text:
Advanced Interactive Media/Creating an Interactive, Immersive, Multi-sensory, MultiMedia Project: A Student Log

Team leaders and other class members have encountered new problems and challenges while creating their group project. This chapter describes some of the activities and processes unique to interactive design.

A multimedia project, in any field – corporate, educational, private, or otherwise – is one of the hardest to define or manage. While a standard project, such as construction, have a set time, resources, cost and goals, all these points are interdependent and overlap in a multimedia project. This overlapping of the different project elements is precisely what makes it so hard to manage. In this chapter we will discuss a hypothetical project scenario, and walk it through from beginning to end. It is our goal to have you, the reader, come away with a healthy respect for this type of work, and to understand what goes into it.

To begin any project, it must first be mapped out. This includes identifying the client, the target audience or who the product is being made for, what type of multisensory experience will be created, project goals, costs, resources, manpower, and of course, the deadline or when it needs to be finished.

IN MULTI-MEDIA... “Quality" is difficult to define
One difficulty in the process of multimedia management and production that is rarely, if ever, addressed is the difficulty in defining “quality” in meaningful terms. When one begins to identify the obstacles concerning a given project, it is logical to begin by screening the list of tasks and procedures for “hang-ups” in reference to time, money, client relations, team work, communication, and the like. However, these are really all contingent upon the prior definition of quality. The project is only finished when it has passed the client’s vision of quality. This client-based, relative, subjectively defined standard of “quality” is difficult to establish. It must be devised anew for each new project, with each new client.

Authors Elaine England and Andy Finney have attempted to defining “quality” in their book Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Interactive Media. They write the following:

“Design quality for media projects = Content and treatment agreement.”

"Looking at the future of Interactive Multi-sensory Media" :Aiwink824.

The future of Interactive technology is already here and it is only going to get better. Today when have “ I-Phones” that allow friends to e-mail each other in real time, search for information, directions and get your pin point locations  with google maps. Right now the only way today’s technology interacts, is if you interact with it first. The best we can get now is  proactive interactivity, like video games with complex tasks or complex websites. Gamers are pushing the envelope with social gaming, playing each other over the internet. The future is mutual interactivity or  virtual reality with connections to the central nervous system. With people who are playing games to get away from reality this is the next best thing. Virtual reality might be able to give people in comas new life and help with medical research. Other examples are the "Nintendo  Wii" and militaries using simulators  to train soldiers.


text:
Talk:Algebra/Equalities and Inequalities

What is next ??
A link at the bottom of this page says: Next: Quadratic functions.

But when I look at the content page of http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Topic:High_School_Mathematics I see:

...

* Solving equations * Solving linear inequalities * Functions

Further algebra and calculus ...

Quadratic functions are the first item in Further Algebra and calculus.

May I find this a bit confusing??

Andre anckaert (talk) 13:42, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Ohlala!! I see that the Wikiversity contents page gives me a mix of items. Some of them from the Wikibook "Algebra" and others from the Wikibook "Calculus". All with the original links ?? No wonder I got confused ! With all due respect I think that especially Wiki-mathematicians of all branches should avoid such cross-breeding.

Andre anckaert (talk) 14:08, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Talk:Biology, Answering the Big Questions of Life/Foreword

A New Learning Paradigm
OK, now it is time for the big concept.

How do we make online books that take advantage of the medium and yet retain the advantages of decades of textbook design?

The modern textbook has many design characteristics that should be transferred to the online textbook. For example, new keywords are bolded and often a glossary definition is included in the margin on the side of the book. We can simulate that by alternate text in the case of short definitions, or pop up definition windows, or links to new pages.

Also, the use of animated gifs, flash animation and other tools allow you to enhance the documents in ways that are superior to books.

Video demonstrations could also be included in the work.

This book is a poor attempt at trying to make that new type of document, the online textbook that teaches the class.

If you have ideas about how to design good online textbooks, feel free to post here. Your comments are appreciated.

A COMPLETE work, not just a Wiki
Books are self contained. The reason for making this a book instead of just using Wikipedia is two-fold.
 * First, this work has a consistent level and structure that makes it easy to navigate and guide yourself to understand topics starting at the lowest level if necessary and going up in complexity until the reader reaches the complexity level of the topic they wish to understand.

 * Second, this work is self-contained, so that it can be downloaded in entirety and it contains a complete and consistent body of information without linkbacks to online works.
 * If you plan to add linkbacks to the internet, please add them as references.

For New Authors. Adding to this book
First, I want to say thank you for trying to keep this book useful and relevant. Please try to be mindful of the philosophy of the book when adding content.

Please start with basic questions about what you are planning to write. If unsure, add your pages first to the :question index as a new question, and start a new page. Later you can add a link to a EASY page for access. Please remember to Add a link back to the main page.

When discussing a topic using advanced language. First write a simple description of the question it answers on a lower page, and then start a new advanced page to discuss the details.

If you need help with cataloging or other things, feel free to add comments in the discussion section of this page. I will try to check back so that I can clean up navigation and help.

Challenges
I've found myself challenged when I try to write this book. Not primarily for the words, but with the format.

navigation
Navigation is a problem for me. I made a navigation bar, but I must enter the order manually each time I make a page. If I add a new page, I must change the numbers on the two pages that it is between. There needs to be a way to automatically generate navigation information.

Also, I have divided each section into easy, intermediate, and hard topics. I would like to have a special navigation method so that you could view only the easy parts if you wanted. In fact, I want a book that reorders itself for the user.

searching
An index is the traditional way to find something in a book. Not only do we need to add useful indexes, but I want to add a search index for this book.

Features
I have begun adding audiofiles. I have started with readings in the photosynthesis section and may add more.


text:
Advanced Interactive Media/Newtek's 3-D & Animation with Lightwave

One of the industry leading software for motion graphics is Lightwave. Maya monopolized character animation (for film, cartoon, etc.), but most professionals agree that Lightwave is a superior tools for motion graphics like the kind you see on sports shows and openers for TV programming.

3-D software can be overwhelming on first encounter because the professional tools are more complex than video/audio editing software and other multimedia software products. The learning curve is well-worth it when you realize how 3-D expertise can set apart your work in a very competitive job market.

Wikipedia tells us, "LightWave gained fame as the program used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek Voyager and seaQuest DSV science fiction television series; the program was also utilized in the production of Titanic as well as the recent Battlestar Galactica TV-series, Sin City and Star Wars movies." Most recently though, Lightwave was used for the special effects and environmental effects in the film, "300." Quote reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightwave External link: http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/profiles/300/index.php

Lightwave is not only used for motion graphics however. It, like Maya, is used to create still images of 3d renders for use in graphic designs. Graphic artists have been known to utilize the imported image data from Lightwave as focus points for artwork or for complimentary geometry within a design.

The actual Lightwave program consists of two separate programs that were designed for specific tasks.


text:
User:Aiclass

In this class students are creating an interactive, immersive, multi-sensory, multimedia experience for high school students who might be interested in the MultiMedia Institute. The final product will be used during the next ORU College Weekend when hundreds of students from all over the U.S. will visit campus.

This product will consist of all or most of the following: Video clips, surround sound audio (music, sound FX and narratives), VR scenes, hundreds of photos, various visual effects, printed material, a DVD and/or CD ROM, blogs through Facebook, a Podcast and social bookmarkings. High school students will be able to access all of this media via this Wikibook.

The final product will be presented in an interactive, immersive, multi-sensory, multimedia environment on a 75 foot, floor to ceiling cylindrical screen with surround audio in a setup that looks like this:

title: User:Aiclass


text:
Biology, Answering the Big Questions of Life/genetics1

A boy resembles his mother facially and he is brilliant like his father explain the implications of this statement in terms of genetics

Why do children look like combinations of their parents, and similar to relatives?
Children often look like some combination of their parents. This is because each parent gives the child some of themselves {gene}. A child is made from the information found in the cells of the parents. These characteristics are called genes.

The traits that you can observe in a person are called that person's phenotype. For example if we see a boy or a girl when they are born that is what their phenotypes are. The information that makes a person look the way they do is encoded in structures called chromosomes that are found in their cells. The specific genes found on these chromosomes make up what is called that person's genotype. Genotypes are what genes a baby has.

In humans, each person has two copies of each type of chromosome. That means they have two copies of each gene, but a person will give only one of these genes to their child. For example, a person could have a gene for brown hair and a gene for blond hair. He would give one of those traits to his child. The child's phenotype would depend on what gene he received from his other parent.

So children look like combinations of their parents because they are. Each parent gives half of their genetic material to their children. The combination makes a unique combination of their parents genes.

The scientific study of how traits are passed from parents to children is called 'genetics'.

Chromosomes in the nucleus of the cell contain information of inheritance of features from parents to next generation in the form of DNA molecules.

Who discovered modern Genetics?
A monk named Gregor Johann Mendel who lived in the early to mid 1800s in the town of Brünn (now part of the Czech Republic) is considered the founder of modern genetics.

Gregor Mendel had studied statistics in Vienna and he wanted to bring some of the mathematics of that discipline to the study of plant breeding. He grew sweet pea plants and counted the properties of the children of hybrid crosses through generations to try to discern the rules that governed the transfer of properties from parent to child.

Why sweet peas?
Because sweet peas had clear unambiguous traits such as flower color and seed color. These traits made it easy to get good data.

What did Mendel discover
Mendel's First Law - The law of segregation This law states that each parent has two copies of each trait (gene), but they only give one trait to their offspring and which one they give is random.

When one uses symbols to show the passage of traits, then one easily gets the 3:1 ratio that Mendel found in the second generation when he crossed true-breeding plants.

Mendel's Second Law - The law of independent assortment If you look at more than one trait such as coat color and flower color, these traits will sort independent of each other. The chance of getting one or the other coat color gene is 50/50 and the chance of getting one or the other flower color gene is also 50/50, therefore the ratio of the combinations of the two traits are decided purely by chance.

What do those strange terms mean?
Phenotype - An expressed gene, what an organism looks like.

Genotype - What is in the genes. Which alleles and organism has.

Allele - Two or more different forms of the same trait such as blue eyes and brown eyes.

What's a genetic cross?
A Genetic cross is a way of predicting the traits of the offspring of two parents.

