag ól dhá Shamrock Shake. =? I am drinking two Shamrock Shakes (from McDonald's).

Thanks in advance and sorry for the Shamrock Shake example. I was lame enough to actually try one at McDonald's yesterday since I haven't had one in over six years and everyone on Facebook was posting about getting their "Shamrock Shake on" for St. Patrick's Day. Hehehehe. Sadly, this also spurred the question about the genitive forms of these things with the progressive tense.

Bear with me, my lack of grammatical terminology will show .

Firstly, present participle forms are being used here (thank you Google ). "ag ithe". Eating. This does not cause lenition, but it does cause the following word (food in this case).

Before I speak about these forms, I must point out that all your examples use English words (which is absolutely fine, btw), but the convention is that foreign words are not generally modified in any way.

OK. Let's see an example. I'm eating chocolate. Táim/Tá mé ag ithe seacláide

seacláid is modified to be the genitive singular form.

So the form would be "Táim/Tá mé ag ithe x" where x is put in the genitive form (be it genitive singular or plural as necessary).

Having said all that, I tend to prefer phrasing my sentences like this. I wouldn't call the above way Béarlachas, but I definitely prefer this way.

Tá x á ithe/á ól/á dhéanamh agam I am eating/drinking/doing x. As you can see, á modifies the verbs here. I know the forms natuarally, sadly, I don't know what the rule is! Someone else can help you, though.

Hope this helps! Others, feel free to criticise my post!

I always forget the genitive in these constructions! Mea culpa! I really need to work on that!

The á in this construction can be thought of as a contraction of ag with a possessive a[*] that agrees with the grammatical subject of the sentence. That is, if the subject is masculine singular, it causes lenition. If it's plural, it causes eclipsis, and if it's feminine singular, it causes no mutation at all. Thus:

Tá mo chuid seacláide á hithe agam. But: Tá m'úll á ithe agam. Tá a gcuid úll á n-ithe acu.

Some speakers, though, generalise the masculine form (i.e. lenition, no prefix to vowels) in all cases. A Ghumbi, do I take it you're one of these speakers?

I also think of this construction as most common in Munster and least frequently found elsewhere, though I could be wrong about that.


[*] It may instead derive from do + a, but it's a moot point either way. Depending on dialect, it may occur as dhá [ɣɑː].

Actually in Munster and in Old Irish lenition does occur after verbal nouns. But you are correct with regards to standardised Irish.

ag cur bháistí- raining

ag priocadh phrátaí- picking potatoes

ag ithe bhídh (Munster)/bhia (Standard)- eating food

or in Old Irish (Quin E.G. Old Irish Workbook, Royal Irish Academy,1975 (pg.49)):

oc marbad Chonairi- killing Conaire

At-tó oc dénum charpait- I am making the chariot

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Ah, this was what the OP meant. I am actually aware that this is what happens (though I don't use it in speech myself), but I was put off by the fact that the OP used all English words, in which case I definitely wouldn't lenite them regardless of the rule (in writing anyway, in speech, IMO, it doesn't matter much).

I think the thing to take from this (which Gumbí mentioned...I'm only repeating it because I think it's the most important point give the OP's examples) is that foreign words, including brand names such as "Twinkies" or "Snickers" don't inflect.

Redwolf

Nope, it doesn't really matter, I just thought I'd mention it in case the OP was under the impression that adding the séimhiú to Irish words was wrong.

No, usually English words aren't mutated. Though I don't think its definite: translation of Wuthering Heights:

"A Sheosaimh, tóg leat capall Mhr. Lockwood agus tabhair roinnt fíona isteach chughainn"

I don't think saying "dhá shnickers" would be wrong at all. In fact I'd probably say dhá shnickers, rather than dhá snickers. "Sn" can be lenited in Munster.

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I'm pretty sure that "sn" can be lenited anywhere.

Oh, really! That's good to know. But I do think foreign words can be inflected or mutated. Conamara Irish is great for it

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