#staidear

Hey everyone,

I’ve been building a small Irish language learning app called Píosa Beag over the last few weeks. It gives you one new word or proverb each day, with pronunciation and a streak system to help you stick with it.

I’m a first-year software dev student and this is my first ever app. Not finished yet, but I’d love to share the journey and get any thoughts or ideas. Check it out here: https://piosabeag.ie

Slán!

For studying/learning - have you heard of the website sionnach.app? It's a free irish learning web app (mobile apps in development still) that seems like a great alternative to Duolingo for anyone jumping ship (or who never liked it in the first place). It's stylistically quite different from Duolingo but seems very well developed. I had never heard of it before this week but it looks great, so I'm spreading the word!

A selection of pages from a Bun Go Barr schoolbook - aimed at kids around 10-12 - that has reference pages on verbs, weather, numbers, seasons, possessives, questions and basic sentence structure.

In Irish, there are two forms of the English word 'to be' (is/are): the verb 'bí' (tá/níl/bhfuil/raibh/beidh), and the copula (is/an?/ní). The question is, when to use which?

The answer: it depends on whether you are talking about a noun (thing), verb (action), or adjective (descriptor).

The copula is only used when you are linking a noun to another noun (or pronoun). ie: Thing = Thing.

Verbs and adjectives use the verb bí (usually the tá form).

Compare these 3 sentences: I am tired, I am running, I am a teacher.

'Tired' is an adjective. We therefore need bí (in its usual form, tá). So our sentence is: "Tá mé tuirseach" ("táim tuirseach" in the standard form).

'Running' is a verb. We need bí here as well: "Tá mé ag rith" (táim ag rith).

'A teacher' is a noun.

Noun = Noun: in this case, we need to use the copula. It becomes: "Is múinteoir mé". Because this is the Thing = Thing structure, you can't use bí (Tá mé múinteoir/tá múinteoir mé are both wrong).

(Remember that when using the copula, the two 'things' in the sentence are usually in the opposite order than in english - 'is múinteoir mé, not 'is mé múinteoir' , even though 'I' comes before 'teacher' in the English sentence.)

You could also use a slightly different structure for emphasis: Múinteoir is ea mé (i AM a teacher!).

It's also worth noting that the copula doesn't like being next to the word 'an' ('the'), so you have to change the structure slightly in that case. Consider 'I am THE teacher' - you'd think it would be 'Is an múinteoir mé', but 'is' and 'an' don't like being together, so it changes slightly: 'Is mise an múinteoir'. (You introduce yourself as 'Is mise Pól' for the same reason!)

More examples of sentences using bí and the copula correctly: Is mise d'athair! Níl tú ag dul go dtí an léithreas. An dochtuir é an fear sin? Bhí mé san ollscoil. Is mac léinn Gaeilge mé.

So there you have it! When to use the copula, and when not.

Are there exceptions? Obviously - is Gaeilge é seo. Here are some:

You can carefully arrange a Thing = Thing sentence to avoid the copula: 'Múinteoir atá ionam' is an example. Use the structure 'Thing + a + [appropriate form of verb bí] + i (the preposition 'in') + other Thing'. The literal meaning could be written something like, 'it is a teacher that is in me'. (ionam = i + mé). This form is nice because bí has more forms than the copula, so it can be easier to express more complex structures. Did you know there is no future form of the copula?* If you want to say 'I Will be a teacher', 'Múinteoir a beidh ionam' is your only option. I am only a teacher - Níl ionam ach múinteoir!

Is maith liom ___, ___ is ainm dom, etc - I personally don't understand why these phrases are constructed the way they are (why not tá?). And that's okay. I simply learn them as 'set phrases' - words that always go together. This doesn't work so well for more basic sentences like my previous examples, because for those, you will be putting new combinations of words together on the fly, so knowing the grammar mechanics really helps. For these set phrases, I just learn them and ná chur ceisteanna faoi!

*technically, the future form of the copula is also 'is' - so ' I will be a teacher' is also translated as 'is múinteoir mé', the same as present tense. Could get confusing!

I hope this was helpful to somebody! I have scanned for typos and mistakes in the Irish, but I am typing up on mobile, so I can't guarantee perfection.

Oíche mhaith agus slán!

As far as I understand it, “imíonn” (root: imigh) means to leave somewhere and “fágann” (root: fág) means to leave something.

For example, you might leave (imigh) a room - imíonn Pól an seomra nuair a críoch an clár teilifís - but you would leave (fág) a ball outside - fágann Seoirsín an liathróid amach gach oíche.

