Irish Gaelic Dictionary Advice » grammar

Writing Irish (software tools)

Eoin — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:06:49 +0000

Writing Irish with a pen, paper, and your choice of dictionary, is the best way to practice your writing skills. But if you’re writing on your computer, there’s a couple of solutions available. You may find that there is no fast free solution for word processing…

Free: GaelSpell Firefox extention

(On the linked page, select Irish/Gaeilge dictionary install.)

GaelSpell can be installed as a dictionary extention for the Firefox browser. This checks the spelling for Irish when you’re entering forms online. You can always de-activate the extention when you don’t use it.

Tip: Because it’s so straight-forward, I even use the extention for text that’s not meant for online. Just open up a web page with a text input box (for example, a blog comment box). Paste your Irish text into the box, and GaelSpell will show you spelling errors. Then copy-paste the text back into your application.

GaelSpell 2007 for Microsoft Office

For 24euro, you can download GaelSpell, a spelling checker for Microsoft Office. It’s for the PC only. You can download an earlier version (GaelSpell 3) for free on that page, but it only supports Office XP.

Ceart: Grammar checker

From the same people who developed GaelSpell, Ceart is stand-alone Microsoft Windows program.

It’s stand-alone, so it doesn’t work inside of your word processor. It costs 29euro (reduced from 65euro previously!). It’s a grammar checker, so more advanced that GaelSpell alone.

EasyReader: includes “writing editor”

EasyReader is a $75 program for learning to read, speak and write Irish. As part of this, it includes an editor for written Irish. Supposedly, the editor not only helps with spelling and grammar, but teaches you how to say things “in the Irish way”.

Learn Irish with Liam Ó Maonlaí

Eoin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:06:22 +0000

Frontman of the band Hothouse Flowers, Liam Ó Maonlaí, published a 2-CD set for learning conversational Irish. The CDs were published with the Sunday Independent in 2007.

This course has been created to help you learn, or re-learn, a range of simple words, phrases and expressions on everyday topics that can be easily used within your own daily life. There are no accompanying textbooks, so simply listen, repeat and enjoy an cúpla focail for yourself!

The PDF transcripts and MP3 files are now available online, hosted by the Sunday Independent. Get them while they’re still there!

A Wombat’s approach to learning Irish grammar

Eoin — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:20:09 +0000

It’s pretty easy to be scared away by any language’s grammar system.

If you are a native English speaker, what doesn’t help is that the English language became much more simplified during the last millenium. It lost many aspects that you’ll see in other languages, such as the gender of nouns (le or la in French), and declensions (e.g., in German).

But there’s no avoiding grammar if you are learning a new language. While maybe complex, grammar does makes sense. Obvious patterns will emerge when you study how Irish sentences are formed. You will have lightbulbs going click! over your head when you figure out different rules.

There’s no easy and fast way to learn Irish grammar. Over at Irish Gaelic Translator.com you can pick up your free PDF download (no registration required) of Wombat’s Irish Grammar Guide. Wombat goes through the basics of Irish grammar, in a style that’s aimed towards non-linguists.