A. Monohybrid cross - A monohybrid cross is a cross looking at only one trait at a time. If the parents are true-breeding, there will be a 3:1 phenotypic ratio in F2.

B. Dihybrid cross - A Dihybrid cross is a cross looking at two traits at a time. If the parents are true-breeding, there will be a 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratio in F2.

C. A Test cross (Also called a backcross)- Is a cross with the homozygous recessive parent. It reveals the genotype of an individual with a dominant phenotype.

How does one solve a genetics problem correctly?
Follow these steps:
 * 1) Write down the phenotype of the parents.
 * 2) Write down the genotype of the parents.
 * 3) Write down the gametes that each parent can give.
 * 4) Show all possible combinations of these gametes. (A Punnett square makes this easy).
 * 5) Figure out the phenotype for each of the genotypes shown in the square.
 * 6) Count the number of organisms with each phenotype and write a ratio.

Relationship between Genotype and Phenotype. Chromosomes are where genes reside.

Biology, Answering the Big Questions of Life/genetics2


text:
Biology, Answering the Big Questions of Life/genetics2

Mendelian Genetics
Definitions:

phenotype: The trait that that you can see. genotype: What traits are carried in the genes on the chromosome. Dominant: The trait that is visibly expressed. (e.g. Y yellow seed coat) Recessive: The trait that is hidden. (e.g. y green seed coat) Homozygous: having two identical genes. (e.g. yy or YY) Heterozygous: Having two different genes. (e.g. Hh ) Gametes: The haploid sex cells. Truebreeding: The parents are homozygous for a trait (e.g. YY)

In Classical Mendelian Genetics, each trait can be either dominant or recessive. When two true breeding parents are crossed, the recessive trait is hidden in the offspring, only to reveal itself later in the grandchildren.

The classic ratio for a monohybrid cross with straight dominance is 3:1 Dominant to recessive in the F2.

The classic ratio for a dihybrid cross with straight dominance is 9:3:3:1 in the F2.

Exceptions to Mendel
I. Exceptions to straight dominance A. Incomplete Dominance - offspring have intermediate phenotype (RR=red, rr=white, Rr=pink flowers) B. Codominance ( ABO blood group)(IA, IB, i)

II. Exceptions to the second law A. Linkage B. Sex-linkage (Hemophilia)

III. Other A. Epistasis - one gene effects the expression of another. (spot color in black cats) B. Pleiotropy - one gene has many effects (albinism, sickle-cell anemia) C. polygenic inheritance (human height and intelligence)


text: User talk:168.16.168.105

title: User talk:168.16.168.105


text: User talk:166.127.1.200

title: User talk:166.127.1.200


text:
User talk:Cheaptubes~enwikibooks

This is your last or only warning. There is a history of placing external links connected with this account in some form. If you are not blocked immediately from editing Wikibooks you will be if you place another external link. -- Herby talk thyme 18:40, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Cheaptubes. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Cheaptubes~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:05, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 04:47, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cheaptubes~enwikibooks


text: Introduction to Chemical Engineering Processes/Mathematical Methods Practice Problems


text:
Talk:Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Wheel tutorial 1

troubles with making the the outside faces of the wheel
so everyone knows, it works as written in 2,49b as of this date Pearts (talk) 20:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

''(A Noob: I'm using Blender 2.45, and using the F key and selecting auto doesn't do anything. A little help?) (another Noob: I'm also using Blender 2.45 and I don't even need to follow this step, as my tire already has an outside. I'm guessing you're encountering the same)

''(THE Noob: I'm using Blender 2.46, and i just skipped the SPACEBAR bit, and selected everything with AKEY and pressed F to fill in the missing parts, works fine.

''NOTE: In Blender 2.42a pressing F gives a menu with Make and Clear options. Choosing Make says "No faces selected to make FGon". How do I make the faces? Answer: I'm using Blender 2.44 and pressing F gives a menu where you can choose Auto.

(Yet another Noob: I'm using 2.37. Couldn't find any way to use Fkey globally.  Deselected all, then selected outer vertices in sets of four, then pressed Fkey to get a face.  Repeated many times to complete.  Does someone have a better idea for the older versions? )

(Another Noob: In 2.42a the tire looks terrible if one manually selects the outside vertices and then makes faces with F and subsurfs. Better to make a tube, not a cylinder, a tube with 16 vertices, extrude outward, subsurf it, duplicated it with Shift-D and then rotate that a little along the Y axis to fill in the gaps. Looks better. And it's a much faster procedure too!)

(Noob Asking: Is there an easy way to eliminate the double vertexes and the hidden geometry or does it has to be one by one?? Select all the Vertices with the A key and then click "Rem Doubles" in Edit mode. )

(user comment: the pics dont show for me)

(User note)Whenever I selected the vertices and tried to make a face I got an error message saying "Cannot make polygon with interior vertices" Do you know what I could do to fix this? Reader note) Instead of creating all those faces manually you can add two tubes. Select both tubes with AKEY and scale as explained above. Deselect everything with AKEY. Place your mouse cursor on one of the vertices and press LKEY - this will select only one tube. Extrude as explained above. Deselect current vertices and select all (both tubes) by pressing AKEY twice. Press WKEY and click on "Remove doubles". As far as I can tell it works fine and saves you a lot of clicking. Turn the viewport to NUM3 to see the tire's profile.  Reduce the width of the tire to a width of 3 units by using the same technique of multiple vertice select.  When you are done, return the viewport to NUM1.

(Reader note) I have found it faster to "lasso" select using CTRL+LMB.

(Reader note)With version 2.43, all you need to do is lasso select all of the outside vertices in the front view. Then, press the FKEY.A window will pop up, and you simply click on auto and it does it all for you.

(NOTE) HOW DO YOU SELECT MORE THAN ONE???

Too much rambling?!
Well, i'm probably not the target of the tutorial (I am well past that level), but i just read it, and thought that it is pretty confusing with all these noobs and user notes. Wouldnt it be better to strip the tutorial down to the base text, that make up the tutorial, and then put all the USER / NOOB notes / READERS comments in here, and then adress it at the end or start of the text instead? Hope i make sense, ahvent slept all nigth --80.162.11.131 (talk) 03:49, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

i agree! Pearts (talk) 00:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I also agree. Those comments should be simply removed and there should be one correct explanation.91.66.152.41 (discuss) 22:24, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Another way to select before creasing the edges
You could also consider selecting the outside faces on the tyre (the bit that will touch the road) and subdividing them once. Then you can selected a "left face" go down one and select a "right face" etc until you have gone round the wheel. You should have a checkerboard selection on the tyre. Then press E to extrude > Individual faces and pull them out a bit. now press SHIFT + E to crease the edges and you will have a thick and chunky tyre tread.
 * Titlescreen says

Problems with tutorial - Blender 2.49
I am having a lot of troubles with this tutorial and its very annoying. First of all, I can't make it keep the faces after subsurfing. It looks like a bead necklace but the triangles are not around it. I also have problems with adding the second cylinder: It says to do so from the NUM7 view but doing so makes them sideways, and in the center of the tire, so moving along the Z axis makes it worse! Please help!

that is an align to view problem i'll add the warning at the top, it will show you the way. Pearts (talk) 23:46, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

I still can't make the hubcap face the same way as the tire, help!

rotate it along one of the axis's so put the mouse over it, LKEY, to select it all, then RKEY, and hit XKEY, YKEY, or ZKEY till the line is the one you want to rotate on.. and the move the mouse till you get it in the direction you need. Pearts (talk) 01:18, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Doing this throws off the rest of the tutorial. Even with the Align to View option on. The hubcap creation view needs to be changed to NUM1 and all future axes with regards to hubcap creation need to be changed to Y.

I've fixed the view you should be in when making the hubcap, be sure to have "align to view" turned on! Pearts (talk) 13:44, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

Inaccurate Pictures
The flowing pictures do not accurately reflect the steps described in the text. It was very confusing until I figured this out and just ignored them.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/thumb/7/77/Tiretut9.png/218px-Tiretut9.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/2/20/Tiretut10.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/thumb/f/f6/Tiretut11.png/193px-Tiretut11.png

Could use either some new pictures or even remove them.

Some notes about the tire
[Pro Note: It would be less messy if you extrude the region, then abort the operation with ESC, then scale the new faces inward while locking the Global Y with SHIFT-Y.] [Noob Question: Does doing it the Pro Note's way not create a slightly different shape which stops the ruggedness from working later?]

[Another method by a noob: i think a better way is to select all the vertices and in in edit mode, hit "Alt+E" and select "Edges Only" and then hit "Esc". immediately after that, hit "S" to scale and lock the y axis by hitting "Shift+Y", and then scale inward. after that, the inner vertices should be selected, hit "F" to create faces.] [Another method by a noob: As I was unable to reach the result in this step (I only managed to obtain the tyre INWARDS), I did this way with a nice and similar result: Select the cylinder with A in NUM1 view, then Extrude Individual (press button in Mesh tool) by 0.1 or 0.2 outwards. Go in face-select mode and select all the faces in the inner part of the wire (or select one then CTRL-G and select "Area") and press EKEY to extrude inwards and to create the tyre shoulder, then, after subsurf, SHIFT-E to crease the edge.]

(Another question. If im locking the global Y, the tire won't be rounded. And shouldn't i have to view the tire on top?)

-**comment** In response to the noob questions above, after playing around with my Blender v2.6 I discovered the easiest way to ensure the tire results in the picture below is this: Select all faces in face select mode, then ensure all the face normals are recalculated so that they are all pointing in the same direction (can be inwards or outwards, as long as they're all the same direction. Some faces might be pointing inwards while others are pointing outwards, this means they need to be recalculated. To check the face normals, check the "Face" box underneath "Normals:" in the "Mesh Display" drop down menu in the Window Tool Bar Widget which you press Nkey to show/hide (see image if needed). Once the face normals are corrected, and you have selected all faces, you can then proceed to press the SPACEBAR, bringing up the search menu (for Blender 2.59+), and type in "Extrude individual faces and move" then follow the directions as given below. You can do the search menu, or you can just click on "Extrude Individual" under "Add:" in the Mesh Tools bar (press TKey to show/hide). << After working awhile on this Blender 2.61 you want this method.*******

-**comment** If you do an extrusion/scale without locking global Y, then the walls of the tire will either lean inwards from the outside radius towards the inside radius -OR- lean outwards from the original radius to the now outside radius. In real life, tire walls can either be expanded outwards (as do most 4x4, snow, or street tires), or lean towards the inside of the tire (as do most low-profile tires). If you want this effect, then do not lock global Y; however, if you wanted a perfectly flat wall faces connecting each radii (the outside and inside radius) then you need to lock global Y.

