"Paris is the capital of France."

Translation: Is é Páras príomhchathair na Fraince.

[AnCatDubh]

Why is é necessary, why is there no an before príoṁċaṫair, and why na instead of an?

[scilling]

• The é is necessary to separate the copula from the definite noun Páras ;

• There is no an before príomhchathair because the na in príomhchathair na Fraince also makes príomhchathair definite;

• Na is used instead of an because an Fhrainc is feminine and an becomes na for feminine genitive singular nouns.

[clairelanc3]

Who could explain about the word order? Why is it " is cailín allain í" but "is é Paras príomhchathair na Fraince"?

[19O492554]

"a girl" vs "the city". The structure of the copula depends on whether the predicate is indefinite (classification) or definite (identification).

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/7068975

[Coreyhus]

"The capital of france is paris" was marked wrong. Couldn't it be a translation of this or would you need to switch the wording?

[scilling]

In an identificational copular statement of the form “definite noun is definite noun.”, the subject is put before the complement — so Páras, the subject, will come first.

[SimonDunne2]

Cities are masculine and countries feminine? I wrote Is í Páras.....etc

[scilling]

Both cities and countries can be either feminine or masculine.

[Neal356674]

?? Can you give an example of a masculine country? Every country name I've come across, in this course and elsewhere, seems to have been feminine.

[Laura88133]

England! Sasana

[19O492554]

Ceanada, Cúba, Eacuadór, Meicsiceo, Meiriceá and Panama are also masculine nouns.

[Neal356674]

Oh, really? So, for example, "England is a beautiful country." would be Is tír aláinn é Sasana, correct? And is it just me and my age faded memory, but are they any questions in this course where the gender of Sasana (or any of the other masculine countries mentioned below by Satharn) are relevant?

[Laura88133]

I thought í too