"Ar mhaith leat dul go dtí an Fhrainc?"

Translation: Would you like to go to France?

[Batsteve]

I saw "ar" used as a question particle, and tried to put the question in the preterite ("did you like to go to france?"), which Duolingo didn't like.

I can't find an explanation on Duolingo or GnG about copular questions like this. How would the preterite form of this question be formed? Implicitly, how would I tell that this is a question in the conditional, and not about the past?

[galaxyrocker]

'Did you like to go to France' should be avcepted, but among native speakers the conditional is assumed as the default, with the past being the marked form.

[Batsteve]

"Assume conditional" makes sense. Go raibh maith agat.

[galaxyrocker]

Also, 'did you like to go to France' admittedly sounds weird to me in English.

[Batsteve]

Oh, for sure it's awkward phrasing--I'd probably write it as "did you like going to France" or something even more idiomatic entirely--but Duolingo Irish has preferred specific literal translations.

[scilling]

In English, to avoid a conditional form, it would probably be stated more colloquially as “Did you once like to go to France?”, with “once” used in its “formerly” meaning rather than in its “on a single occasion” meaning.

[scilling]

The construction of copular questions on Gramadach na Gaeilge is found here, and its overview of copular forms is here. Note that in Connemara, the original conditional form An mba … ? is still used (Ar … ? was originally only a preterite form, but is now also used for the conditional).

[Cathal412012]

But how would we get the horse to France?

[Aidan440188]

Mar cheist? Ba mhaith liom.