-**comment** If that's too much trouble, you can also do this by making a smaller cylinder inside the larger cylinder and then use booleans to remove the difference. Of course, then you need to include Cap Ends, which in 2.66 are called the Cap Fill Type (Default bottom left in tools (T) when you make a cylinder)

You may either type in -1.2 and hit enter, or Hold SHIFT CTRL while extruding the faces until the sides come in -1.200 units (in older versions of blender hit NKEY first)

(I moved those notes here and deleted them from the article91.66.152.41 (discuss) 23:23, 19 May 2013 (UTC))

Create the outside faces - FKEY
When I follow the instructions and press the FKEY I get very strange results. In particular he does some random triangles but not the outside faces. I tried Blender 2.67 Guess something is wrong here.?91.66.152.41 (discuss) 23:36, 19 May 2013 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Introduction to Library and Information Science

Would it be incorrect to have this book renamed to simply "Introduction to Library and Information Science"? --Remi 23:42, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Re-organizing this
I'm thinking about re-organizing this book, giving it a little more structure, and filling in various apparent gaps so that it's a more work-able introduction to LIS. If anyone is wedded to the current annotation format, or has a better way of organizing this, let me know, but here is my current idea for chapters:
 * 1) Contextualizing Libraries: their History and Place in the Wider Information Infrastructure
 * 2) Technology and Libraries: Impacts and Implications
 * 3) Information Policy
 * 4) Information Organization
 * 5) Re-contextualizing Libraries: Considering Libraries within their Communities
 * 6) Ethics and Values
 * 7) Transcending Boundaries: Global Issues and Trends

Sandbergja (discuss • contribs) 17:48, 8 September 2012 (UTC)


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Pandion haliaetus

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Pandion haliaetus


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Ardea herodias

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Ardea herodias


text:
Talk:Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Seat

Extruding the seat
Like others when I did it the first time, and extruded in "vertex" selection mode, and picked "regions", the loop cut made a funny triangle shape on the back of the original cube, this is because I was extruding regions, and had created alot of doubles, some with reversed normals.

A better way to do this and not create doubles is to go into "Face" selection mode, then you will be extruding faces, and not wind up with a ton of doubles, some of which will have the wrong normal’s, and make your loop cut act funny.

If you insist on using edge mode, or vertex mode, you want to only pick "Faces" from the popup menu that appears after you hit the EKEY, this will stop the doubles from appearing. If you don't see Faces on this menu then you are really extruding from doubles with reversed normal’s, so go and remove them ( W -> remove doubles ) before continuing to extrude. Pearts (talk) 12:51, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Yoshi's Addition (leather look)
After subsurfing to give the seams a leathery cord look. Hit A to select all then W and Subdivide Fractal and just keep the defaults and the seams will look like a bunch of vines until you render it and they look like leather seams.

older issues caused by doubles, or interor faces, during extrusion
In blender 2.45, I tried getting into the wireframe mode, but didn't find any internal faces. Maybe they don't exist in all cases. MSK61 (talk) 16:20, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

I also use Blender 2.45 but I managed to find some internal faces (in the loops) and deleting these really did clear everything up. I was already wondering why my model looked so wrong.

Viewer: Selecting all(AKEY)Pressing WKEY and selecting "Set Smooth" helped me a lot in the looks.

Noob note: You should remove doubles at this point (TAB to edit mode > WKEY > Remove Doubles). When I removed doubles before adding the loop cuts, I found that they did not loop around the bottom of the seat correctly, and when I did not remove the doubles at all, I had trouble forming the seams in the next few steps.

Noob note: I had to remove all faces inside my seat before loop cut works (and in object mode I join all faces Ctrl+J)

-- Noob note: Also you could try deleting faces and edges which are unused inside the object (seat) this way there are no edges to cut up the loop into lots of different sections, so now you will have one clean loop :)

-- When I tried to subsurface I had the problem that my extruded cubes only subsurfaced smoothly into the cubes that they were extruded from. I wound up with big dents in between the different sections of the seat (it actually came out looking like a pretty good hand) and I have so far been unable to remove them)

Try selecting all vertices (AKEY) and remove all doubles before applying the subsurf mod, this helped in my case...)

User: Thank you that did fix my problem. My seat still needs a lot of work with creasing to look like the final picture but at least it isn't a deformed hand anymore) end user feedback.Feureau 00:24, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

- I am having a terrible time with loop cutting on this project. I could do it fine during the dice tutorial. And after extruding the multiple cubes for the car seat, setting edge mode, selecting ctrl-Rkey, and hitting the 4key, the four parallel lines loop cut lines are still fine. Once I hit  or LClick however, all loop cut lines suddenly run symmetrically at an angle towards adjacent vertices. I've tried doing a loop cut after each step, which usually works fine. What I can't figure out exactly is why and when the loop cut changes in this way.

2008-07-19, Same problem as the user above (I'm using blender 2.46). I used the multicut tool instead. I have no idea why the loopcut didn't work.

-- I'm little confused when it comes to loop subdivide... First of all after creating whole seat I hit "remove doubles"... Then loop subdivide didn't work as it suppose to (it took me about 30 min to realize it...). When I thought that I can't remove doubles before loop subdividing I would like to know how to add loops to all blocks in the center instead of hitting ctrl + r to every single block?

Ctrl + R (cut) started to work properly when I extruded regions only (Blender 2.48a).

-- I moved the following user comment here because I think it does not belong to the articel, since loop cut does work in 2.6x, 91.66.152.41 (discuss) 10:41, 20 May 2013 (UTC):

Version 2.60 user comment: I tried several different edge loop, loop cut, loop subdivide, etc. to no avail, so I selected all the edges of the middle portion of the object (seat) using box select, then I Knife Cut (hold down Kkey and LMB through the front view of the edges from top to bottom. Select multi-cut and number of cuts to 4.


text:
User:Bookcook

Hi all. Looking forward to working with you soon.

Mauro

it:Utente:Wikipedius

title: User:Bookcook


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Ardea alba

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Ardea alba


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Larus argentatus

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Larus argentatus


text:
User talk:BriannaLenford

Thanks for your contributions!
Brianna,

I appreciate how you have really taken the lead on the urinary system chapter and that you have been bold about making changes for the better. It seems that sometimes sections of the book progress in bits and pieces as people make minor edits, but then someone comes along and really has a vision of where to take the chapter. You seem to have developed a vision for this chapter, and I encourage you to take it as far as you like. Also, feel free to post thoughts on the discussion tab about what you think could be done to improve the chapter, so that other people can see a place to jump in, or so that other people can engage in a dialog with you.

Keep up the great work!

~Kevin Provophys 01:07, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:BriannaLenford


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Branta canadensis

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Branta canadensis


text:
Field Guide/Birds/Calidris pusilla

/Transcluded Modules

title: Field Guide/Birds/Calidris pusilla


text:
Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning/Packages/ePals eTandem

ePals eTandem Overview
''ePals enables teachers, leaders of language groups, or even parents to find a group of native speakers of their target language (the language they are learning) for interaction. This package explains the steps of finding, creating, and running a successful language exchange through ePals, primarily as a foreign language instructor.''
 * Muti-Language Classroom Connection : Giving students the opportunity to have authentic conversations with native speakers of the language they are learning improves motivation, understanding, and practice. Imagine the rebellious student that does not care about his/her grade suddenly asking the teacher how to say certain phrases because he/she wants to communicate with a new-found friend in another country?  Languages were created for interaction and expression between human beings, and giving students the opportunity to use the new language with real people lets them experience an actual purpose to their learning.  Otherwise, the target language may just feel like a useless list of vocabulary words that they never envision themselves needing or even using.
 * What is ePals? : ePals provides free forum and filtered e-mail services to help instructors connect with other classrooms and securely monitor communication between students. Anyone can create a profile detailing the age group, size, and type of language exchange desired.  Forums are then used as post-it boards to aid the search for a match.  One a match is found, the leader of a group can create "monitored e-mail accounts" for his/her students or members.  Different filtering levels allow the leader have control from message by message approval to completely free-flowing exchanges.  A built in translator including seven different languages is provided as well.

Theory
(under construction)

Before Getting Started - Precautions & Legal Issues
''Although this section may sound intimidating, it is merely a reminder to approach virtual connections such as ePals with the proper level of caution. The internet provides access to endless resources and means of communication, both positive and negative. As a leader of the language exchange, one must lookout for the safety of her/himself and the participants he/she is responsible for.''
 * Precautions
 * No background check done on any members of the site
 * No guarantee that other users are teachers, instructors, or even students
 * User profiles are viewable by any other member
 * Sensitive or personal information should not be included
 * Use ePal's internal e-mail system for all communication and contact until other user's identity is verified
 * Use your school's fax and telephone numbers for "real-world" contact with other teachers and instructors
 * Legal Issues
 * Administration and parents should be fully aware of plan
 * Parent permission slips may be necessary
 * Formal agreement with partnered teacher also recommended


text: Irish/History

title: Irish/History


text:
Irish/Reference/Alphabet

Alphabet | An Aibítir
Modern Irish uses the Latin alphabet. The basic alphabet consists of 18 letters:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

Variations of a, e, i, o and u written with an acute accent (Irish: Síneadh fada or just fada for short) also exist in Irish. They denote both a longer pronunciation and a different vowel quality:

Á á, É é, Í í, Ó ó, Ú ú

There are, however, some instances where letters outside the normal 18 letter alphabet are used. An example of this would be the Irish word for "zoo" which is "zú" even though the Irish alphabet lacks a letter Z. "Sú" means juice so it would not be possible to translate "zoo" with the letter S.

In addition to these letters others are used in words borrowed from other languages. The letters are usually called by their English names, except that the letter a is called "ah". The names of the vowels with accents take the formula "name of vowel" + "fada, thus the name "Ciarán would be spelled out loud as "C, I, A, R, A-fada, N".

