Go mbeannaí Dia daoibh agus bhur gcéad míle fáilte isteach chuig the Bluffer’s Guide to Irish.
Well, (drum roll) it’s the last irregular verb this week (cymbal crash) and it’s an often over-looked one, beir meaning to bear or to be born and it has a few other meanings as well.
Beir leat é means take it away with you and the great song in Irish called Banchnoic Éireann Óigh begins “Beir beannacht óm chroí go tír na hÉireann” - take a blessing from my heart to the land of Ireland.”
It’s sung by Skara Brae if you are on Spotify.
The present tense is beirim, ní bheirim, an/go/nach mbeirim,bheireann tú/sé/sí etc, an mbeireann, an/go/nach mbeireann ... although bheireann is usually shorted to bheir.
How is it used?
Well, what about ní thuigeann siad an pléisiúr a bheir siad - they don’t realise the pleasure they give is what you could say to describe a new pair of thermal underpants or bheir sí bronntanais dúinn gach Nollaig - she gives us presents every Christmas.
So try and come up with some of your own phrases with bheir in them.
Add mé, tú, sé. sí. muid, sibh, siad after béarfaidh; ní bhéarfaidh and an/go/nach mbéarfaidh and you have the future tense.
So béarfaidh Aontroim bua ar an Dún - Antrim will beat Down, literally Antrim will take victory on Down or béarfaidh mé deoch chugat i gceann tamaillín - I’ll bring you a drink in a wee while.
Now we have the present and future, we can now go to the past tense which is very useful and simple. It’s rug and the three letter word is pronounced exactly the way it is in English.
So rug mé, níor rug mé, ar/gur/nár rug me is how it goes and it can be used in many different ways to explain very different actions.
For the numerous rural fans of the Bluffer, rug an bhó means the cow calved but it’s not just animals who give birth.
Rug sí iníon óg - she had a baby daughter or as we say in Belfast, she had a wee girl.
Like quite a few words in Irish, beir can express different instructions, good and bad but don’t worry, everything becames clear in the context.
For example, in Niall Ó Dónaill’s dictionary, there are these examples.
One is to bring something to someone
as in beir buíochas uaim - accept my thanks (lit. take thanks from me) while if you say beir uaim thú it means take yourself off!
Another meaning of beir is to catch or grab and so on so rug na Gardaí air - the Guards caught him or rug Buffon ar an liathróid - Buffon grabbed the ball or rug sí orm - she grabbed hold of me as Daniel O’Donnell has said many time over his career as he explained the lipstick on his collar and notes of lily of the valley on his shirt!
Ok. We ran out of space in the cúpla focal box in today's newspaper but if you'll find them here.
You’ll also be able to look back at previous editions of the Bluffer and other articles in and about Irish so drop that bacon bap and head to irishnews.com/arts/thebluffer/
CÚPLA FOCAL
Beir leat é(ber lat ay) - take it away with you beirim; ní bheirim; an/go/nach mbeirim (berim; nee verim; an/gaw/nakh merim) - I give, I don’t give, do I give
beireann tú; an mbeireann tú, an/go/nach mbeireann tú (berin too; un merin too; an/gaw/nakh merin too) - you give, you don’t give, do you give
ní thuigeann siad an pléisiúr a bheir siad(nee higan shade an playzhoor a ver shade) - they don’t realise the pleasure they give
bheir sí bronntanais dúinn gach Nollaig(ver shee bruntanish nullag dooeen gakh nolleeg) - she gives us presents every Christmas
béarfaidh (bayrhee) - will bear; ní bhéarfaidh - (nee vayrhee) won’t bear;an/go/nach mbéarfaidh (un/gaw/nakh mayrhee) - will ... bear
béarfaidh Aontroim bua ar an Dún() - Antrim will beat Down
béarfaidh mé deoch chugat i gceann tamaillín(bayrhee may jawkh hugat i gyun tamaleen) - I’ll bring you a drink in a wee while
rug an bhó(rug un waw) - the cow calved
rug sí iníon óg(rug shee neen awg) - she had a baby daughter
beir buíochas uaim (ber bweeahiss wooam) - accept my thanks
beir uaim thú(ber wooam hoo) - take yourself off!
rug Buffon ar an liathróid (rug boofon er un liahroydge) - Buffon grabbed the ball
rug sí orm (rug shee orim) - she grabbed hold of me