Scottish Gaelic

Noun

beagan m ‎(genitive singular beagain, no plural)

1. a few, a small number

   beagan mhionaidean‎ ― a few minutes

   an ceann beagain làithean‎ ― at the end of a few days

2. a little, a small amount, bit, a bit

   beagan uisge‎ ― a little water

   beagan bìdh‎ ― a bit of food

Usage notes

• Followed by the genitive case, de and the dative case, or a prepositional pronoun derived from de:

  beagan ime / beagan de dh'ìm‎ ― a small amount of butter

  beagan dhinn‎ ― a few of us

• Used where English uses determiner, adverb or pronoun.

  beagan chàirdean‎ ― a few friends

  beagan dhiubh‎ ― a small number of them

  beagan nas sine‎ ― a bit older / slightly older

  beagan nas slaodaiche‎ ― a little more slowly

  Tha i dìreach beagan is còig ceud meatair.‎ ― It’s just a little over five hundred metres.

  Tha airgead aig beagan.‎ ― A few [people] have money.

  Bha e doirbh airson bheagain.‎ ― It was difficult for a few.

Antonyms

• mòran

Related terms

• beag

References

• Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, ISBN 0 901771 92 9
• “becán” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.