This question was posted on Bitesize, and I'm not 100% certain of the correct answer. An féidir libh cuidiú liom, le bhur dtoil?

The sentences in question are "tá sé ag léamh leabhar" and "tá a leabhar á léamh aige".?

Redwolf

What is the question ?

The first one is translated as: 'he is reading book(s)'; depending whether dialectal or standard.
The second: 'He is reading his book'.

Tá leabhair á leamh aige 'He is reading books'.

Cian

I suspect that you want to know what the difference between á léamh and ag léamh is semantically speaking?

_________________

Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Yes...the latter. Sorry I wasn't clear enough...I've been without internet for a couple of days and I'm trying to get caught up with things.

á is a combination of ag (or do) + a 'his' / 'her' and is used to denote the object of a sentence when it is followed by a verbal noun:

e.g. Tá sé á bhualadh 'he is hitting him'; Tá sé á bualadh 'he is hitting her'; ... á mbualadh '... hitting them'; ... ám bhualadh '... hitting me'.

I'm not sure if this is what is happening here though!

I remember Breandán explaining some other cause for the change to á on the Irish Beginners page, but I can't remember exactly what he said. Sorry! I think he said that it is something to do with emphasis/ fronting/ temporal.

I think Labhrás, Breandán, or Lughaidh would explain it better.

Cian

_________________

Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Tá sé ag léamh leabhar = He is reading books (leabhar = genitve plural, so in CO; in the dialects nominative singular is possible = a book)
This sentence is in active voice.
Passive voice would be: Tá leabhair á léamh aige. = Books are being read by him.

Tá a leabhar á léamh aige. = His (her, their) book is being read by him.
This sentence is in passive voice.
Active voice would be: Tá sé ag léamh a leabhair. = He is reading his (her, their) book.

_________________

Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

And if I wanted to say "He has read his book" it would be "Tá a leabhar léite aige" yes?

Yes.