There are two past tenses in Gaelic, past progressive and simple past. Let's have a look at the differences and how each tense works. 

an t-sìde / an aimsir  = le temps (qu’il fait)

Ciamar a tha an t-sìde an-diugh ? = Quel temps fait-il aujourd’hui?

Tha i brèagha = il fait beau

Tha i blàth = il fait chaud

Tha i fuar = il fait froid

Tha i fliuch = c’est pluvieux/humide

Tha i sgòthach = c’est nuageux

Tha i ceòthach = c’est brumeux

Tha an t-uisge ann = il pleut

​Tha e a’ cur an t-sneachda = il neige

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Hi everyone I am learning how to make some more exciting graphics to share with you all.
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Tha mi… / Chan eil mi...     Je suis... / Je ne suis pas...
sgìth                                        fatigué(e)
toilichte                                  content(e)
brònach                                  triste
feargach                                 en colère
snog                                      gentil(le)
èibhinn                                  drôle
leisg                                      paresseux/paresseuse
socharach                             timide
trang                                     occupé(e)
deiseil                                   prêt(e)
tinn                                       malade

Et pour mettre un peu de nuance…

beagan    =    un peu
uabhasach    =    terriblement, extrêmement


Tha mi deiseil – Je suis prêt(e)
Chan eil mi tinn – Je ne suis pas malade
Tha mi uabhasach brònach – Je suis terriblement triste
Tha mi uabhasach toilichte – Je suis extrêmement content(e)
Tha mi beagan sgìth – Je suis un peu fatigué(e)
Chan eil mi uabhasach trang – Je ne suis pas extrêmement occupé(e)

About the teachers​Marine

Gaelic sentences can seem very confusing when an English speaker first starts looking at them. A lot of that is because Gaelic sentences have a very different order than English sentences. So lets take a look 

Probably one of the first things you encountered when starting to learn Gaelic is the idea that verbs work a little different in Gaelic than they do in English and many other European languages. 

​They don't change with the person they are talking about. They do change with the type of sentence. So you have one form for a positive statements (something is) one for negative statements (something is not) and one each for positive and negative questions (is something? Isn't something). 

​All verbs in Gaelic do this in all tenses but probably the first one you encountered was "Tha" to be. 

Here is what the four forms of "tha" look like:

Tha i brèagha.          It is lovely
Chan eil i brèagha.   It is not lovely
A bheil i brèagha?     Is it lovely?
Nach eil i brèagha?   Isn't it lovely?

You may have been told that these four can be broken down into two groups, independent (Tha) and dependent  ( Chan eil, A bheil, & Nach eil). 

If you look at this break down you can see that the two groups look rather different from each other. However the forms in the dependent group look very similar, at least the second parts do.
This second part is really the dependent form of the verb. The other parts are the dependent particles. 

They are going to show up with the dependent forms of every verb in every tense, so it is good to get friendly with them from the beginning. So let me introduce them to you:

Negative statement particle:  Cha or Chan when it is in front of a verb that starts with a vowel. Cha(n) lenites (adds an H to the next word) so watch out for that. This particle lets you know that the sentence you are about to read is a negative statement, so something is not, was not, will not etc. 

Positive question particle: An or Am when it is in front of a verb that starts with a B,P,F or M. And sometimes it is just A (as in A bheil).  This guy lets you know that you are reading a positive question for example: Is it raining? Are we there yet?

Negative question particle: Nach just Nach, this one doesn't change. This lets you know that it is starting a negative question like "Didn't you get bread at the store?". 

Now that you know what these wonderful wee particles are keep and eye out for them. You will see them all over Gaelic sentences. 

Here's the thing, the English version of Ed Sheeran's song "Thinking Out Loud" has 926,011,158 views ( as of 12:10 Mountain time Jan 13, 2016). That is a lot of views. I would guess that means that lots of people like the song and probably Ed Sheeran himself. So it is a big deal when someone like him, who is successful in the dominant culture takes the time not just to approve a minority language cover but to sing it himself. For one thing it may well help many people find out about the Irish language and it will certainly help many people to see Irish as a worth while language. After all Ed has 14,091,891 likes on Facebook where as we here at Daily Gaelic are working our way up to 4,000  so he has a bit of a bigger reach. 
    I'm not in any way saying that traditional music or any other part of Gaelic culture isn't a valid thing to preserve and treasure or that these things aren't good ways for people to get interested in the language. Some people however will never come into contact with these things and/or they may just not be interested in them. But some of those people might be Ed Sheeran fans and may become interested in learning Irish Gaelic because of the song. 
    Along similar but different lines not everyone who speaks or is learning Irish is going to be really into traditional music at least not all the time. I have to admit to having days where all I want to listen to is pop music. Things like Ed Sheeran singing his hit song in Irish and all the great covers and original songs that TG Lurgan and Seo linn have done means I can listen to Irish language pop. From looking at some of the comments on the web it seems like these pop songs are really popular with younger Irish learners. 
Honestly I am very jealous that we don't have more of this Scottish Gaelic. And ideally it wouldn't just be pop music. I'd love to see people using Irish and Scottish Gaelic to express themselves in every genre of music. 

When learning any new language, there can be some frustration when you try to listen to and understand native speakers. There are a few reasons for this.
The first and biggest reason is lazy pronunciation and slang. Native speakers of a language tend to be much less precise in the way they say and even use words often without noticing that they are doing it.
Have a look at this video of a British man talking about just this with his dialect of English.  

This happens with Gaelic too. Just think of all the times 'agus' is reduced to 's. 

This also brings us to the second main reason words may not sound they way you learned them: regional dialects. Gaelic has lots of them. Some times they say the same word differently from the way you learned, sometimes they may even use a different word. 

Here is a great set of maps to help show some of these dialectical differences

Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey

Another good way of getting a handle on dialect differences is to hear them. Listen to BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal, look at some of the videos on e-Stòras  and Guthan nan Eilean check out some you tube videos ( try putting Nova Scotia Gaelic in the search box) and keep looking around on-line as there is new stuff all the time.