Ogham
The oldest known Irish writing uses Ogham, an early alphabet that resembles tally marks. For more information, see the Wikipedia article on Ogham. Ogham is interesting culturally but not relevant for most modern Irish students.

Gaelic Type
From the 16th century until the end of the 1940s, most Irish language books were printed in what is now known as Gaelic Type. This was a font based on the handwritten letters found in medieval manuscripts. There were very few books published in Irish until the Irish Language Revival started in the late 19th/early 20th Century.

Gaelic Type used special marks to indicate sounds that were not well represented with Roman letters. These included the punctum delens, a dot over a consonant letter, such as ċ or ġ, to indicate a séimhiú. Eventually these fonts were replaced by Latin fonts for practical reasons, and the punctum delens was replaced by a 'h' after the consonant.

The Gaelic script is still used decoratively. With the ease of use of true type fonts on PCs the old fonts, known as "seanchló" (Old Type) or Cló Gaelach (Gaelic Type) have undergone a renaissance.

The Old Spelling and Punctum Delens | An Seanlitriú agus an Ponc Séimhithe
The Gaelic typeface and punctum delens are strongly linked with the older spelling, which was less phonetic than the spelling we use today, and more about being historically correct. Thus, it was cluttered with mute letters. Modern spelling can be used with the Gaelic typeface and punctum delens, but this is extremely rare - mostly you can count on all books in Gaelic type being in the old spelling. In fact, there seems to be just one book around printed in Gaelic type with punctum delens, but using a modern spelling - Niall Ó Dónaill's Na Glúnta Rosannacha.

title: Irish/Reference/Alphabet


text:
Irish/Reference/Spelling

Spelling
Irish words can look intimidating to the Irish learner. But in many cases, the "extra" letters you see in a word actually provide helpful information about the role a word plays in a sentence, or provide helpful reminders that you need to produce a sound not found in English.

Broad and Slender
Each consonant letter in Irish can represent two different consonant sounds, called broad and slender. Although this phenomenon is common to most languages (viz English "cool", "calm" and "collected"), where the pronunciation of the consonant is determined by the preceding vowel, the Gaelic orthography is unique in mixing broad consonants with slender vowels and vice versa. In most languages, the preceding vowel decides whether a consonant is broad or narrow:

 * A consonant preceded by the vowels a, o, or u is a broad consonant.
 * A consonant preceded by i or e is described as slender.

In Irish, the convention has been developed to show on either side of a consonant, in cases of doubt, vowels which agree with each other so it is clear whether the consonant is broad or slender. One of these vowels (at least) will not be pronounced as a vowel, but merely shapes the following or preceding consonant.

In practice, this means that when a novice sees a word like "Lian", it's clear that the L is a slender consonant and the n a broad consonant, but you can't tell whether the vowel sound is an A and the letter I has been added just to show that the L is slender, or the vowel sound is an I and the A has been added to show that the N is broad. You must ask a native speaker, or use a dictionary showing IPA transcriptions.

Caol le caol agus leathan le leathan
The golden rule for spelling in Irish, caol le caol agus leathan le leathan means slender with slender and broad with broad. The rule says that the vowels on either side of a consonant (or group of consonants) should agree; they should both be broad or both be slender. The rule is primarily used when you add an ending to a word (e.g., when conjugating a verb). To satisfy the rule you may need to add a vowel between the word and its ending. Note that there are a few common words (such as ansin and anseo) that do not satisfy this rule. However, the diphthong "ae" is considered broad, making words such as "Gaeltacht" and "aerfort" perfectly acceptable.

title: Irish/Reference/Spelling


text:
Irish/Reference/Pronunciation

Pronunciation - An Fuaimniú
Irish spelling often baffles the beginner. For instance:

 * mh at the start of a word is pronounced as a w; e.g., mo mhála ("my bag") is pronounced 'mu wall-ah' (/mˠʊ ˈwaːl̪ˠə/).
 * mh in the centre of a word is pronounced as a v sound; e.g., nimh ("poison") is pronounced 'niv' (/nʲɪvʲ/)
 * bh is pronouced as a v sound; e.g., sa bhearna ("in the gap") is pronounced 'sa varna' (/sˠa ˈvaɾˠn̪ˠə/)

Note: the pronunciation of "mh" or "bh" varies regionally. In Ulster, the general rule is that they are pronounced 'w' when broad and 'v' when narrow. In Munster (as in the Western isles of Scotland), the tendency is to pronounce it as a 'v' at the beginning or the end of a word and 'w' in the middle. I've never been able to figure out exactly how it works in Connacht (e.g., the final syllable of "Gaillimh" (Galway) is pronounced "ih" in Galway but "iv" in Donegal or Kerry).

Within the regional variations, there are also local variations. For example, in Munster, I have heard "Abhainn" (river) and "amháin" (sole, single or only) pronounced with a 'v' sound. Surnames and personal names may not always follow the pattern either. The standard pronunciation of Siobhán (approx. Shivaun) does not correspond to any modern regional pattern. The alternative pronunciation "shoe-un" (approx.) exists in Munster and Ulster. To the Gaelic ear the sounds are, to a degree, interchangeable.

Examples

bó = a cow, beo = alive

The broad b is pronounced almost as if it were "bw" (/bˠ/) or something like the b in the English word "but" (as pronounced in Ireland), using both lips, as if you were about to kiss someone!

The slender b is pronounced sometimes as if in the Scandinavian "Bjorn" (/bʲ/) for example or like the b in English "bet". The lips are tenser, almost as if you were tightening them in exasperation.

Stress - An Bhéim
Stress, in Irish, is usually on the first syllable, except in the southernmost (Munster) dialects. In these stress is attracted to the second syllable if it includes a long vowel or diphthong or if it ends in ch and the first syllable is short. Thus, a word such as coileach = "cock, rooster" will, in Munster dialect, be stressed on the second syllable, but díreach = "direct, straight" still bears initial stress. Inflected forms without the ch have initial stress; e.g. coiligh = "cocks, roosters" is stressed on the first syllable, not the second.

Some borrowed words, notably tobac = "tobacco" are stressed on the second syllable. There are also quite a few of common adverbs which are so stressed, above all these:

 * abhaile "home" (movement)
 * abhus "on this side"
 * aduaidh "from the north" ("northward" is ó thuaidh, "in the north" is thuaidh, and "the North" is an Tuaisceart)
 * amach "out" (movement)
 * amuigh "out" (state)
 * amainiris "the second day after tomorrow"
 * amanathar "the day after tomorrow" (arú amárach is probably more common)
 * amárach (dialectally even amáireach) "tomorrow"
 * anall "from the other side, to this side"
 * aneas "from the south" ("southward" is ó dheas, "in the south" is theas, and "the South" is an Deisceart)
 * aniar "from the west" ("westward" is siar, "in the west" is thiar, and "the West" is an tIarthar)
 * anocht "tonight"
 * anoir "from the east" ("eastward" is soir, "in the east" is thoir, and "the East" is an tOirthear)
 * anóirthear (dialectally in Ulster even anóirtheal) "the day after tomorrow"; also "the second day after" - i.e. the second day after what happened last, in a narrative
 * anonn "from this side, to the other side"
 * anseo (in Munster, anso) "here"
 * ansin (in Munster, ansan) "there"
 * ansiúd (in Munster, ansúd) "out there, yonder"
 * anuraidh "last year"
 * aréir (in some Ulster dialects, aréireannas, aréirnas) "last night"
 * arú is an adverb that is added to amárach "tomorrow" and inné "yesterday" to create arú amárach = "the day after tomorrow" and arú inné = "the day before yesterday"
 * inné "yesterday"
 * inniu "today"
 * isteach "in" (movement)
 * istigh "in" (state)
 * laisteas "southside" (also taobh theas)
 * laistigh "inside" (also taobh istigh)
 * lasmuigh "outside" (also taobh amuigh)
 * lastuas "overhead" (also taobh thuas)
 * laistíos "below" (also taobh thíos)

This kind of adverbs are historically speaking compound words or word groups, which accounts for their unusual stress. The locative adverbs beginning with la- include the word leath, which means "half" or "direction (towards)". They are most usual in southern dialects; northern dialects prefer taobh "side", with the relevant local adverb added

Vowels - Na Gutaí
Standard Irish has the following vowels:

 * [a] (short or long)
 * [e] (short or long)
 * [o] (short or long)
 * [u] (short or long)
 * [i] (short or long)
 * [ə] (murmured vowel, auxiliary vowel, in Irish guta cúnta or the "helping" vowel)

and the diphthongs

 * [uə]
 * [iə]
 * [au]
 * [ai]

The last two diphthongs can in certain words acquire a nasal twang - basically, if there is a nasal consonant in the writing: amhras "doubt" [aurəs] or [ãurəs], but gabha "smith" will be pronounced as [gau], because there is no m. The two diphthongs might as well be written phonetically as [ou] and [oi], or [əu] and [əi].

Basically, it should work the way that if a vowel has an acute accent, i.e. the fada, it is pronounced long, and if it hasn't, then it is pronounced short. This is also the fact in most straightforward positions, i.e. when the vowel is in the stressed syllable of a word. In unstressed syllables, short vowels - i.e. those written without a fada - become murmured auxiliary vowels, but long vowels - those written with a fada - stay long, or at the very least not murmured.

Note, though, that in dialects, a short vowel can be lengthened into a long one and a long one into a diphthong. This "syllable lengthening" is especially typical of Connemara dialects.

Vowels followed by -rd and by -nn are also usually lengthened: ard "high" is [a:rd], but it can even become [aurd] thanks to syllable lengthening. In a similar way, if an one-syllable word ends in -nn, in -rr, or in -ll, the preceding vowel is usually lengthened: ceann "head, end, roof, one" [k'a:N], mall "slow" [ma:L], gearr "short" [g'a:r]. It can even be diphthongized: ceann [k'aun]. Note, though, that the lengthening phenomena are very dialect-specific, and you are advised to pick them up from native speakers.

A more important thing to notice is, that in the combination eo, the o is always long (with the exception of seo "this", anseo "here", and eochair "key" - eochair "border, edge" has a long o, as has eochraí, dialectally also eochair, "fish-roe"). This is why we don't usually write feirmeóir anymore - feirmeoir is correct.

