Guide to Irish to be, the substantive verb bí, tá & the copula is

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… or how to say I am…?

This is one of the most challenging subjects to learners – this guide aims to explain it in a systematic and relatively comprehensive way. This guide is partially adapted from Guide to Scottish Gaelic to be.

First let’s define two terms:

  • subject – the thing or person about whom the given sentence is, it is the main noun phrase in the sentence, eg. in the sentence “Tom has a cat” Tom is the subject, in the sentence “The people around here are very nice” the people around here are the subject.
  • predicate of a linking or copular verb – the phrase that goes after is in English, eg. in “a cat is an animal” an animal is the predicate, in “the boat is on the sea” the predicate is on the sea, thus the predicate is the thing that the subject is linked to with is.[1]

Irish has two separate words to translate the English to be verb depending on context.

The first one is the substantive verb bí. The second one is the copula is.

The substantive verb bí

The form bí is what you’ll find as a headword in dictionaries, it is the singular imperative command form be!.

In the present tense its independent form is tá and the dependent form is fuil – but you will typically see it mutated as bhfuil or fhuil more often (more dependent forms later).

You use this verb for stating how, where or when something is or what something is like – for describing something and stating its whereabouts. That means that this verb takes only adverbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases as its predicates:

  • táim go maith — I am well, here an adverb – go maith well – is the predicate;
  • tá an ceapaire blasta — the sandwich is tasty, here an adjective – blasta tasty – is the predicate;
  • tá an ceapaire ar an mbord — the sandwich is on the table, here a prepositional phrase – ar an mbord on the table – is the predicate;
  • tá sé seo salach — this is dirty, again an adjective as the predicate.

When the predicate is an adjective, it stays in the base form – it doesn’t change to agree in number or gender with the subject. Compare:

  • na cait mhóra — the big cats (with mhóra ‘big’ having plural form, and lenited after a plural noun formed by slenderization)
  • with tá na cait mór — the cats are big (mòr staying in base unlenited form).

A few adjectives expressing subjective assessment typically get go before them when they’re predicates of the tá verb (this might be a remnant of the verb taking only adverbs as its predicates originally):

  • Tá an fear go maith — the man is good,
  • Tá an cailín go hálainn — the girl is beautiful,
  • Tá an lá go deas — the day is nice,
  • Tá an aimsir go dona — the weather is bad,
  • Tá an samhradh go haoibhinn — the summer is splendid,
  • Tá an rós go breá — the rose is pretty,
  • Tá sé go holc — it is evil,
  • Tá sí go hiontach — she is wonderful.

And so:

  • tá an pháirc mhór go breá — the big field is pretty – here mhór is lenited because it attributes a feminine noun páirc directly, but breá stays in the basic unlenited form because it is a predicate to the verb and not directly linked to the noun.
Remember! You cannot use a noun phrase as a predicate of this verb, so you cannot say something like *tá sé fear – this sentence simply doesn’t make any sense in Irish, fear a man is a noun and as such cannot be a predicate here.

When describing something with an adjective, it’s more traditional to use the copula. See below for that.

Existentials or there is…

Bí is also used for existential sentences like there is a dog in the house – this sentence means that a dog exists and that dog is located in the house. English (like other Germanic languages) doesn’t like indefinite subjects of such sentences and starts them with a dummy subject there a bit as if defining this dummy there as a dog in the house. Also that’s the reason why the story starts with In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit and not simply … a hobbit lived. Many languages don’t do this and just straightforwardly say something like a dog is in the house, that’s what happens in Irish:

  • tá madra sa teach — there is a dog in the house – it’s a simple sentence with an indefinite subject madra a dog and a prepositional predicate sa teach in the house stating where the existing dog is.

But tá always needs some predicate. In some languages you could say something like good people are in the meaning there are good people, good people generally exist – but not in Irish. [2] Here enters our friend the dummy predicate ann there, in general existence. If you lack a predicate for an existential sentence, you just stick ann there:

  • tá dea-dhaoine ann — there are good people,
  • but tá dea-dhaoine in Éirinn there are good people in Ireland without this ann (because in Éirinn already works as a predicate).

