That's how it was
Sin mar a bha
In this lesson we are going to take another look at eachdraidh (history).
We learned in A2 Cuspair 13 that we use verbs anns an tràth chumhach (in the conditional tense), as we do in English, to say what used to be, anns an tràth chaithte ghnàthach (in the habitual past tense).
This is useful to us for talking about the history of the country, but also about our own history as well.
Let's have a look at this again.
An togadh tu?
To form the conditional tense of regular verbs, we add the ending –adh or –eadh to the root form of the verb, following the spelling rule caol ri caol, leathann ri leathann (slender to slender and broad to broad).
Just as in the past tense, the independent form, the positive statement or answer form, is lenited where possible, and a dh' is added to verbs beginning with a vowel or f + vowel .
| tog + adh | thog adh | thogadh |
| ceannaich + eadh | cheannaicheadh | cheannaicheadh |
| imrich + eadh | dh'imricheadh | dh'imricheadh |
| fuirich + eadh | dh'fhuiricheadh | dh'fhuiricheadh |
Some of the regular verbs in the future and conditional tense undergo giorrachadh (shortening).
The verb bruidhinn does this.
In the future tense, it's bruidhnidh that we write instead of bruidhinnidh .
We can see below how bruidhinn changes in the conditional tense:
+ MI
+ SINN
Here are some more questions and answers using the habitual past.
| rach | An rachadh iad dhachaigh air a' bhus? | Would they go home on the bus? |
| rach | Rachadh . Rachadh iad dhachaigh air a' bhus. | They would [go]. They would go home on the bus. |
| leugh | An leughadh i leabhraichean anns an leabharlann? | Would she read books in the library? |
| leugh | Leughadh . Leughadh i leabhraichean anns an leabharlann. | She would [read]. She would read books in the library. |
| coimhead | An coimheadadh sibh air na bàtaichean a' tighinn a–steach don chala? | Would you [pl] watch the boats coming in to the harbour? |
| coimhead | Choimheadadh. Choimheadamaid air na bàtaichean a' tighinn a–steach don chala. | We would [watch]. We would watch the boats coming in to the harbour. |
| sgrìobh | An sgrìobhadh e litrichean dhachaigh nuair a bha e san ostal? | Would he write letters home when he was in the hostel? |
| sgrìobh | Sgrìobhadh . Sgrìobhadh e litrichean dhachaigh nuair a bha e san ostal. | He would [write]. He would write letters home when he was in the hostel. |
| ith | An itheadh tu barrachd feòla nuair a bha thu òg? | Would you eat more meat when you were young? |
| ith | Dh'itheadh. Dh'ithinn barrachd feòla nuair a bha mi òg. | I would [eat]. I would eat more meat when I was young. |