Things We Saw

Vocabulary

In this lesson we learn to say what we saw on a trip to a farm.

To say "I went" we need to use the word "ren" which means "did" and "mee" (which means "I"), which together make "ren mee" ("I did"). Like with "ta mee" ("I am"), the words are the opposite way around to English.

Next, we need the word for "go", which is "goll", to let us say "ren mee goll" or "I did go" in English (also the same as saying "I went").

We need two more words to say "I went and I saw". The Manx word for "and" is "as", so "ren mee goll as . . ." means "I went and . . ." Then, the Manx word for "see" is "fakin", so "ren mee goll as ren mee fakin" means "I went and I saw".

Since we'll be talking about visiting a farm, we'll learn how to say "I went to a farm and I saw". The Manx word for farm is "gowaltys", and the Manx word for "to" is "dys", so we have "ren mee goll dys gowaltys and ren mee fakin". (Remember that there is no word for "a" in Manx, so we just say "dys gowaltys" or "to farm".)

We're going to say "I went to a farm on the bus and I saw a . . .", so we need the words for "bus" and some farm animals. Here they are:

bus ------ barroose	horse ------ cabbyl	sheep ------ keyrrey
cow ------ booa	donkey ------ assyl	chicken ------ kiark
turkey ------ kellagh frangagh	pig ------ muc	duck ------ thunnag

We're nearly there for our full sentence! We just need the words for "on the bus" to complete it.

To say "on the bus" in Manx we use the words "er" (which means "on") and the word "y" (which means "the"), so together "er y" to say "on the". Lastly, the word for "bus" changes its first letter to a "v" when we say "on the bus", so we get "er y varroose" for "on the bus".

Altogether, then, to say something like "I went to a farm on the bus and I saw a horse" we would use "ren mee goll dys gowaltys er y varroose as ren mee fakin cabbyl".

As a bonus part to the sentence, you might also like to say "I went to the farm". We need to put "y" before "gowaltys", and again because we have "to the farm" the first letter of farm changes to a "gh", so "dys y ghowaltys". (The first letters of words in Manx can often change for a number of reasons, and saying "on the" and "to the" are among the things that cause it. It's something you get used to with practice!)

So, as a complete bonus sentence, "ren mee goll dys y ghowaltys er y varroose and ren mee fakin thunnag": "I went to the farm on the bus and I saw a duck".