Over a number of years I have been gradually adding to a Gaelic spreadsheet I produced to help me learn its patterns of grammar. That’s just the way my brain works but it might help you too. Feel free to have a browse of my spreadsheet for Gaelic learners and here are some tips on how to use the spreadsheet.
Time needed: 5 minutes
How to use the Gaelic Spreadsheets – English to Gaelic
- Overview of the Spreadsheets
Use one of the buttons below to open up the spreadsheet you want to have a look at: Masculine Concrete Nouns or Feminine Concrete Nouns. The way these are embedded into the website means you can quickly scroll through to have a look at the way the main spreadsheet is laid out.
- Open the Google Docs Spreadsheet
Further down this page there is a link to the full Google Docs spreadsheet. There are also links on each of the other pages. As you can see the first two tabs match the ones on the website and all the other tabs are laid out to conform to the system shown in those first two.
- Search for an English word
Use the Find and Replace function either by typing ctrl-h or by using the Edit drop down menu. Type the English word into the find box (leave the replace one empty) and hit find. You can move along through all the entries this way for a particular word.
- Scrolling through to see the Gaelic forms
Once you have selected your English word you can move the selection box along to all the Gaelic forms for the word available by using the right arrow key.
- Checking the grammatical category
You should see at the top of each column an abbreviated explanation of the grammatical category for that Gaelic form, e.g. for nouns: genitive (which is also highlighted in yellow as it is quite an important variant and usually also given in dictionaries), singular, plural, indefinite, with definite article, etc. and for verbs: past tense, future tense, verbal noun, etc.
Using the Spreadsheets for Gaelic to English
Now you know how the Spreadsheets work it is relatively easy to use them to look up Gaelic words. This is helpful if they are in an altered form due to grammatical use. For instance you might want to look up the word “neòil”. If you use the Find function as above and put this word in then you will see it is in the Genitive column (highlighted in yellow). Again by using the left and right arrow keys you can scroll through all the forms. In this example if you hit the left arrow key it will go onto the singular form “neul” and to the left of that is the English which is “cloud”.
The whole spreadsheet is available on Google Docs although it is not the latest version.
Spreadsheet for Gaelic Learners Offer
If you would like to have a copy of my most up-to-date Spreadsheet for Gaelic Learners I have decided to offer it when you download the Duan 1 from Dàna Oisein Mhic Fhinn which you can listen to on the player above. When you download the track send me a message saying you would like the Gaelic Spreadsheet and I will send it to you by email. This offer is really like getting two for the price of one. You can enjoy the audio and use the spreadsheet to learn more Gaelic!
2 replies on “Spreadsheet for Gaelic Learners”
Than you – this is so helpful. May I copy your spreadsheet for my personal use?
Hi Sharman, that’s fine if you want to make a copy. It is still a work in progress but feel free to use it as a basis for your own one. If you feel that you want to contribute something as a thank you and this is entirely up to you I have a new album I am fundraising for on Go Fund Me. The link is:
https://gf.me/u/xyqp8k
Le deagh dhùranchd,
Drew