The most difficult thing about the relationship between Irish spelling and pronunciation is, that if we have a short vowel letter followed by a lenited consonant (i.e. a consonant followed by a /h/) in a stressed syllable, this combination is pronounced either as a long vowel or as a diphthong - either [au] or [ai]. (The diphthongs [uə] and [iə] are usually written /ua/ or /uai/, and /ia/ or /iai/, respectively.) More worryingly, pronunciations are often quite different and irregular in different dialects, and to be entirely sure, you should really consult a native speaker, or at the very least the pronunciation guides in the dictionaries Foclóir Póca and Foclóir Scoile.

Note, however, the following model pronunciations. These are based on Foclóir Scoile (An Gúm, Baile Átha Cliath, copyright: Rialtas na hÉireann 1994, see respective entries). However, I have added a tilde for nasalization, where it might occur, as well as other additional information. The Foclóir Scoile pronunciation is a compromise between the three major dialects, devised by three native speakers (Dónall P. Ó Baoill from Ulster, Éamonn Ó Tuathail from Connacht, and Pádraig Ó Maoileoin from Munster), and my own experience suggests that native speakers do not find this pronunciation unnatural or contrived, provided that the person using it has studied Irish literature and folklore and can speak in a fluent and natural way.

 * togha [tau] "choice(st)"
 * amharc [ãurk] "sight, look". This is also used as a verb in Ulster: to look. There, though, it is usually pronounced in a worn-down way, as if written "orc" or "onc".
 * comhar [kõ:r] "partnership, mutual assistance". In Connemara, it is not pronounced nasally, but the trace of nasality turns the long [o:] sound into a long [u:] sound instead, thus [ku:r]. This is what tends to happen with the o's in Connemara even in other words, when they come into contact with nasal consonants. Thus, dona "bad" is pronounced as [dunə], because n is a nasal consonant.
 * radharc [rairk] "sight"
 * aontumha [i:ntũ:ə] "celibacy". The long u can be nasal even here. (Note that the word (and prefix) aon "one" is largely pronounced as [e:n] even in those dialects which usually pronounce -ao- as a long [i:]. Thus, in this particular instance the Foclóir Scoile pronunciation recommendation might be somewhat misleading.)

Irish vowels are either slender (caol) or broad (leathan). This means, that they affect the quality of the adjacent consonant. A consonant that is in touch with a slender vowel (e, i, é, í) is slender, i.e. palatalized - the hard palate participates in the pronunciation, so that the consonant is softened. A consonant that is in touch with a broad vowel is broad, i.e. non-palatalized - either velarized (the velum or soft palate participates) or labialized (lips participate). Broadness is above all about not being palatalized, so it depends on the particular occasion, whether it is more natural and easier to emphasize the broadness by velarization or by labialization.

Often, we use sleamhnóga (singular: sleamhnóg) in writing Irish, i.e. extra vowel letters adjacent to a consonant, which above all show the broad or slender nature of the consonant, but are not pronounced in any other way. In the word buí "yellow", for instance, the -u- is a sleamhnóg, showing that the b- shall be pronounced broad, although it is followed by a long slender vowel -í.

It is not always easy to tell a mere sleamhnóg from a vowel letter which is pronounced more fully. When the sleamhnóg comes between a long vowel and a consonant, it is obvious that it is only a sleamhnóg, but when we have two short vowel letters in one syllable, it might not be quite clear, which of them is just a sleamhnóg and which is the real thing. Especially /io/ is often problematic: words such as tiomáint "driving" and tiontú "turning" can be pronounced either way ([t'oma:n't'] or [t'ima:n't], [t'ontu:] or [t'intu:]) depending on dialect.

In such words as scéalaíocht "story-telling" the pronunciation suggested by the spelling is [s'k'e:li:xt], but in Ulster dialect, the real pronunciation is more like [s'k'e:lajaxt] and would suit the old spelling scéalaidheacht better.

The /ao/ of writing is basically a long [i:] preceded and followed by a broad consonant: saol "life, world" [si:l]. However, the two broad consonants tend to strongly influence the vowel between them, and it can sound like a Russian ы. When names including this sound were borrowed into English, the /ao/ was in many instances interpreted in very different ways: thus, the name Ó Maolagáin could become Mulligan or Milligan.

A long [e:] sound both followed and preceded by a broad consonant is written /ae/. Thus, the consonant N in the word traenach "of a train, a train's" (genitive form of traein, "a train") is broad, although it touches an e: [tre:nax]. Thus, we need a sleamhnóg after the -e- in the nominative form to signal that the -n is slender there: traein [tre:n'].

To recap:

*In stressed positions only; in unstressed, vowels are reduced to an uh sound (/ə/).

Diphthongs
*In stressed positions only; in unstressed, vowels are reduced to an uh sound (/ə/).

Consonants - Na Consain
To start with, let's look at the non-lenited consonants in Irish, thus, the way how consonant letters are pronounced when they are not followed by the letter h. In order to pronounce such a consonant correctly, you must pay attention to the vowel letters around it. If it is surrounded by broad vowels (a, o, u, á, ó, ú), then you must pronounce it broad, and if it is surrounded by slender vowels (e, i, é, í), then you must pronounce it slender.

Broad (Irish: leathan) means velarized. Velum is the soft palate, and when a consonant is velarized, the velum or the soft palate takes part in the way it is pronounced. Broad consonants are velarized when surrounded by broad consonants. A common mistake is made by labializing a broad consonant when it is surrounded by certain letters.

Slender (Irish: caol) means palatalized. Palatum means specifically the hard palate, and it tends to soften the consonant - give it a taste of the [j] or English "y" sound. The Spanish ñ, for instance, is a slender n, and the Spanish ll used to be a slender L sound, but these days it is of course the same as the Spanish y for most speakers of that language. The English ll in the word "million" is an excellent example of a slender L, which is appropriately enough also found in its Irish equivalent, milliún.

As we already saw, mute short vowels (sleamhnóga) are often inserted in writing just to signal that the consonant is, say, slender although it stands next to a long broad vowel, or the other way round. So, in the word móin "peat, turf" the long ó is indeed pronounced as a vowel, while the -i- signals that the final -n is slender.

As explained above, the terms slender and broad refer to two categories of vowels.

 * The broad vowels are a, o, and u.
 * The slender vowels are i and e.

A consonant that is is flanked by broad vowels is broad. A consonant that is flanked by slender vowels is slender. Don't let the fact that every consonant has two pronunciations panic you. In most cases, the difference between the broad and slender pronunciation is subtle but majorly important. It is also critical to make the difference between broad and slender consonants. The most dramatic differences are:

As for r things can get complicated. The r in Irish is rolled/tapped and in slender position almost sounds silent or like an amalgamation of r and z. Aside from that, slender consonants have a slight "y" sound.

Lenition - An Séimhiú
Lenition (séimhiú) is a modification of pronunciation of the first letter of the word - a kind of initial mutation (claochlú tosaigh). Lenition means different things for different consonants, but it is always expressed by adding a -h- after the consonant:

 * B -> BH. The /bh/ is pronounced very much like the English W, when it is followed by a broad vowel (a, o, u). When it is followed by a slender vowel (e, i), it is more like the English V.

 * C -> CH. The /ch/ is pronounced as a German "ach" sound before a broad vowel, as a German "ich" sound before a slender vowel.

 * D -> DH. This is a little more difficult. You might think that it is like the English voiced th, but if you thought so, you were mistaken. Really, /dh/ is pronounced as a [γ] sound if it is followed by a broad vowel, but as a [j] - that is, an English /y/ - if it is followed by a slender vowel. The [γ] sound is the voiced equivalent of the German ach sound - you let your vocal chords vibrate while you try to pronounce a German ach sound. The "Parisian r" is also a good approximation.

 * F -> FH. FH means simply, that there is nothing there. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. FH is only a kind of graphic symbol for showing, that normally there used to be a F- here, but it was taken away by the lenition.

 * G -> GH. GH is pronounced exactly as DH. Note, though, that G is lenited in a somewhat more regular way, while D sometimes resists regular lenition. This will be especially noted in the lessons.

 * M -> MH. MH is pronounced as BH, but it might give the adjacent vowel a nasalized sound.

 * P -> PH. This PH is pronounced as F. Note though that the Irish F tends to be bilabial.

 * S -> SH. The Irish SH is pronounced as the English H. The S can only be lenited if it is immediately followed by a vowel or by one of the consonants N, L, R. Such words as strainséir (which, of course, means "stranger" or "foreigner", and is either a very old English loanword or has been borrowed from Norman French into Irish and English at the same time) cannot be lenited even when in a position where it would be grammatically required.

Note that instead of being lenited, a "lenitable" S can turn into a T sound, which is then written ts or tS (when the S is written in upper case). This exception will be mentioned in the lessons.

In Kerry Irish, SM- might be lenited, too. This is however seldom shown in writing, as it is a local dialectal trait. In fact, it is so local that a person who isn't familiar with the dialect (or is only familiar with it from more or less standardized texts, such as Peig Sayers's notorious autobiography) will perceive it as a learner's error.

 * T -> TH. The Irish TH is pronounced as the Irish SH, i.e. as a H sound. And it can only be lenited when it is followed by a vowel or one of the consonants N, L, R. It also resists lenition according to the same rules as the D does.

Lenited Consonants inside the word - Na Consain Shéimhithe laistigh den Fhocal
When you see lenited consonants inside a word, note that they usually interact with the previous vowel, so that long vowels or diphthongs arise:

 * the -amh- in samhradh "summer" is pronounced as [au]

 * the aimh- in aimhréidh "entanglement" is pronounced as [aiv-]

 * the -omha- in comhar "cooperation" is pronounced as [o:], i.e. a long o; in Connemara though, it is pronounced as [u:], because out there the touch of nasal consonants (or of what used to be a nasal consonant) usually changes an [o] sound into an [u] sound. (Similarly, in Connemara cnoc "hill" is pronounced as [kruk], and dona "bad" as [dunə].)

 * the -ogha in togha "pick, choice, excellent thing" is pronounced as [au]

 * the -abhadh in rabhadh "warning" is pronounced as [au]

Final, unaccented -dh or -gh can often be left unpronounced, especially in Connemara. Note, though, that a final -idh/-igh is a short, but clear [i] sound in Ulster, and an audible [ig'] in Munster; and final -adh is a short, but clear [u] sound in Ulster.

