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- "Conas atá sé?"
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"that", surely, rather than "which", as it has no pronominal meaning.
"Conas atá sé" = "How that he is?", meaning "How is it that he is?"
This is a bit similar to the French construction "Est-ce que...?"/"Qu'est-ce que...?"
Consider "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" means "What is it?" but is literally "What is it that it is?"
I didn't know English had a well defined difference between "that" and "which"! Thanks!
EDIT: Would you mind explaining the pronominal meaning distinction between "which" and "that", just to confirm that "that" would be a better translation.
Well it's not really "well defined", and my objection wasn't well expressed.
"Which" often (but not always) has a pronominal sense: eg "...and then I was granted the freedom of the city. Which was nice."
It is most common in this sort of "non-defining" clause, and "that"/zero-conjunction is more common in "defining" clauses. "the house that Jack built".
"Which", then, is potentially misleading when used in an artificial construction in English
My two cents: typically, when "which" leads a dependent clause in English, it means that the information in the clause is not essential to the intended meaning of the sentence. You can almost imagine it as a parenthetical aside. Leading the same phrase with "that" implies that you are distinguishing something in particular.
To extend an example used above:
"The house that Jack built is still standing." (Unlike all the other houses, which fell down, Jack's house is still intact.)
"The house, which Jack built, is still standing." (The house is still standing. By the way, Jack built it! Doesn't he do great work?)
While unfamiliar with the linguistic terms, I can share a tip from a copy editing class: The Comma Witch (or which, rather. It goes much better verbally).
The general rule being you use 'which' only when you are also using a comma, and you use 'that' when you are not. It was a fun learning device, as my professor drew a comma on the board and gave it a hat and broom.
Haha, well I guess we're going to begin early with the brain hurting for this language ;)
You've answered what it literally means, but it doesn't really, at least from the perspective of a native English speaker, make it any clearer why we use ‘atá’ and not simply ‘tá’. Is there any kind of explanation you can give to clarify in which situations either form applies?
Thanks in advance! :)
Conas is contraction of three words which originally meant "What state", so very literally it is:
What state which you are?
The only real explanation for it I can think of that might work is that Irish will not break VSO word order. So if some kind of question word like "Conas" comes first, the language will use "atá" so that the verb still comes first in a given clause.
I am fairly new to Irish, so correct me if I am wrong, but from my studies whenever you have a question you need to add the particle "a" before the verb - this is the same particle for introducing relative clauses. Normally that particle is separate and causes lenition, but for "tá" it has been shortened to "atá". And if the copula "is" is implied, "a" can be left out too. For example, "Cad é sin?" = "What is that?"
Actually, the copula "is" is implied by every question word. "Cad [is] atá sin?" What is it that it is.
Note that the copula is dropped after negative and question particles too, so this is entirely regular and predictable.
Is fear mé Ní fear mé
etc.
I'm not entirelly certain but I think it may be due to the question form, It sounds weird the other way though !!
Why is this "how is it" in stead of "how is he" why is sé here if it isn't reffering to a him?
Irish doesn't differentiate between "he" and "it" - sé can mean "it" or "him" depending on the context.
One might also encounter Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? in Connemara and Cad é mar atá tú? in Ulster.
2064
I learned "Conas tá tú?" for "How are you?". Can this also be "Conas atá tú?" also? I was wondering why the audio for "Conas tá tú?" had the extra "a" sound in it.
It’s properly Conas atá tú?, but in this instance atá is often shortened to tá — think of it as Conas ’tá tú?.
- 2064
Thank you! Go raibh maith agat.
It's good to know that I'm not just hearing things that shouldn't be in the audio. (I guess I might not have been clear previously, I'm referring to audio from other Irish learning material I have.)
Kept telling me I was typing in English. I did make an error, but there wasn't any English in what I typed. (I had a space between a and ta.)
I gave the right answer but was marked wrong. I have a screen shot but don't know how to attach
"How's it going?" is a greeting, like "How are things?" or even "What's up?". The equivalents in Irish range from cén chaoi a bhfuil cúrsaí?, conas atá agat? to aon scéal?
Conas atá sé? is asking about someone or something specific, rather than things in general - "How is he?".
