Unit 15 - Playing sport and having fun
Abair spòrs! "What fun! "
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This section introduces you to some basic conversation about sports and pastimes. The generic Gaelic word for sport is spòrs, but this may also mean fun (after all, isn't that how sports should be?). For example we might say bha spòrs againn which would mean "we had fun".
- spòrs
- sport or fun
- bha spòrs againn
- we had fun
The title of this section is a commonly heard phrase, abair spòrs, which means literally "say fun" but which is idiomatically equivalent to "what good fun!" (Abair is used in many phrases of this nature to exclaim pleasure, surprise, or excitement).
The biggest sport in Scotland is ball-coise, football (soccer) but there are other important sports and pastimes, as we shall see. The most widely played traditional sport in the Highlands is shinty, which still has a special place in Scotland's cultural life. It is played with a stick called a caman and is known in Gaelic as iomain or camanachd. First of all we'll look at some important words to do with sport:
- spòrs
- sport or fun
- abair spòrs!
- what fun!
- ball-coise
- football (soccer)
- ball-basgaid
- basketball
- snàmh
- swimming
- iomain
- shinty
- camanachd
- shinty
- caman
- shinty stick
- rugbaidh
- rugby
- hocaidh
- hockey
- hocaidh-deighe
- ice hockey
- ball
- ball
- sgioba
- team
- rèitire
- referee
- cluicheadair
- player
- fear-glèidhidh
- goalkeeper (male)
Now listen to the following conversation. In it you will hear the future tense also being used as a present habitual ie bidh mi a' cluich may mean "I will play", "I will be playing" or "I habitually play". This is a general rule in Gaelic.
- bidh mi a' cluich
- I will play/ I will be playing / I play