Note: vowels cannot be lenited
A mistake that some learners make, is to think that the h- that is sometimes added to the first vowel of the word, is for lenition. More correctly, this h- is added to the vowel in positions where a consonant would neither be lenited nor eclipsed.

Eclipsis - An tUrú
Eclipsis is called in Irish urú, an older form is urdhubhadh, from the intensifying prefix ur- "very" and dubhadh "blackening". So, it is really eclipse, as in solar eclipse (urú na gréine) or in lunar eclipse (urú na gealaí). As with lenition, eclipsis is triggered by the preceding word - the "eclipsing" word so to speak, which kind of "casts its shadow" over the word.

Eclipsis means, basically, that unvoiced stops become voiced, and voiced stops become nasal. Thus, c, p, and t become g, b, and d respectively, and b, d, and g become m, n, and ng respectively. Although f is a fricative sound, it is eclipsed too - it becomes voiced, i.e. either a w or a v sound - in Irish, these are perceived as variants of one sound that is written as bh, as we saw.

The disquieting thing is, that the actual pronunciation is written in addition to the original pronunciation of the first consonant letter. Thus, we see words beginning with gc-, bp-, dt-, mb-, nd-, and even bhf-, and people start panicking about, how such a monster should be pronounced. In reality, it is much more easy than it looks like:

 * mb- is pronounced like m-

 * gc- is pronounced like g-

 * nd- is pronounced like n-

 * bhf- is pronounced like bh-

 * ng- is pronounced like...well, ng in the English word "sing"; you would expect it to be written ngg-, but that's not how it works in this case

 * bp- is pronounced like b-

 * dt- is pronounced like d-

Note that if the word is to be written in upper case, it's the letter showing the original pronunciation that is capitalized, not the letters showing the actual pronunciation:

 * Gaillimh Galway, i nGaillimh in Galway

 * Corcaigh Cork, i gCorcaigh in Cork

 * Baile Átha Cliath Dublin, i mBaile Átha Cliath in Dublin

 * Prág Prague, i bPrág in Prague

 * Fear Manach Fermanagh, i bhFear Manach in Fermanagh

 * Tír Eoghain Tyrone, i dTír Eoghain in Tyrone

 * Deilginis Dalkey, i nDeilginis in Dalkey

While it was said earlier that a vowel can't be lenited, it definitely can be eclipsed. In that case, a n- is added to it. It is hyphenated before a lower-case letter, but not before an upper-case one:

 * go n-éirí an bóthar leat bon voyage, Go nÉirí an Bóthar Leat Bon Voyage

Note, though, that when the eclipsis is caused by the preposition i, "in", the recommendation is to perceive this n- as part of the preposition. Thus, we write in Éirinn, not i nÉirinn. In sloppily edited books, you can of course see even i nÉirinn and i n-Éirinn. The different ways to write it of course don't affect the pronunciation.

Prefixed h- - An Réamhlitir h-
The prefixed h-, the hiatus consonant, is often grammatically required in positions where neither lenition nor eclipsis occurs. See the following example:

mo ghluaisteán "my automobile" - m'aiste "my essay"

do ghluaisteán "your automobile" - d'aiste "your essay"

a ghluaisteán "his automobile" - a aiste "his essay"

a gluaisteán "her automobile" - a haiste "her essay"

ár ngluaisteán "our automobile" - ár n-aiste "our essay"

bhur ngluaisteán "your automobile" - bhur n-aiste "your essay"

a ngluaisteán "their automobile" - a n-aiste "their essay"

This rule is not without its exception, however. The little word cá, which is used for creating "wh-" questions especially in Ulster Irish, prefixes a h- to a following vowel (cá haois é? "what age is he", i.e. "how old is he?") but lenites a following noun expressing the grade of a quality: cá fhad é ó tháinig sé go Conamara? "how long is it since he came to Connemara?", i.e. "how long has he been in Connemara?" - Note that cá is in other dialects more often used in the sense "where?", and in this sense it usually eclipses the following verb: cá bhfuil sé? "where is he?"

Prefixed t- - An Réamhlitir t-
In Irish, there are two kinds of prefixed t-:

The t- that is prefixed to vowels
This t- is, of course, added to the word, both in writing and pronunciation. Most typically, it comes after the singular form of the definite article in the nominative singular of masculine nouns:

 * árthach "a vessel, a ship" - an t-árthach "the vessel, the ship"

 * éan "a bird" - an t-éan "the bird"

 * iontas "a wonder" - an t-iontas "the wonder"

The t- that is prefixed to words beginning with a lenitable initial s-
- i.e. s + vowel, sl-, sn-, sr-. This t- is somewhat similar to the eclipsing consonant, because while it is added to the written form of the word, it ousts the initial s- in pronouncing. We see this instead of lenition after the definite article in the nominative singular of feminine nouns:

 * sráid "a street" - an tsráid [tra:d'] "the street"

 * sornóg "a stove" - an tsornóg [torno:g] "the stove"

 * saoirse "liberty, freedom" - an tsaoirse [ti:r's'ə] "the liberty, the freedom"

 * sleamhnóg "a glide letter (in writing Irish)" - an tsleamhnóg [t'l'ãuno:g] "the glide letter"

 * snaidhm "a knot" - an tsnaidhm [tnaim'] "the knot"

title: Irish/Reference/Pronunciation


text:
Irish/Reference/Grammatical Changes

Grammatical Changes
Irish is an inflected language. Words undergo pronunciation and spelling changes depending on the role they play in a sentence. Some of the most common changes are described below. Later in this Wikibook you will learn when to apply these changes.

Lenition
Lenition is a "softening" (a.k.a. "aspiration") of the consonant sound at the beginning of a word or syllable. It only happens to certain sounds: b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s, t; other letters are unaffected. There are two ways lenition is shown in writing: the old style (seanchló), in which a dot is placed over the consonant, and the new/modern style, where an h is added after the consonant. Some of the many cases in which lenition is used are:
 * on feminine nominative singular nouns after the article (ex. an fhírinne = the truth)
 * on masculine genitive singular nouns after the article (ex. an chroí = the heart)
 * on adjectives after a feminine nominative singular noun (ex. fírinne gheal = bright truth)
 * on adjectives after a masculine genitive singular noun (ex. an chroí dhubh = the black heart)
 * on adjectives after weak plural nouns which end in a slender consonant (ex. fir bheaga = small men but croíthe beaga = small hearts)
 * after mo or do (ex. mo shaol = my life)
 * after a when it means "his" (ex. a shaol = his life)
 * after the vocative particle a (ex. A Dhia! = God!)
 * in the second part of a compound word (ex. seanmháthair = grandmother, literally "old mother")

“DNTLS”
One exception to the normal lenition rules is the infamous "dentals-dots" rule: if there is a d, t, or s (the consonants in "dots") which would be lenited, but the letter before it is one of d, n, t, l, or s (the consonants in "dentals"), it is not lenited it after all. Example: an teanga = the language - it may be instinctive to write  'an theanga ' since a nominative feminine noun after the article is normally lenited, but the dentals-dots rule overrides that.

The word sa also triggers the dentals-dots rule, possibly because sa is a combination of the words ins + an, even though the terminal N is not spoken. Examples: sa saol, sa teach.

However, note that this rule does not apply to lenition of attributive adjectives. For example: grian the = hot sun.

Other exceptions
In a similar vein to the dentals-dots rule, the letters b and p are left unlenited following an m, as in um bosca. This is a much more obscure exception than dentals-dots, so you won't run into it very often.

Also, the letter s is not lenited when it is directly followed by one of c, p, t, m, or f, since there's no way (in Irish) that you could pronounce something like shf or shc. There are no counterexceptions to this exception, at least. For example, you write do stair = "your history" instead of "do shtair".

Eclipsis
Eclipsis is an "eclipsing" of the initial consonant sound of a word by another consonant sound. It only affects seven sounds: b, c, d, f, g, p, and t; essentially what happens is that you only pronounce the eclipsing consonant(s) - the eclipsed letter gets totally left out of the pronunciation (except for ng). However, when writing one of these things you write the eclipsing letter followed by the eclipsed letter. The rules for what happens to each go like this: These rules have to be memorized, but it really doesn't take long once you start using them.
 * b is eclipsed by m to become mb
 * c is eclipsed by g to become gc
 * d is eclipsed by n to become nd
 * f is eclipsed by bh to become bhf (two letters, but one sound)
 * g is eclipsed by n to become ng (note that this is pronounced not just as a straight n, but as the hybrid ng sound, much like an ng in English, or a 'ny' sound as in piñata)
 * p is eclipsed by b to become bp
 * t is eclipsed by d to become dt

Eclipsis is used in many cases (though not as many as lenition, by far), among which are these: Note the interesting capitalization in eclipsed expressions: when capitalizing an eclipsed word, the eclipsed letter is in uppercase, not the eclipsing letter (eg. as an bPoblacht from above, and also na bhFear = of the men). However, if writing in all capitals, you may either put the eclipsing letter in uppercase or leave it in lowercase. Both variants exist (ex. NA BHFEAR or NA bhFEAR).
 * on plural genitive nouns after the article (ex. na bpóg = of the kisses)
 * after any of the plural possessive pronouns, like "our", "your" (pl.), "their" (ex. ár ngrá = our love, bhur bpósadh = your wedding, a gcostas = their cost)
 * after some preposition+article combinations - you'll have to memorize which ones, but they can be learned with use (ex. ar an mbord = on the table, ón gcósta = from the coast, as an bPoblacht = out of the Republic)
 * after the preposition i (ex. i mbosca = in a box)

Palatalization
Palatalization (caolú), sometimes called "slenderizing", is a change made to the last group of vowels in a word which transforms the word from having a broad ending to a slender ending. Depalatalisation (leathnú) is the reverse change; it transforms a word from having a slender ending to a broad ending. These changes are used frequently in Irish, mostly for changing nouns between singular and plural, or for switching between the various cases (nominative, genitive, dative, vocative). Here are a few representative examples which show the kinds of vowel changes involved:

The usual rule for palatalization is to add an i after the last vowel, and the usual rule for depalatalization is to remove a trailing i. These usual cases are shown in the top row of the above table.

