'Canas 'tá sibh a chairde.

Táim ag cleachtadh an aidiacht agus chonaic mé an abairt shampla seo.

fad an bhóthair dhírigh So starting with the adj, the h is there because the adj ends in a slender consonant right? Also díreach changed to dírigh because -ach changes to (a)igh in masc genitive.

The noun is where the trouble is, I know the i is there because bóthar has to be slenderised because it ends in a broad consonant or is it just because that happens to be the genitive of bóthar (apologies but sometimes Basic Irish Grammar by Stenson doesn't read so well). So really I have two questions after that mini essay, 1: Where does the h in bhóthair come from?

2: in this whole scenario which is effecting change on the noun bóthar? the nound fad or the adj díreach? I mean if I was to say fad an bóthair without an adj, is it not fad forcing bóthar into the genitive? so what effect, if any, does díreach have on bóthar ? Is it the h

Apologies if my question is a bit al over the place but it reflects my current state of confusion

'maith agaibh

It's the article an (the) that puts the h on a masculine noun when that noun is in the genitive case. The first two tables on this page will give you a neat summary of how it works: http://nualeargais.ie/gnag/artikel.htm

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

fad | an | bhóthair | dhírigh

fad - noun masculine
an - article genitive masculine singular
bhóthair - attributive noun genitive masculine singular
dhírigh - attributive adjective genitive singular

Fad an bhóthair - the length of the road - is the whole phrase it consists of two nouns fad and bóthar.
bóthar is the attribute of fad, it describes fad, and an attributive noun is in the genitive thus bóthair.
Because it’s a definite or specific noun it takes the article an - the - and being in the genitive the article causes lenition when the noun is, as in the case here, masculine so …an bhóthair.
Díreach is an adjective that describes the noun bóthar and it must agree with the noun in number and case so it becomes dírigh which is the genitive singular;...an bhóthair is a masculine noun in the genitive and adjectives after a masculine genitive lenite so we get dhírigh.

Hope that's understandable, and I hope it helps.

Go raibh maith agat

go raibh maith agaibh a leaideanna. Cuidiúil ar fad