Is Binn Béal ina Thost

If you have a ‘cúpla focal’;

A mouth that is silent is sweet.

Read literally this proverb says ‘is binn’ it is sweet ‘béal ina thost’ a mouth in silence.

It reminds us of the English proverb ‘Silence is golden’.

If we examine the words we see that all the vowels, bar one, are short. ‘i’ is pronounced as in the English word ‘in’. ‘o’ is pronounced as in the ‘u’ in ‘cut’. The ‘a’ in ‘ina’ is in an unstressed position and is pronounced as the ‘e’ in the’. We have a long ‘e’ in the third word followed by an ‘a’. The ‘e’ is shown long by a length mark, síneadh fada > ‘é’ and is pronounced like the ‘e’ in ‘well’. When a long vowel comes before a short vowel as in this case, ‘béal’, it is the long vowel that is heard. The other vowel has a different purpose which of you will learn later.

We see that there is aspiration in the last word ‘thost’, which gives us a ‘h’ sound at the beginning of the word.

If you’re an advanced learner;

Is binn béal ina thost

A mouth that is silent is sweet.

There is an irony in this proverb as ‘binn’ sweet refers to a sound that is sweet as opposed to ‘milis’ a taste that is sweet.

The sentence begins with the copula ‘is’ followed by the adjective ‘binn’ and the noun ‘béal’ – a masculine noun which is indicated to us by the broad consonant at the end of the word ‘-al’.

‘ina thost’ – often in Irish states are expressed using this structure – the preposition ‘i’ (in), followed by the possessive adjective ‘a’ which refers to the subject i.e. the person, thing, which is in this state, and then finally the noun ‘tost’, which describes the state and is aspirated here by the third person masculine possessive adjective.

Here are a few further examples of this structure:

‘Tá mé i mo chodladh’ (I am asleep)

‘Tá sé ina shuí’ (He is sitting)

If you’re fluent but would like to improve your grammar;

Is binn béal ina thost

Is deas an rud gan focal a chluinstin ó dhuine.

Tabhair faoi deara anseo gur ‘is’ an briathar atá in úsáid, briathar ag tús na habairte anseo le béim a chur ar an fhocal a leanann é. D’fhéadfá seo a rá ‘tá béal ina thost binn’ ach sa chás sin ní bheadh béim ar an fhocal ‘binn’.

Tá difear idir ‘binn’, fuaim is maith leis na cluasa, ‘álainn’ radharc is maith leis na súile ‘milis’, bia nó deoch is maith leis an teanga.

Is minic a úsáidtear struchtúr mar ‘ina thost’ le staid duine nó ruda a chur in iúl. Is é an struchtúr atá ann an réamhfhocal ‘i’, nó ‘in’ móide an aidiacht shealbhach (a thagraíonn don duine nó den rud atá i gceist –‘béal’ sa chás seo), agus ansin an staid, ‘tost’ ainmfhocal a bhfuil séimhiú air sa chás seo cionn is go dtagraíonn sé d’aidiacht shealbhach tríú pearsa firinscneach.

Amharc ar na samplaí thíos:

‘‘Tá mé i mo chónaí.”

“Tá sé ina sheasamh.”

"Tá tú i do chodladh."