This ann might also mean here, there, somewhere around when the subject is definite as in

  • tá Séamas ann — Séamas is here/there (Séamas is present and you can find him somewhere around).

The dependent form fuil

With some irregular verbs – bí among them – Irish requires the use of a separate dependent form after some dependent particles, like the negating ní ‘not’, interrogative an? ‘does? is?…’, go ‘that’ (introducing subordinate clause in reported speech), etc.

The dependent form of tá is in present tense is fuil is. But you’ll rarely, if ever, see this form on it’s own. In most dialects – outside of Munster – it always appears mutated, either lenited or eclipsed, and thus what you’re see is rather:

  • níl… for … is not… – it’s an irregular spelling of ní fhuil (ní causes lenition), since the fh is silent and thus the thing is pronounced /n´iːl´/; you’ll sometimes see it written as ní’l in older texts, and in Ulster dialects it sometimes keeps two syllables: /n´iː.ɪl´/;
  • an bhfuil…? for is…? in yes-no questions;
  • nach bhfuil…? for isn’t…?, in the negative yes-no questions;
  • go bhfuil… for that is… in reported speech;

etc.

So for example:

  • níl Tadhg sa teach — Tadhg is not in the house,
  • nach bhfuil sé sin go deas? — isn’t that nice?,
  • is dóigh liom go bhfuil brón air — I think that he is sad (lit. … that sadness/sorrow is on him),

etc.

In Munster dialects ná is used instead of nach before verbs for negative questions and in relative clauses, and it doesn’t cause any mutation, thus you will find fuil in Munster texts:

  • ná fuil sé sin go deas? — isn’t that nice?.

The fuil form in general can also be inflected for persons, like tá can, so you’ll find nílim for I am not, go bhfuilimid (or often in Munster texts go bhfuilimíd) for that we are not, etc. (and in older, especially Munster, texts fuilir for you (sg.) are, thou art, fuilid (siad) for they are, and sometimes fuileann tú, fuileann sibh for thou art, ye are are used too; but they’re rare or nonexistent in other dialects and are not part of the standard Irish).

Remember! The níl (< ní fhuil) and bhfuil forms are used in dependent position where you’d use tá in independent positions. You can’t use them for copular meanings. See below for more about dependent forms and the dependent forms of the copula.

So, having that out of the way – how do you say he is a man? Or you are the high king of Ireland? Well… let’s look at the copula, shall we?

The copula is and how to say what or who something or someone is

I intentionally avoid the word verb when writing about the copula, although you’ll often see it called the copula verb or the assertive verb or something like that. That’s because it has its own syntax and doesn’t really behave like a verb (and has fewer forms) so it is a bit of its own grammatical category in the Gaelic languages.

The present form is is and there is no imperative (so you’ll find it under is in dictionaries). This is sometimes shortened to ’s after or before vowels.

You have to use the copula if you want to create a simple X is Y sentence and the predicate is a noun phrase (there are some idiomatic phrases without the copula but they don’t translate literally, we’ll look at them later).

There are quite a few different patterns involving the copula – sorry, I don’t think I can make it any shorter.

General remarks and syntax

Irish copula is an unstressed element that is not a separate word in its own right – it cannot exist separate from its predicate. Thus it will always be followed by something.

And the general syntax of the copua is:

is ⟨predicate⟩ ⟨subject⟩

but in identification sentences additional pronouns are inserted, see below.

Classification – indefinite predicates

When the predicate is indefinite – you want to state what kind of thing something or someone is, like in he is a doctor, I am a student, Irish is a Celtic language, cats are animals, then there are a few different ways. The most straightforward is to use the copula directly:

is ⟨predicate⟩ ⟨subject⟩ (VPS)

This is basically the basic syntax of the copula, as mentioned above.

  • is ceapaire é — it is a sandwich,
  • is múinteoir mé — I am a teacher,
  • is iasc breac — a trout is a fish.

