Irish Translation Forum

Cad é an slí bheatha atá agat, a Jim?

slí bheatha = living (profession)

mhwombat wrote:Cad é an slí bheatha atá agat, a Jim?

slí bheatha = living (profession)

Is fear dóiteáin cáilithe mé.

Is sarfhóram é seo. Tá sé thar barr.
sar- = prefix meaning 'excellent'. Note the lenition (aspiration) of the noun to which it is attached
thar barr = excellent (adj)

JSmith13 wrote:Is fear dóiteáin cáilithe mé.

fear dóiteáin = fireman

Sin suimiúl, Jim! Is ríomhchláraitheoir mé.

suimiúl = interesting
ríomhchláraitheoir = computer programmer

mhwombat wrote:

JSmith13 wrote:Is fear dóiteáin cáilithe mé.

fear dóiteáin = fireman

Sin suimiúl, Jim! Is ríomhchláraitheoir mé.

suimiúl = interesting
ríomhchláraitheoir = computer programmer

Nílim trodach tinte anois de bhrí bhí mé díobhálaithe go holc ag obair. Táim i mo shuí taobh thiar deasc anois ag déanamh an rud céanna beagnach. IT deasc cuidigh agus ag freagra na teilefóin.

Playing fiche ceist (twenty questions) is an excellent way to practice using sentences with both tá and is. Join us here for a game!

I've added pronunciation tips to the lesson at the beginning of this thread.

I have added an exercise to the Irish Wikibook to help people practice when to use tá and when to use is. The exercise is designed for beginners (the vocabulary is basic), but I've thrown some tricky sentences in, so expect a workout!

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Irish/Basi ... 3.A1_vs_Is

Wikibooks are a community effort, and it seems that lots of folks are working on this book. Material is constantly being moved around to improve the flow, so if you don't find the exercise in the above link, look for a heading called "Review: Tá vs Is". The exercises are in centred boxes, so they should be relatively easy to find.

Yeah, I found that section a bit confusing too. It has bits written by different people and it needs a bit of tidying. It should probably also mention that the copula is used certain expressions (Is liomsa é, Is maith liom é, ...)

I always thought that "conas" was a form of the copula. I never heard anything like "is conas..." or "an conas...". I think your example is a better one.

Editing wikibooks is very easy. You don't even have to register (although it's a good idea). It uses a syntax that's similar to HTML, but simpler. Here's a quick guide:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks: ... dit_a_page

At the moment, the book badly needs some organisation. It's a loose collection of useful information, but it needs some structure before it could be used on its own to learn Irish. It would be fantastic if someone could figure out a good overall structure for the a complete guide to learning Irish, impose that structure on what's there, and maybe create sections where needed with TODO notes about what should go in that section. I'm happy to help with formatting and technical stuff like that. The problem is that I'm so preoccupied with the trees (putting tidbits of info into the book) that I can't see the forest!