Initial h
In some cases, when a word ending in a vowel (such as the preposition "le" or the plural definite article "na") is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, an initial "h" is added to the second word to make pronunciation easier.

Example:

Tá an bhialann in aice le hóstán.

Initial ts
Under certain circumstances, feminine nouns beginning with "s" may be modified to "ts".

Contractions and compounds
Some Irish words are abbreviated, contracted, or compounded in specific ways. This is especially common when combining a preposition with a pronoun or article.

Contracting mo and do
The possessive pronouns mo (my) and do (your [sing.]) are commonly contracted before an initial vowel"

Prepositional Pronouns
When a preposition's object is a pronoun, Irish normally combines the two into a single prepositional pronoun.

Prepositions and Articles
In some cases, when a preposition's object starts with something other than a pronoun, especially a direct article (an or na), the preposition will form a compound similar to a prepositional pronoun.

Examples:
 * faoi + an = faoin
 * faoi + a [numerical particle] = faoina

title: Irish/Reference/Grammatical Changes


text: Biology Laboratory Techniques/template

title: Biology Laboratory Techniques/template


text:
Irish/Basic Sentence Structure

Tá and Is
Irish has two different ways of expressing the English verb "to be".

 * Tá is the verb "to be", used for describing people or things, "I am..." eg. "I am tired, I am here" a) where something is or b) what state it is in
 * Is is the copula, and is not quite a complete verb; its most common use is to say what something is, "I am a..." eg. "I am a teacher, I am a man"

The copula is a sort of pseudo-verb. It is used for four main purposes:
 * Identification, or saying that some specific thing, identified by a definite noun (usually a noun with the article) or pronoun is the same as some other specific thing
 * Example: "That is my cow" = "Sin í mo bhó"
 * Classification, or saying that some specific thing fits into some class - in other words, saying that the thing "is a" something, where the something is a general class rather than a specific object
 * Example: "That is a cow" = "Is bó í sin"
 * Emphasis, or moving certain sentence parts earlier in the clause to make them more prominent to the listener or reader. English often uses tone of voice, accented syllables to do this, but Irish primarily relies on word order
 * Example: "In God we trust" = "Is i nDia a cuirimid ár muinín" (compare to "We trust in God" = "Cuirimid ár muinín i nDia")
 * Questions use a special form of the copula: "An." For example "An fear é Seán?": "Is Seán a man?"
 * There are also instances in which the copula may safely be left out: "Is mise Seán" can become simply "Mise Seán."

"Bí" is the verb "to be."

If you want to negate "tá sé," you use níl instead of tá. Níl sé He is not

Some Simple Sentences
Approximate phonetic pronunciations are provided for the phrases below. Pronunciation varies from one dialect to another. If you learned a different way of pronouncing these words, don't worry.

Classification sentences
In a classification sentence, we tell what class an identified person belongs to. For example, telling the profession of someone. Here are some persons and their professions.

'''Cad é is gairm bheatha duit? Cén tslí bheatha atá agat? Cén cineál oibre atá agat?''' What is your profession?

 * Is múinteoir mé. I am a teacher.

 * Is scoláire thú. You are (thou art) a scholar, a pupil. (Scoláire is obviously the same word as the English scholar, but the Irish word is more often used in the sense of a school pupil, which, incidentally, can also be dalta. In the Irish-speaking districts, a person who could read and write - in those days when analphabetism was still common - could also be called a scoláire. Note that the word for "school ide" is scoil íde.)

 * Is dlíodóir í Siobhán. Siobhán (Joan) is a lawyer. (Dlíodóir - in Ulster Irish, dlítheoir - comes from the word for law, dlí.)

 * Is feirmeoir é Seán. Seán (John) is a farmer. (Feirmeoir is obviously related to feirm, a farm. In Connacht, there are the parallel forms feilméir and feilm, respectively.)

 * Is pluiméir é Máirtín. Máirtín (Martin) is a plumber.

 * Is bríceadóir é Colm. Colm (Malcolm) is a bricklayer. (Instead of bríceadóir, you can also use the obvious English loan-word brícléir. A brick is called bríce in Irish.)

 * Is ríomhinnealtóir é Risteárd. Risteárd (Richard) is a computer engineer (a computer is called ríomhaire, an engineer is innealtóir).

 * Is státseirbhíseach í Nóra. Nóra is a civil servant.

 * Is tiománaí tacsaí í Máire. Máire (Mary) is a taxi driver. In Irish, "a driver of taxi". The English of is understood.

 * Is spásaire é James Tiberius Kirk. James Tiberius Kirk is a spaceman, an astronaut.

 * Is arrachtach é The Incredible Hulk. The Incredible Hulk is a monster.

 * Is aisteoir í Nana Visitor. Nana Visitor is an actress (actually, in Irish it is perfectly OK to use the word aisteoir, actor, even for a female actor; if you want to stress the fact that she is female, you can say Is ban-aisteoir í Nana Visitor or Is aisteoir mná í Nana Visitor.)

 * An dochtúir é Liam? Is ea. Is dochtúir é. Is dochtúir maith é. "Is Liam a doctor? Yes. He is a doctor. He is a good doctor." Irish doesn't actually have words for the English "yes" and "no" - this might feel a little funny, but the way Irish does it is actually quite common as languages go. If you ask a question in the form of a classification sentence, such as "is he a doctor?" -an dochtúir é? it is answered either is ea ("is") or ní hea ("isn't"). Please note that the attributive adjective maith, good, comes after the noun it qualifies.

The little word ea (in Ulster and in older texts, eadh) means "it", but it is only used in copula constructions. There is an alternative sort of classification sentence, which uses the word ea and is especially common in southern dialects:

 * Is dlíodóir í. = Dlíodóir is ea í. She is a lawyer.

 * Is feirmeoir é. = Feirmeoir is ea é. He is a farmer.

 * Is pluiméir é. = Pluiméir is ea é. He is a plumber.

 * Is brícléir é. = Brícléir is ea é. He is a bricklayer.

 * Is imreoir sacair é. = Imreoir sacair is ea é. He is a soccer player (imreoir player, sacar soccer, imreoir sacair player of soccer)

 * Is peileadóir thú. = Peileadóir is ea thú. You are (thou art) a player of Gaelic football.

 * Is ríomhinnealtóir mé. = Ríomhinnealtóir is ea mé. I am a computer engineer.

 * Is siúinéir thú. = Síúinéir is ea thú. You are a carpenter. (Siúinéir, which comes from the English word "joiner", is probably the most common word for "carpenter" in Irish nowadays, but you might want to know that there are the alternative terms cearpantóir and saor adhmaid.)

 * Is fisiceoir í. = Fisiceoir is ea í. She is a physicist.

 * Is ceimiceoir mé. = Ceimiceoir is ea mé. I am a (research) chemist (i.e. a laboratory kind of chemist).

 * Is poitigéir thú. = Poitigéir is ea thú. You are a (pharmaceutical) chemist (i.e. you work at the chemist's).

 * Is matamaiticeoir í. = Matamaiticeoir is ea í. She is a mathematician.

 * Is geolaí mé. = Geolaí is ea mé. I am a geologist.

 * Is geoiceimiceoir thú. = Geoiceimiceoir is ea thú. You are a geochemist.

 * Is réalteolaí í. = Réalteolaí is ea í. She is an astronomer.

 * Is réaltfhisiceoir mé. = Réaltfhisiceoir is ea mé. I am an astrophysicist.

 * Is geoifisiceoir thú. = Geoifisiceoir is ea thú. You are a geophysicist.

Greeting Someone
There are three ways to say "How are you?", depending on your dialect. Just pick the one you're most comfortable with, and use it.

Practice
Here are some words you can use to fill in the blanks above:

Describing someone or something, part 2
Example: Tá sé __adjective__ = He/it is _____

Example: Níl sí __adjective__ = She/it isn't _____

Asking questions
All of the above questions are answered simply Tá or Níl.

Practice
Here are some more adjectives to practice with.

Classification Statements
The verb tá, and its other forms (níl, an bhfuil, and nach bhfuil) can be used to describe something, but they can't be used to say what something is. For that you need to use a special verb called the copula.

Think of copula statements as a set of templates you can plug things into. You can change what you plug into the template, but you can't change the template itself. One of the templates available is a classification statement. A classification statement has the form:

Examples:

These questions are answered simply Is ea or Ní hea.

Notes:
 * 1) In place of Is, you can have Ní, An?, Nach?, Ba, etc. as appropriate.
 * 2) In a classification statement, the predicate (category) is always an indefinite noun (a cat, a house, a doctor). There is another type of copula template, the identification statement, that uses a definite noun (the cat, the house, the doctor) as the predicate. This structure will be discussed later.

Practice
You can practice classification statements using the nouns below.

Review: Tá vs Is
One of the most common mistakes learners make is using tá in place of is, or vice versa. Here's one way to remember the difference:

 * The verb tá can be used to describe something.
 * To say what something is, you need the copula, is.

Another way to think of it:

 * Tá is used to associate a noun with an adjective.
 * Is is used to associate a noun with a another noun.

Fiche Ceist (Twenty Questions)
Playing Fiche Ceist is an excellent way to become familiar with:

 * the difference between "tá" and "is",
 * how nouns change when preceded by a preposition + definite article, and
 * masculine vs. feminine nouns

Follow the examples below.

 * TO DO: provide translations for all the words that aren't introduced earlier in the text

Past and Future: An Introduction
The table below illustrates how to form simple sentences in the past, present and future tenses.

There are also a few combined forms that are used in some dialects. Until you're ready to focus on one dialect in particular, you can use either form:

Comparisons
In English, we usually make comparisons by tacking the suffix -er or -est onto the adjective. Irish also has special comparative forms.

Note that the same form of the adjective is used for the relative and absolute comparisons. It's the prefix, níos or is, that makes the difference. Also note that the comparison is expressed differently for the past tense. (We're only going to worry about the present tense in this thread.)

The most common structures for comparing things are:

You may have notice something unusual about that first structure. I said earlier that is is used for absolute comparisons, where we use the '-est' ending in English, but I translate the first structure using an "-er" ending. You probably remember your English teacher saying that you compare two things using "-er"; that "-est" could only be used with three or more things. However, Irish doesn't have this rule. A sentence such as Is í an tsúil chlé an tsúil is láidre literally means "My left eye is the strongest eye", where in English we would say "My left eye is the stronger eye." So in short, don't worry about it.