When the subject is definite, a “subsubject” pronoun is often added before it:

  • is cailín cróga Síle — or is cailín cróga í Síle Síle is a brave girl.
  • is peileadóir Tadhg — or is peileadóir é Tadhg Tadhg is a footballer.

This pronoun is common in some Connacht and Munster dialects but isn’t required in the standard language and you’ll often see this kind of clauses without it in older literature.

Copula and adjectives

The copula is sometimes used with adjective predicates when describing more permanent features (while the substantive verb is used for more temporary states – though it’s not a strict rule by any means).

Thus to say the house is big you might say:

  • is mór (é) an teach (the pronoun before the subject is very common in this kind of sentences),

while I’m sad could be expressed with táim brónach – being mór big is a permanent inherent feature of the house, while being sad is just a temporary state of a person.

or you can hear in a song:

  • is briste mo chroí — my heart is broken

which sounds a bit more serious than tá mo chroí briste.

The book Fiche blian ag fás by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin starts with the words (the form gur is explained later):

  • Níl aon bhaol ná gur breá í an óige — There’s no fear but that (the) youth is wonderful (or ‘the one certain thing is that youth is wonderful’).

You’ll sometimes also hear is maith sin for that is good.

Another very common use of the copula with adjectives is as follows:

  • is fuar an oíche í — it is a cold night, very literally the night – it – is cold or the night that it is, is cold,
  • is maith an fear é — he is a good man (the man that he is, is good),
  • is mór an teach é — 'it is a big house (the house that it is, is big).

In this construction the predicate is the adjective (fuar, maith, mór), and the subject is complex, composed of a definite noun phrase and a pronoun.

⟨predicate⟩ is ea ⟨subject⟩

Beside the basic classification, another type exists.

This is the default structure used in Munster dialects, where the simple is X Y is rarer, the above examples expressed using this construction are:

  • ceapaire is ea é — it is a sandwich,
  • múinteoir is ea mé — I am a teacher,
  • iasc is ea breac — a trout is a fish,
  • cailín cróga is ea (í) Síle — Síle is a brave girl.

The ea element here is the old neuter pronoun ‘it’ which stands for indefinite predicate, a sentence like fear is ea é he is a man says literally: a man – he is it with ea it referring back to fear a man.

Nota bene: Since the copula comes after the predicate and it is not relative, when using this construction in subordinate clauses the go ‘that’ particle

appears twice:

  • tá a fhios agam gur fear gurb ea é — I know that he is a man

The second gur(b) means ‘that … is’ and the first gur is pleonastic, inserted there only to syntactically fit the predicate fear in the sentence. One could imagine saying something like

*fear, tá a fhios agam gurb ea é instead – but it’s not the common form of such sentences.

There are other constructions for classification though, most common of them is probably:

(is) ⟨predicate⟩ atá i ⟨subject⟩

literally ⟨predicate⟩ is what is in ⟨subject⟩ or what is in ⟨subject⟩ is {{smallcaps|⟨predicate⟩. Saying that thing1 is in thing2 is just a Gaelic way of stating that thing2 is thing1. Note that this uses the bí verb – but its predicate is not a noun. Thus:

  • is ceapaire atá ann — it is a sandwich, but literally something like: (it, the thing) that is in it is a sandwich or what’s in it is a sandwich – notice that a prepositional phrase ann in it is the predicate of tá, not a noun;
  • múinteoir atá ionam — I am a teacher, but literally: (the thing) that is in me (is) a teacher or what’s in me is a teacher – again a prepositional phrase ionam in me is the predicate of tá,

[TODO: more examples]

The copula is very often omitted in this construction.

tá ⟨subject⟩ ina ⟨predicate⟩

literally ⟨subject⟩ is in its ⟨predicate⟩ (ina here means in his/her/its and will be replaced by appropriate form agreeing with the subject, eg. táim i mo… for I am in my…, tá tú i do… for you (sg.) are in your…, etc.). This one is interesting as it uses the substantive verb and not the copula – but note that the actual predicate in the Irish sentence is the phrase in its ⟨predicate⟩ – so actually a prepositional phrase.

