"My brother is big but my father is small."
Translation:Tá mo dheartháir mór ach tá m'athair beag.
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I see. I was hoping it'd simply turn into "My brother is big but my father small". Thanks!
Why does "... is beag é m'athair" not work? I'm still hazy on what drives the use of tá mé versus is mé. I thought I had it but clearly I don't.
In the simplest sentences you use is with "noun=noun" sentences, and you use tá with "noun=adjective" sentences. (that's a gross oversimplification, but it's the starting point).
"big" and "small" are adjectives in this sentence.
(It is possible to use beag as a noun, but that's not really relevant in this case).
Why the use of mo with dhearthair and m' with athair? I cannot seem to keep this straight.
mo and do always become m' and d' before a vowel sound.
Note "vowel sound", so m'fhéileacán for "my butterfly", because fh is silent, exposing the vowel é.
So I can't keep track: do adjectives ever lenite after a lenited possessed noun? So if 'dheartháir' is lenited because of 'mo,' is there ever a case where the adjective would also be lenited? Does it depend on gender?