Lesson: confirm or deny the predicate, and enquire if it's true
An cat é? Is it a cat?
Though Is(copula) doesn't itself appear in the question, it is there. The interrogative form of Is is An. And it is followed by the predicate equired about. The answer in Irish is interesting. In English the verb to be preceeded by its subject, is used to answer the question. But in Irish Is cannot stand alone: it is meaningless without a predicate. Irish has a special pronoun used to stand for the predicate, ea(eadh). It is the only remaining neuter pronoun left in the language, and is historically related to the English IT. It can stand for any predicate, masculine, feminine, singular or plural.
Is ea.
1. Is(copula) 2. ea(predicate in the shape of a neuter pronoun)
The subject is left understood. English always uses it, with the verb to be as part of the predicate.
Answers:
Confirm:
An cat é? Is ea.
An fear mé? Is ea.
An bean í? Is ea.
An fir iad? Is ea.
Deny:
An cat é? Ní hea.
An fear é? Ní hea.
An mná iad? Ní hea.
Vocabulary:
cat - cat
fear - man - fir - men
bean - woman - mná - women
mé - me/I
iad - they/them