This structure is often used to state one’s profession but is not restricted to such use:

  • táim i mo mhúinteoir — I am a teacher, but literally: I am in my teacher – only the tá verb, but the predicate is a prepositional phrase i mo mhúinteoir in my teacher;
  • tá an Ghaeilge ina teanga Cheilteach — Irish is a Celtic language, but literally: the Irish is in her Celtic language the predicate is a prepositional phrase na teanga Cheilteach in her Celtic language (feminine non-leniting ina in her because the word Gaeilge is feminine, Irish language is a she in Irish ;-));
  • tá siad ina ndochtúirí — they are doctors, but literally: they are in their doctors;
  • tá sé ina chara liom — he is a friend of mine, but literally: he is in his friend of mine.

This construction is more often used with temporary states rather than permanent ones. That’s why it tends to be used when stating one’s profession, you say I (currently) am a teacher (but maybe in 3 years I’ll be doing something else) – because of this hint of non-permanent description it’s often used in past tense to give description that is no longer true:

  • nuair a bhí mé i mo bhuachaill óg… — when I was a young boy (but I no longer am)…, literally the-time that I was in my young boy…

but it doesn’t have to mean the state is temporary – it just doesn’t suggest that it is permanent as strongly as simple VPS clause tends to.

seo/sin/siúd ⟨predicate⟩

[TODO]

Identification – definite predicates

As a general rule in Irish, since at least late Old Irish, the copula cannot be directly followed by a definite noun – it has to be separated from it with a pronoun. Because of that, if the predicate is definite – that is if you identify the subject as some specific person or thing (the teacher, my brother, Colm, the high-king of Ireland) rather than simply stating what kind of thing the subject is – then an additional “subpredicate” pronoun appears before it.

is (é/í/iad) ⟨predicate⟩ ⟨subject⟩ (VpPS)

The subpredicate generally agrees in gender and number with the predicate.

  • is é mo cheapaire é — it is my sandwich, note that additional é, agreeing with the predicate mo cheapaire ‘my sandwich’, appeared before it;
  • is é an cineál céanna feamainne í — it is the same type of seaweed – note that the subject í ‘it’ is feminine (as it presumably refers to the feminine word feamainn ‘seaweed’) but the subpredicate é agrees with the predicate (an example from Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla);
  • is í Máire an múinteoir — the teacher is Máire, or in better English Máire is the teacher (when answering the question “Who is the teacher?” – ie. giving the identity of the teacher, ‘Mary’ being the information given);
  • is í an múinteoir Máire — Máire is the teacher (when answering the question “Who is Máire?”, “the teacher” being the new information) – note that here í agrees with Máire (the subject) and not with an múinteoir – when the predicate denotes a person, the subpredicate generally agrees with the gender associated with the person;
  • is é deartháir Choilm Séamas — Séamas is Colm’s brother;
  • is í an Ghaeilge teanga na Gaeltachta — the language of the Gaeltacht is Irish (or Irish is the language of the Gaeltacht, but Irish is the information given);
  • cuir i gcás gurb í an fhírinne féin é — suppose that it is the truth itself – the subject is generic é ‘it’, the subpredicate í agrees with predicate an fhírinne ‘the truth’, a feminine noun.

When a definite noun standing directly after the copula is defined by a relative clause, the article is traditionally often omitted:

  • is é rud é is éagsamhlaighe (…) dár airigheas riamh — it is the most extraordinary thing of all that I’ve ever heard – note that the first é is the subpredicate separating the definite rud (…) is éagsamhlaighe dár airigheas riamh from the copula, the second é is the subject ‘it’,

sometimes the article is omitted even without the relative clause:

  • is í cúis é — it is the reason.

The rule about subpredicate agreeing with the predicate isn’t very strict though. As noted above, it gets overriden by the perceived gender when talking about persons (is í an múinteoir Máire), but it sometimes is ignored in other cases too:

  • is é an chloch is mó ar a phaidrín é — it is his greatest concern (lit. it is the greatest stone on his prayer)

with the subpredicate é despite an chloch being a feminine noun.

