Buntús na Gaeilge - People Fas Harvard - Harvard University

CEACHT A TRÍ / LESSON THREE
Sin an múinteoir. That is the teacher.
Seo an peann. This is the pen.
Sin m'athair. That's my father.
§2.2.3. In the absence of an emphatic or demonstrative pronoun, an identification sentence in the
third person has an additional `echoing' pronoun:
Is é an múinteoir é. He is the teacher.
Is í an léachtóir í. She is the lecturer.
Is iad mo thuismitheoirí iad. They are my parents.
§2.2.4. If the subject is a proper noun (e.g. a name), the syntax is different: instead of an `echoing'
pronoun at the end of the sentence, we have a `proleptic' pronoun at the beginning, i.e. a pronoun
that anticipates the proper noun:
Is é Séamus an múinteoir. Séamus is the teacher.
Is í Síle an léachtóir. Síle is the lecturer.
Is iad Áine agus Aoife mo dheirfiúracha. Áine and Aoife are my sisters.
§2.3. The responsive always echoes the pronoun used in the question. The simple, non-emphatic
pronoun is used even if the emphatic is used in the question:
An tusa an rúnaí? Is mé. / Ní mé. Are you the secretary? Yes. / No.
An mise an léachtóir? Is tú. / Ní tú. Am I the lecturer? Yes. / No.
An eisean an gadaí? Is é. / Ní hé. Is he the thief? Yes. / No.
An í Síle an múinteoir? Is í. / Ní hí. Is Síle the teacher? Yes. / No.
An sibhse a tuismitheoirí? Is muid. / Ní muid. Are you her parents? Yes. / No.
An muidinne na ceoltóirí? Is sibh. / Ní sibh. Are we the musicians? Yes. / No.
An iadsan na mic léinn? Is iad. / Ní hiad. Are they the students? Yes. / No.
§3. The Prefixed Adjectives sean- and droch-
Droch- `bad' and, when used attributively, sean `old' are prefixed to the noun they modify and
lenite it:
seanbhean an old woman
drochmhúinteoir a bad teacher
drochscéal bad news
Since it ends in `n', sean does not lenite `d' `t' or `s' (see Ceacht 2, 2 `Dental Rule'):
seantábla an old table.
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