"Is it bad?"

Translation: An bhfuil sé go dona?

[Conchubhar1987]

You know how an ea, is ea, and ní hea means is it?, it is and it isn't (I think)? Well could you phrase is it bad as 'an ea sé go dona' and answer 'is ea', or not?

[Knocksedan]

An bhfuil sé? and An ea? are both translated as "Is it?" in English, but they aren't equivalent. Irish uses the Copula in certain situations, and the verb bí in other situations, whereas English uses the verb "be" for both.

This can be confusing for learners, but it's pretty fundamental (it's covered in the Tips & Notes for the very first Skill (Basics 1).

This is not a Copula style sentence, so you can't use An ea to ask this question.

[Clumsypoot]

So it isn't the answer, but I'm interested in the translation for number 3. Does that translate, "Do I drink bad(ly)?"

[Knocksedan]

You'll have to post the sentence that you're asking about, because this thread won't only be posted after the "Mark all correct translations" exercises.

[Clumsypoot]

Gosh, I didn't even think about that! Oops!

[BjornsenBjorn]

So I said "An bhfuil sé olc" and it wasn't accepted. Does "olc" mean something different than "go dona"?

[scilling]

Go holc is closer to “bad” in its “evil” or “harmful” senses, and go dona is closer to “bad” in its “unfavorable” or “poor” senses; however, there is some overlap between them. Since this is an English to Irish exercise, both go dona and go holc should be accepted.

[Knocksedan]

It would be go holc.

Grammatically, you might also get away with An olc é?, but I don't think it's used that way very often - The FGB does include Is olc an aimsir í - "it is wretched weather" in it's examples of olc.