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Do you remember how to express the past tense so that you can tell someone what you were doing? You would replace the word “Tha” (for the present tense) or “Bidh” (future tense), with the word “Bha”. Listen to Munro and Morag discussing what they were up to yesterday.

Munro	Dè bha thu a’ dèanamh an-dè? What were you doing yesterday?
Morag	Bha mi a’ ceannach rudan anns na bùthan. I was buying things in the shops.
Munro	Bha mi a’ coiseachd air an dùthaich. I was walking in the countryside.
Morag	An robh thu a’ faicinn mòran? Did you see/Were you seeing much?
Munro	Bha. Bha mi a’ cleachdadh prosbaig. Yes. I was using binoculars.
Morag	Bha sin feumail. That was useful.

Now listen to their conversation.

Play MP3 file

Hopefully you’ve noticed, during the lesson, that you can put words at the end of sentences like “Bha mi a’ cleachdadh…” or “Tha mi a’ dèanamh …” This means that instead of just saying something like “I was singing”, you can say “I was singing a song”.

Useful vocabulary
Gaelic	English
an-dè	yesterday
rudan	things
anns na bùthan	in the shops
feumail	useful

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September :: page 4 Dè bha thu a’ dèanamh? (What were you doing?)

September :: page 4
Dè bha thu a’ dèanamh? (What were you doing?)