T Vs Is

Tá vs Is

Something that a lot of learners struggle with in Irish is when to translate "is/am/are" as "tá" and when to use "is".

Tá is a form of the verb bí in the present tense so anything I say about it applies to all of its forms. Is is something called the "copula" and again what I say about it applies to its other forms.

So for example you would say "Tá mé go maith" for "I am good" but you would say "Is múinteoir mé" for "I am a teacher". This kind of gets across the most basic rule which is that you use is when you're linking together nouns or pronouns:

Is múinteoir é - He's a teacher

Is múinteoir maith é - He's a good teacher

Is múinteoir é an príomhoide - The principal is a teacher

Is mise an múinteoir - I am the teacher

Is é an múinteoir é - He is the teacher

You can probably see above that the syntax can be a little bit complex there, the words aren't always in the same order as english and the structure can change depending on things being definite ("the teacher") or indefinite ("a teacher"). But I won't go into the details of that in this post.

Whereas you can use tá for other things, but not for linking nouns or pronouns together.

Tá sé anseo - He is here (adverb)

Tá sé go maith - He is good (adverb, kind of adjective)

Tá sé ard - He is tall (adjective)

Tá sé ar an mbord - He is on the table (preposition)

Something to note is that you can use the copula 'is' to link nouns and adjectives and nouns/pronouns like you can with tá, but it's less common and is more used for emphasis these days.

Is mór an fear - The man is big

Is láidir na mná - The women are strong

Or in another but more common structure

Is mór an fear é - He is a big man

Is láidir an bhean í - She's a strong woman

Let me know if you have questions about any of this or if you want me to go more in depth with the structure of the copula since I do think it's quite a complex part of the language.

Wick/transmasc-nb Neo canon

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is Éireannach é 🤲🏻

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Learning

-Irish Wikibook online textbook

-Philo-Celtic free online Irish classes

-if you have money, learnirishonline.com

-songsinirish.com provides visual lyrics

-Daltaí na Gaeilge

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Media

-TG4 (I like ros na rún) many shows are available on youtube including ros na rún

Spotify stuff:

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Practice

-Duolingo

-An Siopa Leabhar (they have a Heartstopper in Irish coming out soon! I preordered :) )

-Foras na Gaeilge

-Cula4 Spraoi

-The Internet Archive (free online books)

-Nuacht1

Irish gov cites to check out if you’re bored that may or may not be helpful

-ainm.ie

-dúchas.ie

-celt.ucc.ie

-aistear.ie

-isos.dias.ie

Community

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Advice

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-Find something to speak ONLY Irish to. Maybe a person but that’s hard. A pet, a stuffed animal. Try out your new vocab on them.

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