"It is discussed in the newspaper."

Translation: Pléitear é sa nuachtán.

[Buachaill1]

Why é here and not sé?

[galaxyrocker]

Because this is the saorbhriathar - the é is the object, not the subject.

Also, among native speakers, this sentence is more equivalent to "One discusses it in the newspaper".

Also, it's not very native-like in another way: natives would say Pléitear sa nuachtán é.

[Buachaill1]

Go raibh maith agat, galaxyrocker, that's a very clear explanation. I was thinking of the saorbriathar as a true passive, but it seems it's more of an impersonal construction like "on dit" in French or "man sagt" in German - as you say "one discusses it," not really "it is discussed."

[galaxyrocker]

Yep. It's not a passive (though historically it was) in native speech, but an impersonal form. Also, not that among native speech the object pronoun is more likely to come at the end of a clause (in any sentence), so you'd get Fuair mé sa mbosca é more often than Fuair mé é sa mbosca. Sadly, Duolingo teaches the (highly English-influenced) latter version.

[Buachaill1]

Good to know. The saobriathar puts me in mind of the Latin passive -tur ending, so perhaps there's an old etymological connection in there somewhere. Thanks again for your helpful response!

[MissSpells]

Why is "Is pléitear é sa nuachtan" incorrect?

[Eclectic1234]

Read the above comments about the saobriathar. Although it is often translated into the passive voice in English, it is not the same. In English, to form the passive, we use a form of "be" + past participle, so "is discussed" is the passive in the present tense. Irish does not need a "helping verb" or a subject but uses a unique form of the verb in this situation. This sentence could also be translated as "One discusses it in the newspaper" or "they discuss it in the newspaper."