"Are we men or lawyers?"
Translation:An fir nó dlíodóirí muid?
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This is (obviously) incorrect.
It should be "An fir nó dlíodóirí muid/sinn" (or "cé acu fir nó dlíodóirí muid/sinn").
Who's coming up with this stuff?
You don’t use just bí (tá, bhí, bhfuil, etc.) by itself with nouns. That’s the job of the copula which Irish has a separate verb for.
For the same reason that you can't say tá mé dlíodóir - that's a copula, and has to use is, and when you turn it into a question, you can't use the interrogative form of tá (an bhfuil), you must use the interrogative form of is (an).
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Would someone mind explaining this a little more so my simple mind can get it. When do we use "An" and when do we use "An bhfuil"?
"An" by itself is the question form of the copula "is." It is used whenever you form a question with "is" like "an maith leat bainne?" "An bhfuil" is the question particle "an" plus "bí" in the dependent form. You use "an bhfuil" whenever you form a question with "bí" like "an bhfuil tú ag léamh?"
This is a bit off topic, but why are there two words for 'we' and are there any rules re when you use sinn as opposed to muid?
dlíodóirí must go in the clause (before the pronoun), but you can use sinn instead of muid
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If the question is to start with 'an bhfuil' , as is being suggested, surely it would have you read 'an bhfuil muid in ár bhfir nó dlíodóirí? - No?
The question would never start with An bhfuil, unless as you suggested. I didn't even look at the translation, since that's so simple.
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And why would that be simple? This is the first language I have come across that has a completely separate verb form for questions, except that it apparently does not use this form from time to time. I had always thought Japanese rather difficult, but the explanation for why a particular Japanese form is required usually makes sense to me, while the reasons why Irish words go in the places they do appears to be "so simple" it cannot be explained to the likes of me.
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I had "an bhfuil muid fir nó dlíodóirí" and this is wrong, but why?
Because when you are classifying or identifying something you use the copula.
It seems they've fixed this question, now, though.
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Would in ár bhfir nó dlíodóirí be acceptable, or would ár or in ár also be needed after nó? Or would any of those be OK?
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my answer was Tá fir nó dlíodoirí muid? dote! I forgot that tá is used for making a statement that something "is" and "an" in this case is for asking a question ... an whatever muid
An fir nó buachaillí muid? An fir nó mhadraí sinn?
am I getting it?
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We. It is an older form, and much used in Munster dialect. Muid is more widely used elsewhere, but there is overlap. Best known example of sinn is in the name of the political party, Sinn Féin, or in the national anthem, Amhrán na Bhfiann (Song of the Fianna popularly known as The Soldiers' Song), which starts with the stressed form Sinne Fianna Fáil, atá faoi gheall ag Éirinn (loosely: Soldiers are we, whose lives are pledged to Ireland.)