Fainic! This post is long and has complicated grammar.

Táim ag scríobh anois to address something that came up in the notes a few times:

the rumour that the copula is for 'permanent' things, and bí is for 'temporary' things.

There is *some* amount of truth to this, but it's not that simple - definitely not simple enough to be the first thing to tell foghlaimeoirí about what the copula is. Part of the problem seems to be that teachers in schools used the old "the copula is for permanent things" to avoid having to actually teach their students what a noun is, which of course is silly. (All nouns are permanent, all adjectives and verbs are temporary? There's no way that can go wrong).

What if you're saying, my hair is brown? (Tá mo chuid gruaige dhonn)? How is that any less permanent than 'I am a teacher'? (True, I could dye it tomorrow, but equally I could quit my job tomorrow, plus my hair has beeen brown since I was born). Yet you can't say 'Is mo chuid gruaige dhonn'.

So what is the truth to this copula-permanence stuff, other than the dubious assumption that all nouns are permanent?

If you use a *valid* bí construction that links two nouns, it *may* suggest less permanence than the copula. Wikipedia (the Irish syntax page) compares 'Is dochtúir é Seán' (copula) to 'Tá Seán ina dhochtúir' [approx. 'Seán is in his doctor, ina = i + a (in his)]. The second option suggests *to some extent* that Sean is a doctor for now, at the moment. The copula doesn't have any element of that.

In this way, it might be true that copula implies permanence. but it is NOT true that if Sean is only being a doctor for the week, you can say 'Tá dochtúir Seán'. The key word is a VALID bí construction, which means this isn't helpful to know when you're just starting to work out when to use bí vs copula.

Also, there are multiple possible bí constructions (Múinteoir atá ionam and Táim i mo mhúinteoir are two different ones, and I'm not sure how many others there might be). I am not a native speaker (just a grammar lover) and I'm not sure whether the '___ atá i ___' construction carries the connotation if 'for now' the same way the 'tá ___ ina ___' one does.

Here's another interesting subtlety of the copula that could lend credence to the copula-permanent thing: the copula can be used where you would expect bí for adjectives in some cases. Example - is maith (é) sin! That's good!

We would expect 'Tá sé sin go maith', which to my knowledge is also acceptable. This site I found (www.rosenlake.net/er/irish/lrslinger-copula.html) refers to 'is maith sin!' as 'exclamatory'. To paraphrase the site, using the copula means you have to put the adjective (maith, good) earlier in the sentence, so it becomes more emphasised in the sentence. (If you say those two versions aloud, you will probably agree that 'maith' seems to be the whole point of 'is maith sin!', but by the time you've said 'tá sé sin go maith!' you've almost forgotten what the point was.) The website specifically says that this exclamatory copula construction can only be used for adjectives that are permanent and subjective. (It doesn't cite a source for this, though.) The 'permanent' aspect of 'that's good!' sounds a bit strange, but I suppose if an event occurred that you say 'that's good' about, the event being good is unlikely to change in the future.

Another example of 'is' for an adjective: you can say tá sé tinn (he is sick), but also, 'is tinn atá sé' (it is sick that he is). This one is more clearly a rearranging of the sentence. Again, it's to emphasise the adjective (he is SICK, it's SICK that he is), although not in an 'exclamatory' way like the is maith sin example (that would be, 'is tinn é!' which isnt acceptable according to this site because it is neither permanent nor subjective). The site also gives this example: 'Is aisteach bealaigh Dé'; the way of God is strange. (They are strange, the ways of god!) They say that 'aisteach' is a permanent adjective, so this is an acceptable construct. You could also say 'tá bealaigh Dé aisteach' (less emphasis).

A third example is 'Is bán an páipear é', the paper is white (inherently). Tá an páipéar bán would be the typical construction (adjective, so use tá).

These copula constructions for adjectives are all *optional*. Using the normal bí (tá) is completely acceptable, so it might be a good idea to stick with your basic 'Tá [noun] [adjective]' phrasing until you're confident.

You can see that things get complicated, and while there is apparently truth to the rumour that 'the copula is for permanent things', but it's not simple, and it's definitely not the first rule to teach beginners, ceapaim.

Start with the Thing = Thing rule for using the copula, and you'll never get it wrong.

Fun fact! Apparently, 'is maith sin' is the origin of the somewhat outdated British adjective 'smashing', meaning good, or excellent, used as an exclamation.

Slán, agus go raibh maith agaibh!