One final comment about the first and third structures. The copula, is, can never be followed directly by a definite noun or a proper noun; you need to insert é, í or iad. If you're not ready to deal with that, don't worry. Just stick with the second structure.

So let's look at some examples of how to make comparisons.

Comparative Forms
The rules for changing an adjective into the comparative form are fairly simple.

 * If it ends in a consonant, add -e to it. (If the ending isn't slender, you'll need to make it slender first.)
 * glas - níos glaise - is glaise

 * If it ends in a vowel, no change.
 * dána - níos dána - is dána

 * If it ends in -(e)ach, change the ending to -(a)í.
 * bacach - níos bacaí - is bacaí
 * díreach - níos dírí - is dírí

 * If it ends in -(i)úil, change the ending to -(i)úla.
 * flaithiúil - níos flaithiúla - is flaithiúla
 * dathúil - níos dathúla - is dáthúla.

Irregular Comparatives

 * beag - níos lú - is lú
 * breá - níos breátha - is breátha
 * dócha - níos dóichí - is dóichí
 * fada - níos faide - is faide
 * fogus - níos foisce - is foisce
 * furasta - níos fusa - is fusa
 * iomaí - níos lia - is lia
 * ionúin - níos ionúine - is ionúine
 * maith - níos fearr - is fearr
 * olc - níos measa - is measa
 * te - níos teo - is teo
 * tréan - níos tréine/treise - is tréine/treise
 * mór - níos mó - is mó

title: Irish/Basic Sentence Structure


text:
Irish/The Article

The Article
English has a definite article ("the") and an indefinite article ("a" or "an").

Irish has only a definite article. In situations where "a" or "an" would be used in English, the noun is used with no article.

The definite article has two forms: an and na.

 * an is used in front of singular nouns
 * na is used in front of plural nouns (and feminine nouns in the genitive case).

Grammatical Changes
The singular definite article "an" may change the noun it is applied to, depending on the first letter and gender of the noun:

The plural definite article "na" changes the noun based only on its first letter:

title: Irish/The Article


text:
Irish/Reference/Nouns

Gender
As in many languages, nouns in Irish are gendered. All modern Irish nouns are either masculine or feminine. (There used to be a neuter gender but that was jettisoned fairly early on. There are one or two surviving appendices, but for practical purposes, masculine and feminine do the trick.) The majority of nouns in Irish are masculine. It is not always easy to tell a masculine noun from a feminine noun, but the following types of nouns are usually feminine:

 * nouns ending in a slender consonant
 * nouns ending in -eog, -óg, -lann
 * multi-syllable nouns ending in -acht or -íocht
 * names of countries and languages
 * abstract nouns ending in -e or -i

article + noun
The easiest way to remember a noun's gender is to practice using the noun with the definite article. That's because the article can cause a change to the noun depending on its gender. The table below summarises the changes that occur. We'll go through it line by line. If you read the table out loud to yourself every day for a week, you'll probably be able to remember the rules.

Note: These rules deal only with the "nominative case". Later we'll talk about the genitive and vocative cases.

 * If a noun begins with a consonant (other than d, t, s)...
 * ...and it's masculine, then there's no change to the noun after an.
 * ...and it's feminine, then you lenite it after an.

In the table, the line an fear ... an bhean, demonstrates this rule. fear is masculine, and bean is feminine (which is pretty easy to remember)

eg. an tseilf, an tsail, an speal
 * If a noun begins with s...
 * ...and it's masculine, then there's no change to the noun after an.
 * ...and it's feminine, it takes a 't' after an (no t before sc, sm, sp, st)

An easy way to remember that there's no t before sc, sm, sp, and st is the phrase scallions smell spicy in stew. (Another easy way to remember it is to notice that pronouncing "tsc", "tsm", "tsp" or "tst" at the beginning of a word would be quite a challenge!)

In the table, the line an sagart ... an tsráid, demonstrates this rule. sagart (priest) is masculine, and sráid (street) is feminine.

 * If a noun begins with a vowel...
 * ...and it's masculine, then you prefix "t-" to it after an.
 * ...and it's feminine, there's no change to the noun after an.

In the table, the line an t-arán ... an eochair, demonstrates this rule. arán (bread) is masculine, and eochair (key) is feminine.

 * If a noun begins with d or t...
 * ...there's no change to the noun after an.

This is a example of a general rule called DeNTaLS DoTS: after d,n,t,l,s we usually don't lenite d,t,s. Since an ends in "n", if the noun begins with d or t, we don't lenite it.

In the table, the line an tine, demonstrates this rule. Although tine (fire) is feminine, we don't lenite it after an.

Plural nouns
With plural nouns, na is used. The gender doesn't matter, so the rule is simple. - If the noun begins with a consonant, it doesn't change after na. - If the noun begins with a vowel, it takes a "h" after na.

Declensions
In Irish, a declension is basically a group of nouns that tend to form the plural and genitive according to a common pattern. (Declensions are more complex in some languages.) In this section you will learn some guidelines for guessing what declension a noun belongs to, and what its gender is. These guidelines will take care of most of the nouns you meet. Knowing the declension will help you figure out the genitive and plural form of the noun.

There are five declensions in Irish. The first declension is almost all male nouns. The second is mostly female. The third and fourth declensions have both male and female nouns. Technically, there are 5 declensions. But the fifth declension is sort of miscellaneous, so I think it's easier to ignore it for now.

The easiest way is to consider the declensions in reverse order. Ask yourself the following questions, but be sure to stop at the first question with a “yes” answer. Looking at the common (nominative) form of the noun, is it...

 * 1) Abstract noun ending in -e, -í? Then it's probably f4.
 * 2) Ends in a vowel or -ín? Then it's probably m4.
 * 3) Ends in -áil, -úil, -ail, -úint, -cht, -irt? Then it's probably f3.
 * 4) Ends in -éir, -eoir, -óir, -úir? Then it's probably m3.
 * 5) Ends in a slender consonant or -eog, -óg, -lann? Then it's probably f2.
 * 6) Ends in a broad consonant? Then it's probably m1.

Note: An abstract noun represents something that you can't see, touch, feel, taste or smell.

Let's try this with the noun leabhar. (1) It's not an abstract noun. (2) It doesn't end in a vowel or -ín. (3) It doesn't end in -áil, etc. (4) It doesn't end in -éir, etc. (5) It doesn't end in a slender consonant or -eog, etc. (6) It does end in a broad consonant, so it's probably m1. A check of the dictionary tells us we're right.

Now try with fuinneog. The first question we answer yes to is (5), it ends in -eog, so it's probably f2. The dictionary confirms that's correct.

Some Important Exceptions
These are masculine, but they're in the second declension: im, sliabh

f2: adharc, baintreach, báisteach, buíon, caor, cearc, ciall, cloch, cos, craobh, críoch, cros, dámh, dealbh, eangach, fadhb, fearg, ficheall, fréamh, gaoth, géag, gealt, girseach, grian, iall, iníon, lámh, leac, long, luch, méar, mian, mias, muc, nead, pian, sceach, scian, scornach, slat, sluasaid, srón, téad, tonn, ubh

m3: am, anam, áth, béas, bláth, cath, cíos, cith, crios, dath, dream, droim, eas, fíon, flaith, greim, loch, lus, luach, modh, rámh, rang, rás, roth, rud, sioc, taom, teas, tréad

f3: banríon, Cáisc, cuid, díolaim, Eoraip, feag, feoil, muir, scread

These nouns are abstract, but they don't end in -e or -í. Nevertheless, they're f4: rogha, teanga, bearna

These nouns don't end in a vowel or -ín, but they're m4: ainm, máistir, seans, club

Not abstract, but f4: veain

These nouns are abstract, but they're m4: dlí, rince

Plural forms
Irish nouns form their plurals in a lot of different ways, depending on the specific noun, but every plural form is either strong or weak. There are quite a few aspects of grammar that depend on which kind of plural a word has, so it's important to be able to tell the two kinds apart.

 * A strong plural form is any plural word that is formed (from the singular) by adding a consonant-containing ending. Some of the common endings include -anna, -acha, and -tha.  The ending -í is also considered to form a strong plural, because it was originally -idhe; this is the only apparent exception I know of.  Some examples include rud (thing) becomes rudaí (things), bás (death) becomes básanna (deaths) and ainm (name) becomes ainmneacha (names).
 * A weak plural form is any plural word that is formed from the singular either by adding the ending -a, or by adding and/or removing letters (vowels) within the word itself. Weak plurals do not have additional consonants added in the ending.  For example, fear (man) => fir (men), or leabhar (book) => leabhair (books).

As far as remembering which noun has which kind of plural, there are certain patterns that roughly parallel the declensions. Weak plurals are particularly common in the first and second declensions, while strong plurals are common in words of the other declensions.

There are several words with irregular plurals that bear basically no relation to the singular forms. These include: 'Plural forms' written by David (wdsci) 9/06/04
 * deoir => deora
 * súil => súile
 * glúin => glúine
 * seoid => seoda
 * bean => mná
 * grasta => grásta (both singular and plural are the same)

Genitive Forms
Use the genitive when a noun follows:
 * another noun
 * a compound preposition, or trasna, timpeall, chun, fearacht, dála, cois
 * a verbal noun
 * a quantity word

Here are some examples of indefinite nouns in the genitive.
 * leabhar scoile
 * eagarthóir leabhair scoile
 * post eagarthóra leabhair scoile

Here are some examples of definite nouns in the genitive.
 * leabhar na scoile
 * rothaí ghluaisteán do mháthar
 * ar son mhuintir na tire
 * ag ithe bhrioscaí mo mháthar
 * leabhar Sheáin

Genitive Singular
To form the genitive singular of a noun, figure out what declension it is (as explained above), and apply the rules below. caolaítear means "one makes the final consonant slender", and leathnaítear means "one makes the final consonant broad.

Declensions
Nouns are divided into declensions according to how they form the genitive. There are five declensions. There is no foolproof way of determining the declension of a noun, but the following questions will help you make an intelligent guess. Stop at the first question with a “yes” answer.

Vocative Forms
explain when to use the vocative

title: Irish/Reference/Nouns