Tá sé ina fhear. Is and Tá with adjectives. Numerals from "one" to "ten".
by Myles Dillon
T LESSON X The same construction as that with the verbal nouns for "standing", "sitting", etc. is used with common nouns as predicate of the verb td: td se ina fhear shaibhir "he is a rich man"; td si ina bo mhaith "she is a good cow". Here is fear saibhir ejear saibhir is ea e; is bo mhaith z, bo mhaith is ea i are also correct. In sentences of mere definition only the copula is may be used: isfion e (or fion is ea e) "it is wine (not water)"; ni sionnach e sin ach gadhar "that is not a fox but a dog". But in sentences of description either form is permissible, and both are equally common. Where a future of the copula might be expected, the construction with ina is always used: beidh se ina shagartfe Chaise "he will be a priest by Easter". And this construction is also used in the present and past tenses, when the defini- tion depends upon the time: 1 td se ina dhochtuir (anois) "he is a doctor (now)"; bhi se ina innealtoir "he was an engineer". Thus it is quite correct to say: bhi se ina dhoch- tuir agus ba dhochtuir maith e (or dochtuir maith dob ea e), where the second proposition is also descriptive. And like- wise, "it was a big house" would be tigh mor dob ea e; but bhi se ina thigh mhor is also permissible. Is and td with adjectives. The verb td is used only to describe a temporary or acci- dental condition or a position. It may therefore be followed by a preposition, or by adjectives meaning "hot, cold, full, 1 Feidir "possible" always takes the copula: isfeidir duit dul arm amdireach "you can (shall be able to) go there tomorrow". B'fheidir means "perhaps" and is followed by the conjunction go. 62 LESSON X 63 empty, hard, soft, ready, broken, closed, tired, sick, sore, sad, alive, dead" and so on. 1 The copula is is used when the predicate is a noun, or an adjective expressing inherent quality, measure or colour: "he is a man", "the house is big", "the stone is heavy", "the paper is white". And these adjectives are farther divided into adjectives of quality and adjectives of measure or colour. The former may be used with td as adverbs (p. 58), but the latter may not. You may say td an Id go bred or is bred an la e "it is a fine day", "td an cailin go deas" or is deas an cailin i "she is a pretty girl", and so for other adjectives of quality. But mor "big", beag "small", fada "long", gearr "short", trom "heavy", etc. and the names of colours, are better construed with the copula: is mor an tigh e, is tigh mor e, tigh mor is ea e, is trom an chloch z, is clock throm z, clock throm is ea i, and so on. The form td an chloch trom, td an tigh mor, td an pdipear ban would be exceptional. 2 (is) pdipear ban e seo "this is white paper" is the normal form. 3 However, when either of the prefixes ana- or ro-precedes the adjective, or a qualifying adverb follows, the classifica- tion of adjectives is dissolved and all may occur with td: td se sin ana-mhaith "that is very good"; td an clai ro-ard "the fence is too high"; nil se fada a dhothain "it is not long enough". THE NUMERALS FROM a haon one a do two a tri three a ceathair four a cuig five TO TEN. ase six a seacht seven a hocht eight a naoi nine a deich ten The numerals without a following noun are as above, 1 Adjectives used with td include all those ending in -ach, and all past participles. 2 td an pdipear ban might be said of a page still blank. 3 As Professor Toma O Maille has pointed^ out, there is a close analogy with the Spanish verbs ser and estar, Eriu vi 57. 6 4 IRISH always preceded by unstressed a which prefixes h to aon and ocht. With a noun a is dropped, do is changed to dd and ceathair to cheithre. Aon and dd always aspirate a following initial consonant (but see the special rules pp. 16-17), and da is usually itself aspirated {dhd) if the article does not precede (an dd); tri, cheithre, cuig, se may be followed by a noun in the singular, which is then aspirated 1 , but if the plural is used there is no aspiration; seacht, ocht, naoi, deich cause eclipsis. Note that dhd is followed by the dual (Lesson XII). Aon meaning "one" requires amhdin "only" after the noun: aon fhear amhdin "one man". Without this supporting amhdin, aon means "any": an bhfuil aon airgead agat "have you any money?" Nifhaca aon ni iontach "I did not see anything strange, I saw nothing strange". VOCABULARY abhar (ouar) m. material, the makings of; abhar tine fuel ar an dtuaith (era dua) in the country ar maidin (er-madin) this morning, in the morning ar scoil (er-sgol) at school aturnae (o-toorna) m. solici- tor bliain (bleean) f. year; mile sa bhliain a thousand a year; deich mbliana ten years brothallach (brohalach) warm cat (kot) m. cat cathair (kahir) f. city clai (klee) m. fence contae na Midhe (koonta, na mee) county Meath Daingean, An (dangan) m. Dingle docha probable; is docha go bhfuil there probably is fe cheann at the end of; fe cheann bliana in a year's time giuistis (gyoosh-deesh) m. district justice i gconai always liathroid (leear-hod) f. ball maistir (maashdir) m. master mar conj. for mile (meeli) m. pi. milte thousand pingin (pingin) f. penny punt (poont) m. pound scilling (shgiling) f. shilling traigh (traag) f. beach 1 This is by analogy with dhd which always aspirates and appears to be followed by a singular, as the dual has a separate form only in some classes of feminine nouns, see p. 73. LESSON X 65 Exercise 24 A. Aon chapall amhain. Dha shuil. Tri bliana. Cheithre puint. Cuig leabhair. Se tithe. Seacht mba. Ocht gcapaill. Naoi mbaid. Deich ngadhair. Seacht scillinge agus deich bpingine. B. 1. Do bhi se bocht, ach ta se ina fhear shaibhir anois. 2. Is docha go bhfuil na milte punt aige. 3. Beidh se ina dhoch- tuir fe cheann bliana. 4. Bhi si ina cailin mhaith inniu, ach ni bhionn si mar sin i gconai. 5. Bhiomair inar sui ar an gclai nuair a thit an crann. 6. Cram mor ard dob ea e. 7. Beidh se ina abhar tine againn. 8. Is maith an t-abhar tine e an t-adhmad. 9. Nuair a bhiomair inar bpaisti 1 do bhiomair inar gconai ar an dtuaith. 10. Ta Seamas ina aturnae, agus ta Tomas ina dhochtuir. 11. Dochtuir ana-mhaith is ea e. Exercise 25 A. 1. One cat and two dogs. 2. Three sticks and four balls. 3. Five pounds, six shillings and sevenpence. 4. Eight dogs, nine horses and ten cows. B. i. Tom was ten years a solicitor, but he is a justice now. 2. He is a rich man. 3. He probably has two thousand pounds a year. 4. His son will be a farmer, for they have land in County Meath. 5. When they were boys, they lived in the country. 6. Michael was at school in Dingle when he was a little boy. 7. When I was a child, I lived in the city. 8. We used to go to the beach every Sunday. 9. The master is a good teacher. 10. The boys will be good scholars. 11. Yesterday was a very wet day. 12. It was cold this morning, but it is fine and warm now. 1 Here and in future exercises the nominative pi. may be used for the dative, as is now common in the spoken language. .