[TODO: elaborate]

VpSP

There sometimes is a need to state the subject before the predicate (since generally subject is the theme, topic of a sentence, and the predicate is the rheme, new information, it’s a natural tendency – all languages with some freedom of word order prefer stating the rheme later). In this case the sub-predicate pronoun actually fulfills the role of the predicate of the copula and it refers to the noun phrase that comes later. This is a type from which the previous one developed.

Sometimes, especially in Munster the word ná (which can be understood as ‘namely, that is’ in this context) is inserted before the rheme-predicate. Thus one can find this in Peadar Ua Laoghaire’s prose:

  • agus is é ainm a bhí air ná Séadna — and his name was Séadna, literally: and (the) name he had is it, (namely) Séadna.

When no ná is present there might be more vocal stress put on the pronoun and a pause might be heard after the subject. This also means that a sentence like:

  • is é Mícheál D. Ó hUigínn uachtarán na hÉireann can be understood as either:
  • is é Mícheál D. Ó hUigínn uachtarán na hÉireann — (the person being) the president of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins (ie. answering the question ‘who is the president of Ireland?’), literally: the president of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins,
  • or: is é Mícheál D. Ó hUigínn, uachtarán na hÉireann — Michael D. Higgins is this: the president of Ireland (ie. answering the question ‘who is Michael D. Higgins?’).

This structure is required when the predicate is a subordinate clause, when stating facts, opinions, reporting what someone said, etc. – the subordinate clause is always pushed til the end and substituted with é it:

  • is é mo thuairim go bhfuil sé as a mheabhair – I’m of the opinion that he’s out of his mind, literally my opinion is it: that he is out of his mind,
  • [TODO: more examples]

1st and 2nd person: mise, tusa

The 1st and 2nd person pronouns in identification clauses always come first – as if they always were the predicate. The pronouns also generally are with the emphatic suffixes (mise instead of mé ‘I’, tusa for tú ‘you, thou’, sinne or muidne for sinn, muid ‘we’, sibhse for sibh ‘you, y’all’):

  • is mise an múinteoir — I am the teacher (or more literally: the teacher is me);
  • is mise Séamas — I am Séamas (or more literally: Séamas is me);
  • is tusa ardrí na hÉireann — you are the high-king of Ireland (or more literally: the high-king of Ireland is you);

[TODO: more examples]

The above sentence work well as responses to questions like cé hé an múinteoir? ‘who is the teacher?’, cé hé Séamas? ‘who is Séamas?’, etc. – ie. the pronoun is the response. They may also be used when responding to cé (hé) thusa? ‘who are you?’ (ie. giving an múinteoir ‘the teacher’, Séamas, etc. as the information) – but to note explicitly that the focus is not on the pronoun, the non-emphatic form might be used:

  • is mé an múinteoir — I am the teacher;
  • is mé Séamas — I am Séamas;
  • is tú ardrí na hÉireann — you are the high-king of Ireland;

[TODO: more examples]

Note that the word order differs from classification. To say ‘I am a teacher’ you say:
  • is múinteoir mé,

but to state ‘I am the teacher’ you say:

  • is mé an múinteoir or is mise an múinteoir.


Other uses of copula

Contrary to the substantive verb, copula isn’t that restricted in what kind of predicates it takes. And in some common expressions it actually takes prepositional phrases, adjectives, and other grammatical creatures as its predicates.

Fronting – topicalization or putting emphasis on part of sentence

A very common use of copula is fronting – moving some part of a sentence to put emphasis on it – to make it the topic, the main point of the sentence. The rest of the sentence, with the main verb, is put in a relative clause then. Compare:

[TODO]

Other set phrases and constructions

[TODO]

Dependent forms

[TODO]

Past and future tenses

[TODO]

Answering yes-no questions

[TODO]

Other resourses

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The more proper term would be predicative, while the predicate is generally the whole main verbal phrase of a clause. But predicate in the sense “information given about the subject in a copular clause” is pretty common in Irish and Gaelic linguistics.
  2. ↑ Although Old Irish permitted that.
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