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Asking a Question in the Present Tense · At the Learning of Irish

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ma jinwa chara konasatato Today we're going to be continuing on with the present tense, rounding it out by learning how to ask a question in the present tense.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: One way to ask a question in both Irish and English and many other languages is by introducing a particular word that triggers a question.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: In English that can be things like who, what, when, where.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: In Irish, there are also these particular ways to ask a question, but we're gonna be focusing on the trigger on A-N.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we can use on to form a simple question.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Comparable maybe to do you in English, like do you go to the store, do you eat, do you have a dog, things of that nature.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you may have noticed that this is both spelled and said the exact same way as the definite article, the which is also on.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, like in other languages, you would understand which is meant by the sentence and by the context of what's going on there.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: In Irish, when on triggers a question, the next thing that's going to follow is the verb.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: After the verb is going to be the personal pronoun, and then anything else.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so that may be one way for you to tell the difference between is this the or is this a question?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Does a verb follow it?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because a verb shouldn't follow a definite article.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: The.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so we can see the basic layout of the sentence is what we're used to already.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that there's an un in front of the verb.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: As I've said in past episodes, a very basic sentence layout, and irish would be the verb at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the subject or personal pronoun.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're asking a question, it is the same thing, only un is before the conjugated verb, and then after that the personal pronoun or the subject.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just a little note to beog here, a little note, that the copula is different.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we will be, as I've said so many times, addressing the copula specifically very soon.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So just kinda keep that in mind.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That this simple question form is for the present tense for non-copular verbs.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so let's dive in some more.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: An also triggers the Uru or the eclipse that we saw first in, I believe, the possession episode, where plural possessives trigger the Uru.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So an the question triggers the Uru or Eclipse.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uru, like Shaivu, is an initial mutation, meaning it changes the beginning of the word that follows it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Recall that only certain letters take an Uru, and the Uru changes depending on the letter.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So with the Shaivu, it's always the softening, which is an H or the little dot above the letter.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: But with the Uru, what you put in front of the next word changes depending on what letter that next word starts with.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that Uru will totally eclipse the letter, it modifies, silencing it.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: A good way for me to remember Uru is the trick from uh Irish with Molly, where she says, My brother got caught not doing dishes tonight.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody gets blueberry pie before he finishes.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So every letter that starts a word in that sentence will be the eclipsed and the thing that's being eclipsed.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So M eclipses B, my brother, like uh Eronmus on the bus.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Which I know uh folks with Ulster Irish probably wouldn't say Eronmus.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, G eclipses C got caught, like R got, our cat.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: N eclipses D not doing, like uh ni joh, nine drinks D eclipses T dishes tonight, like Gdi, which is two N eclipses G nobody gets, like in Dun Nanal, which is Donegal B eclipses P blueberry pie, like Ver Bark, Mjals Park, before he finishes would be BH together, so BH together is going to eclipse F.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like Goil, which is that is, and not part of our little phrase, but you get an N dash for vowels like R Nahr, R Father.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Putting it all together, to ask a simple question in the present tense, we are going to number one, begin the sentence with an.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, we're gonna conjugate the present tense verb.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you still have to add the appropriate ending and conjugate it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, we're then going to add an uru to the present tense verb if it can take it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, we're then going to add our pronoun or the subject of the sentence.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, we're gonna add any other elements of the sentence we might need, like places, direct objects, stuff like that.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, here's an example.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's ask if she understands the question.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so first thing, we need on, right at the beginning of the sentence.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Second, we need to conjugate the verb for to understand, which is tig.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the present tense, this is short, tig, and it's slender, because the last letter in the word is an I, so it's conjugated as tiggin.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: T-U-I-G-E-A-N-N.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna identify the appropriate uru and add it to it.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the uru for T?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's D.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be diggin.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And she is the pronoun that we use for she.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So far we have an diggin she.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is an hesht because question is feminine, and so after the definite particle the for feminine nouns we add an H.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Putting all that together, we end up with this question.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: On Dibin Shi Anchesht.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does she understand the question?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: How would you answer this?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Think back to past episodes and see if you can figure it out.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go over the answer at the end of this episode.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: As I've mentioned in the other episodes about the present tense, there are irregular verbs in Irish, and I'm gonna devote a whole episode to what those verbs are.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to go over one of them now, because it's one you're gonna use a lot, and that is the verb be, which is to be.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: When asking a question using be, we've got to use a different irregular form of the verb, and that form is will or vill, depending on your dialect.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's spelled B-H-F-U-I-L.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: The B H we know is the Uru for F.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we can see this form already has the Uru attached to it, and we're not gonna have to attach it again.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: We call this form the dependent form of the verb, because it cannot stand on its own, since it has a form of initial mutation already on it.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: This verb form without the uru is not used.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, for questions in the present tense with the verb be, again outside of the copula, we are going to firstly put an an at the beginning of the question, just like with the other verbs.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna use the dependent present tense form of the verb, which is will.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, we're not gonna add an uru because there's already one there.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's no need to add it again.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then fourth, we're gonna select the pronoun or subject.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, add any other elements that the sentence needs.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So very similar, the only difference is with we are going to use the dependent form of the verb, and we are not going to attach an uru because there is already one there.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's work through an example.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna ask somewhat morbidly, is the dog alive?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we start with an to trigger the question.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to use the dependent form of the verb be, which is will.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: No need to add an uru, it's already there.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Following on will, we're gonna add the subject, which is the dog.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Madra is a masculine noun, so there is no need to add a shebu after using the definite article the and bio is the word for alive.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So unwill on madra bio.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is the dog alive?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I hope he is.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And how would you answer the question both in the affirmative and the negative?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so that's it for the instructive part.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go over the answers to the questions I have posed to you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you need some more time to work through them, just pause, stop the video, whatever.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: The answers are also going to be in the show notes along with the other words I've said here.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: As always, please input these into Aberpunk.ie.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: As I've said, I'm a dabbler with a mixed and also probably very American accent, so it's really important for y'all to hear these words, how they're said correctly, in whatever dialect you choose.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Answers to the questions.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: The first question was, does she understand the question?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um diggin she on chesht.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if we want to say yes, because we can't just say yes or no, we're going to have to conjugate the verb and add the pronoun.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So yes would be tiggin she.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You could also just say tiggin.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And no would be ni higginshi or ni higgin.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Remembering that to negate, we use ni, and then we add a shavu if it's at all possible.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the other question was is the dog alive?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: On will on Madra Biol.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna say yes, and that is ta on madra b or you could just say ta.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if unfortunately the dog has passed away, we are going to say no, which is niel on Madra Byo, or Nil Agishine Akara.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think before we go into the irregular present tense verbs, I might do a nice little, I don't know, lighter vocabulary episode to just kinda take a break from all this hard grammar stuff we've been doing.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um but again, please watch the videos or look up videos on your own.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, Slon Gefall.