Gaelic guide for learners

Washing up - a’ nighe nan soithichean

Tha a’ mhias ann ‘there’s the sink’, an goc/na gocan ‘the tap/ taps’, an siabann ‘the soap’ agus an t-uisge ‘and the water’. Dè an coltas a th’ air an uisge? ‘what’s the water like?’ A bheil e teth? ‘it is hot?’, fuar ‘cold’, flodach ‘lukewarm’? A bheil builgeanan ann? ‘are there (any) bubbles?’ or cop ‘foam’? Tha na soithichean ann ‘... the dishes’: truinnsear ‘plate’, cupa/copan ‘cup’, glainne ‘glass’, bobhla ‘bowl’, greimeadair ‘fork’, sgian ‘knife’, spàin ‘spoon’.

What about the actions? Tha sinn a’ nighe nan soithichean ‘we’re washing the dishes’; tha iad a’ glanadh a’ bhùird ‘they’re cleaning the table’. You might also need sgùradh ‘scrubbing’, siabadh ‘wiping’ and tiormachadh ‘drying’. Remember definite nouns follow verbal nouns in the genitive case, e.g. tha mi a’ siabadh na sgeine ‘I am wiping the knife’. For ‘rinsing’ use a’ toirt sgol air (‘giving a rinse on’): bha i a’ toirt sgol air na truinnsearan ‘she was rinsing the plates’. And what would dish-washing be without a little plubadaich ‘splashing’ or sluaisreadh ‘sloshing’? lsabhal Mòr Ostaig offers Gaelic learning opportunities on site and by distance-learning www.smo.uhi.ac.uk