Irish Class. November 26, 2007

Checked against Nick’s Official version.

<!–

–>

agallamh	interview
pióg	pie	f2
cuairteoir	visitor	pl -í
bocht	poor(a1), poor person	n is m1
saibhir	rich
teaghlach	family	m1 pron TIE-lach
aosta	elderly

Review of the copula

First
form to link a predicate describing
a general category with a specific subject.

General form:

Previously: Is + {General noun} + {Pronoun} + {Optional clarifying information for third person pronouns}

Is dlíodóir í Síle.	Sheila is a lawyer.
An dlíodoir í Síle?	Is Sheila a lawyer?
Sea/Ní hea	yes/no

Question and Answers

An feirmeoir é Séamas.	Is Séamas a farmer?
Is ea/’sea	Yes
Ní hea	No

The neuter form ea is used because it refers back to the
category feirmeoir, not the specific person
Séamas.

Second Form: Identifying a specific person/thing/group as the particular instance of collection. Usage:

Is + {Pronoun} + {Optional clarifying information for third person pronouns} + {Definite noun with article} + (Optional) additional information.
The additional information at the end can say more about the person or thing,
making this a more useful statement.

Is í Síle an dlíodóir atá anseo.	Síle is the lawyer that is here.
Is mise an mac léinn atá álainn.	I am the student that is handsome. [Nick’s example]

Is é Seán an muinteoir.	Sean is the teacher
Is é Seán an muinteoir.	Sean is it.
An í Síle an dlíodoir?	Is Sheila the lawyer?
Is Síle í é.	Sheila is it.
Is í (sí)/Ní hí	Yes/No	Not Sea/Ní hea
Is é (sé)/Ní hé	Yes/No

Contractions

Is í	Sí
Is sé	Sé
Is iad	Siad

---

The Genitive Case

Whenever you have more than one noun together, all but the first
must be in the genitive case.

With the definite article, in the genitive case:

• For masculine nouns, the article is an and the noun
  is lenited.
• For feminine nouns, the article is na and the
  noun is not lenited
• The article is not repeated.

Consider seolta an bháid “The boat’s sail”/”The sail of the boat”. From
bád “boat” (m). Note that the article an is not
repeated: It applies to both seolta and bád.

seolta an bháid has a lot of information. It tells you that
bád is masculine,
because it is lenited after the article, as well as (obviously) giving
the form of the genitive. You can see that the genitive is báid.
If you did not know the form of the nominative,
you still might guess that it is bád.

teach an shagairt. “The house of the priest.”/”The priest’s
house”

• sagart “priest” is masculine–The article is
  an and the noun is lenited.
• The genitive is formed by slenderizing the final consonant
  (-irt).

Indefinite masculine nouns: Not lenited

seola báid	a boat’s sail
teach sagairt	a priest’s house
bord fir	a man’s table

teach an fhir	The man’s house	nominative fear m1
teach an bhuachaill	The boy’s house	nominative buachaill m1
ainm an fhir	The man’s name

i rith	during	lit. “in the running of”
ar fud	throughout

A feminine noun: Consider i rith na seachtaine. “During
the week.” (Contrast nominative an tseachtain)

• The genitive is formed by -e.
• The article na and the absence of lenition tell you that
  the noun is feminine.

Similarly: ar fud na tíre. “throughout the land”

Vocabulary with genitives

méid	size, quantity, amount
piobar	pepper	m1
giotár	guitar	m1
urlár	floor	m1
méid an urláir	size of the floor	note nom.an t-urlár
pláta	plate	m4
méid an phláta	size of the plate	pláta ends in a vowel, so ending does not change
mála	bag	m4
méid an mhála	size of the bag	mála ends in a vowel, so ending does not change
arán	bread	m1
méid an aráin	size of the bread
cupán	cup	m1
méid an chupán	size of the cup
solas	light	m1
gloine	glass	f4
méid na gloine	size of the glass
i rith na maidine	during the morning
óráid	speech
i rith na hóráid	during the speech
cis	basket	f2 pl -eanna
méid na cise	size of the basket
méid na fuinneoge	size of the window
méid na hamharclainne	size of the theater	amharclann f2
iris	journal, magazine	f2
méid na hirise	size of the magazine
méid na mná	size of the woman	[Nick’s example] nom. an bhean
méid na mban	size of the women	note eclipsis
méid an úill	size of the apple	note nom. an t-úll
méid an tae	size of the tea	t is a dental, so no lenition. Ends in a vowel, so no inflection.