Page:Handbook of Irish teaching - Mac Fhionnlaoich.djvu/29

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HANDBOOK OF IRISH TEACHING.

lessons, and I would also spread it over two or more lessons. The Series in its original form would be already in the hands of the students, and it would not be necessary to give them the variants in writing, but I would illustrate on the blackboard the new forms. It would also be necessary to explain the variations in the pronouns, with their powers of aspiration and eclipses, but I would not undertake any full or general explanation of these phenomena until my pupils had got numerous examples of them in practice. The lesson would be concluded by further subjective phrases.

In the following lesson, when the verbal changes in the various persons were understood by the class, I would teach, in connection with a new Series, the various tenses. In introducing the past tense, I would fix the time by introducing it with such a phrase as ARÉIR, INDÉ, ANURRAIĠ, AN SAṀRAḊ ’S ĊUAIḊ ṪART, or the like, leaving no room for doubt that the actions were past actions. For instance:—

D’ÓL MÉ DEOĊ.

LÁ ANN.
1. ḂÍ mé ag siúḃal ar an mbóṫar.
2. ḂÍ tart orm.
3. ĊONNAIC mé teaċ.
4. ḊRUID mé suas leis.
5. ĊUAIḊ mé isteaċ ann.
***
6. D’IARR mé deoċ.
7. TUG bean a’ tiġe deoċ ḃainne ḋam.
8. D’ÓL mé an deoċ.
9. D’IARR mé beannaċt Dé arna ba (buaiḃ).