"Is capaill iad."

Translation: They are horses.

[Cait48]

I often don't hear the difference (not just here), but I blame it on my ears not being accustomed to listening for the difference.

Anyway, in American English, we have many speakers whose dialect does not differentiate between pin and pen or Merry Mary marry. My dialect makes a difference--those are five distinct words--but if your dialect has only two distinct words, you aren't wrong or sloppy; it's just the type of AE you speak.

Might there be something like that going on here?

[Schatzie]

You must be from "out east." I am from the Midwest, and have fun pronouncing the "merry, Mary, marry" differences for my friends. I learned about it in linguistics class. My father, from Kansas, had only one phoneme for "pin" and "pen," much to our amusement.

[Desiree29977]

I'm from Kansas, and I say them the same

[Knocksedan]

We had a visitor from the US who caused some amusement when she asked about "catching the fairy".

It took a few moments to realize she was asking about "catching the ferry".

[JohnMccrys]

sound has turned off!

[Shivaadh]

Audio for ns. & npl.: https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/capall
https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/capaill

I can't here the difference yet :(

Wiktionary gives ns. as IPA(key): /ˈkapˠəl̪ˠ/, which means it's velarized but the l touches the teeth. So I'm guessing that the palatization in capaill will make the ending sound brighter - is that right?

[dilly_dallyer]

Its basically listen very very very careful to both again. Now you will hear an exhale in capaill that is not there in capall.

The difference is like C in chocolate, and C in cat. You breath out for the ch.. its like the s, sound ssssssssss, chhhhhhhhh. Make both the ch and ss noises back and forth over and over.

Then listen to capaill again. You will hear a "capa (breath out while saying) ill"
Now listen to capall, You will hear capal, no breath out. The difference although ever so slight is there in all 3 dialects. Trys aying it as i described too, see if you can notice the ever so slight change breathing makes during that part of the word.

That's as best as I can explain it. I hope it helps.

[Sam482624]

What is the difference between "is ... iad" and "tá ... siad"?
I am probably mixing something up but I thought tá ... siad meant they are als well?

[SatharnPHL]

You use Tá when you are using an adjective to describe something - Tá sé fuar - "It/He is cold".

You use Is when you are using a noun/pronoun to identify or classify another noun/pronoun - Is fear é - "He is a man".