"Tá sé i bhfad níos mó."

Translation: It is much bigger.

[flint72]

Should not this also mean "it is a lot more".

I didn't report it since it's quite far from the suggested translation, but one may say for example "ba maith liom i bhfad níos mó airgid = I want a lot more money", yes?

[sigmacharding]

Ceapaim go bhfuil céart agat.

Ach is 'aistriúchán' go maith é seo freisin.

An-mhaith ar fad!

[hughrawlinson]

Shouldn't 'he is a lot bigger' work too?

[arklab]

I am also confused about this.

[Ruairi21]

It literally seems to translate, "He is in long (length) more big (or large)." How about, "He is more big."? Although I can see now that, "much bigger" sounds more natural i Bearla, even if it puts part of the comparative into the word, "big" and leaves the degree of the comparative in the word, "much". Is the, "i bhfad" part idiom, because I don't see why it wouldn't be, "Tá sé níos mó."

[scilling]

Yes, i bhfad is idiomatic for “much” or “far”. Tá sé níos mó means “It/he is bigger”, without an adverb. Tá sé i bhfad níos mó adds the adverb: “It/he is much/far bigger”.

[TreasaWilson]

Can anyone explain why this cannot translate as "There is much more"?

[SatharnPHL]

Can I turn the question around, and ask why do you think it should be "there is much more"?

There is a quirk in English in that, with an indefinite article, it sounds better to say "there is an apple in the bag", but if you change the article from indefinite to definite, you say "the apple is in the bag".

It is possible to say "an apple is in the bag" or "there is the apple in the bag", but both of those sentences are a bit awkward, or only work in very specific contexts.

Irish doesn't have that quirk, so you have
tá úll sa mhála - "there is an apple in the bag"
tá an t-úll sa mhála - "the apple is in the bag"
tá madra sa chlós - "there is a dog in the yard"
tá an madra sa chlós - "the dog is in the yard"

Why does English use "there is" in these sentences?

In this case we have Tá sé i bhfad níos mó. Well, there clearly isn't a definite article before sé, but that's because you can't put a definite article before a pronoun, and tá sé is always going to be "it/he is" rather than "there is" (except when sé means "six", and tá sé mhadra sa chlós means "there are 6 dogs in the yard"!)

So basically, the reason this cannot translate as "there is" is because tá only becomes "there is" before an indefinite article, but sé is a pronoun, and you can't put an article before a pronoun.

Having said all that, you can't put a indefinite article before "much" either, but you do have an indefinite article in the equivalent "a lot" - "there is a lot more", and the Irish for "there is much more" or "there is a lot more" is Tá i bhfad níos mó ann.

Why ann? You need the preposition to anchor the statement - it just doesn't work without it. Some people will translate that ann, and get "there is much more in it" or "there is much more to it" or "there is much more there", but "there is much more" is an equally valid translation.

And while we're talking about definite and indefinite articles, the Irish for "there is too much" or "there are too many" is tá an iomarca ann.

tá an iomarca bainne sa chaife - "there's too much milk in the coffee"
tá an iomarca daoine ann! - "there are too many people!"
tá an iomarca milseán ite agam - "I have eaten too many sweets"

[VaclavH]

is this actually true adverb? is it not noun rather (along with preposition)?

[scilling]

It’s a prepositional phrase that translates as an adverb.

[joebloggins]

It is much 'larger' doesn't work has to be 'bigger''

[ConnieKetchum]

Is there a site for information on diagramming a sentence in Irish??

[AllieC490376]

See this comment:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/13182143/Irish-Sentence-Structure-Help
And for tree diagrams:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/C-and-f-structures-for-an-English-and-corresponding-Irish-sentence_fig1_42244129
Sorry, this is all I found... :-(

[John365571]

This confused me - apparently it is a specific form used for the comparative. much smaller, much better etc

[Ruairi21]

See scilling's explanation above. ;-)

[LeeInCalif]

Would "larger" be an acceptable translation of níos mó in this sentence? Duolingo marked it incorrect (and said I should have written "bigger." But Foclóir.ie translates "large" as "mór," which means that "larger" should be accepted for "níos mó."

[Ronan554346]

why not "it is far more"

[SatharnPHL]

It's far more what?

[Ronan554346]

It would depend on the context. The "moreness" would apply to attribute being referenced, size being just one. My understanding is that "níos mó" can mean "more of" including, but not limited to size - e.g. "ar mhaith leat níos mó caife?" If I'm wrong on this, how would one say, (as Gaeilge) in reply to (say) "the money he donated is far more that he needed to"? grma

[SatharnPHL]

But that's exactly the point. The full stop at the end of Tá sé i bhfad níos mó. is your context. That's what makes this sentence "It is much bigger." To interpret is as "much more" or "many more", you would have to specify what there was much more of.

Bhí i bhfad níos mó daoine ann - "there were many more people there"
Beidh i bhfad níos mó airgid uainn - "We'll need much more money"

But tá sé i bhfad níos mó. just means "It s much bigger".