#copail

This post is about using the conditional mood with the copula form. Recap on the copula:

Masterpost: When to Use the Copula

All posts covering the copula

Postive

The conditional form of the copula is ba, which follows dá with an urú. It is contracted before a vowel.

Dá mb’í Áine an rúnaí, bheadh gach rud foirfe If Áine were the secretary, everything would be perfect

Negative

The negative form of dá mba is murar, which causes a séimhiú and becomes murarbh before a vowel.

Murarbh fhéidir leat é a dhéanamh ba cheart duit cúnamh a fháil If you couldn’t do it, you should have got help

Neutral

Má is merged with is to form más:

Más dochtúir thú, tá ceist agam ort If you’re a doctor, I have a question for you

Mura becomes murab before vowels:

Murab é sin do chóta, is dócha gur liomsa é If that’s not your coat, it’s probably mine

You will hear many people tell you that there are no words for 'yes' and 'no' in Irish. Well, that's some seafóid for you, because there are many. Very, very many. Lots many. Big many. You get the idea.

A yes/no question in Irish depends on what you're responding to. If the question contains a verb, i.e.

An ndéanann tú bosca? Do you make a box?

You respond with the positive or negative form of the verb:

Déanaim. I make. [yes]

Ní dhéanaim. I do not make. [no]

More commonly, you see the verb “to be”:

An bhfuil tú ann? Are you (being) there?

In which case, you answer again with the positive or negative (present tense for this example) form of bí:

Táim. I am. [yes]

Níl mé. I am not. [no]

This post covers the usage of subject vs. object forms of pronouns.

Subject forms: Mé, tú, sé, sí, muid, siad and their emphatic equivalents

Object forms: Mé, thú, é, í, muid, iad and their emphatic equivalents

The Action Party

Tú or tusa is used as the actor or subject, while thú or thusa is used as the object. To illustrate:

Cloisfidh tú é Cloisifdh sé thú

Notice that the actor (subject form) always follows the verb.

An exception would be if the verb is autonomous: no party is specified to be acting. You can read in depth about deriving impersonal verb forms in this post. For example, one cleans it:

Glantar é One cleans it

The impersonal verb, glantar, is followed by the object form é.

The Copula

Tú or tusa follows immediately after the copula form:

Is tusa a thuigeann mé

Verbal Noun

In the first point, with you as the object, we used thú over tú. However, with the verbal noun, this would be tú.

tú a chloisint

This post is about using the conditional mood with the copula form. Recap on the copula:

Masterpost: When to Use the Copula

All posts covering the copula

Postive

The conditional form of the copula is ba, which follows dá with an urú. It is contracted before a vowel.

Dá mb’í Áine an rúnaí, bheadh gach rud foirfe If Áine were the secretary, everything would be perfect

Negative

The negative form of dá mba is murar, which causes a séimhiú and becomes murarbh before a vowel.

Murarbh fhéidir leat é a dhéanamh ba cheart duit cúnamh a fháil If you couldn’t do it, you should have got help

Neutral

Má is merged with is to form más:

Más dochtúir thú, tá ceist agam ort If you’re a doctor, I have a question for you

Mura becomes murab before vowels:

Murab é sin do chóta, is dócha gur liomsa é If that’s not your coat, it’s probably mine

Last time on Comparatives, we learnt how to alter adjectives for comparatives and superlatives. We know how to express that Cuán is younger than Áine:

Tá Cuán níos óige ná Áine

However, when we want to emphasise that Cuán is younger than Áine, we have to use the copula. Here are two posts you might like to recap on:

Emphatic Forms 2: Sentence Construction

Masterpost: When to Use the Copula

Now, with that fresh in mind, compare the following pairs:

Tá Cuán níos óige ná Áine Cuan is younger than Áine

Is óige Cuán ná Áine Cuán is younger than Áine

Níos is dropped in the copula form. This form is most often seen in seanfhocail:

Is measa na mná ná an t-ól

In English, we can stress different words to emphasise different parts of the sentence. Here we use the copula, but structure the sentences depending on what it is we want to emphasise.

Note: All of these use the relative clause, so here’s a recap on that if necessary.

Take this sentence for an example:

Cheannaigh mé cat i gCorcaigh inniu

Is mise a cheannaigh cat i gCorcaigh inné I bought a cat in Cork yesterday or: It was me who bought a cat in Cork yesterday

Is cat a cheannaigh mé i gCorcaigh inné I bought a cat in Cork yesterday or: It was a cat that I bought in Cork yesterday

Is i gCorcaigh a cheannaigh mé cat inné I bought a cat in Cork yesterday or: It was in Cork that I bought a cat yesterday

Is inné a cheannaigh mé cat i gCorcaigh I bought a cat in Cork yesterday or: It was yesterday that I bought a cat in Cork

Is could also be omitted:

Mise a cheannaigh cat i gCorcaigh inne

Relative clauses start with the relative pronouns who, that, which, whose, where, and when, which we will collectively call whom'st'ves. Whom'st'ves define or identify the noun that precedes them, i.e. the teacher whom I like.

Under the relative clause, the copula still uses is, ba, nach, nár and nárbh, but before a word starting with a vowel or an fh-, ba becomes ab. Nothing else changes with the copula.

So, again with whom’st’ve, we use the copula (while deliberately taking the chance to demonstate ba):

The teacher whom I’d prefer

would then be:

An mhúnteoir ab fhearr liom

Posts you may like to revisit:

Masterpost: When to use the Copula

All Posts for the Copula

When the classification is indefinite, it comes first:

The doctor is a dog Is madra é an dochtúir

When the classification is definite, the subject comes first:

The doctor is the dog Is é an dochtúir an madra