1. The prepositional pronouns 'le' and 'ag'

You might like to read grammar section 1 of Lesson 2 again to refresh your understanding of the concept of 'prepositional pronoun'. We'll study 'le'= with and 'ag'= at in greater detail here.

This prepositional pronoun is very useful in order to express possession and ownership. To say 'X belongs to Y', or 'X is Y's', you say in Irish Is le Y X.

The bicycle belongs to Seán = Is le Seán an rothar
The bicycle belongs to him = Is leis an rothar, literally 'is with him the bicycle';
The shop belongs to Frank and Eibhlín = Is le Frank agus le h-Eibhlín an siopa
The shop belongs to them = Is leo an siopa, lit. 'is with them the shop'.

Remember, the form leis is also used to say 'as well' or 'too' following a comma, at the end of a sentence.
Another useful phrase you can make with le - prepositional pronouns is


'I like, you like, he, she, we, you (ye), they like.
I like = Is maith liom, literally 'is good with me'
I like cappuccino = Is maith liom cappuccino
Sarah likes Seán = Is maith le Sarah Seán
Basically, the formula for this phrase is: Is maith le X Y = X likes Y.

So far you've seen the preposition 'ag' in verbal noun constructions like 'ag obair', ag taisteal', 'ag cabhrú' and others. We said that these compare to the English -ing-form like 'working, travelling, helping'. An older form in English is a-working, a-singing etc. So the meaning of Irish 'ag' is 'at' when preceding the verbal noun and in many other situations it functions like English 'at'. When it appears in conjunction with a pronoun i.e. as prepositional pronoun, it denotes where something is (or is not) temporary possession, not, like 'le' definite ownership. So, if someone has stolen my bicycle I can say:

'The bicycle is mine but I don't have it.' 'Is liom an rothar ach níl sé agam'.

If I told you while I'm on holiday away from home that I own a bicycle I would use 'ag' but if I brought you home to show you the actual bicycle I would point it out to you and would use 'le'. I.e.

'Tá rothar agam' = I have a bicycle; is liom an rothar = I own the bicycle.

Remember, 'le' always appears with 'is' when denoting ownership, 'ag' with its more indefinite, temporary character, appears with 'tá'.

2. The present tense of the verb So far, we've only dealt with the present tense of 'tá' in its affirmative and negative / question form. The usual or 'habitual' present tense of the Irish verb for 'to be' is bíonn. Bíonn implies something which happens regularly as opposed to tá, which describes a momentary circumstance or happening. You'd say 'Tá an bus ag teacht' (the bus is coming) as the bus is approaching the bus stop while you're watching it. But you'd say 'Bíonn an bus ag teacht anseo gach lá' (the bus is coming in every day) in order to inform somebody else of this fact.

	affirmative	negative	question (indirect form with eclipsis)
	I am (usually) = bím	ní bhím	an mbím?
	You are (usually) = bíonn tú	ní bhíonn tú	an mbíonn tú?
	He is (usually) = bíonn sé	ní bhíonn sé	an mbíonn sé?
	She is (usually) = bíonn sí	ní bhíonn sí	an mbíonn sí?
	We are (usually) = bímid	ní bhímid	an mbímid?
	You (ye) are (usually) = bíonn sibh	ní bhíonn sibh	an mbíonn sibh?
	They are (usually) = bíonn siad	ní bhíonn siad	an mbíonn siad?

Passive form: bítear - ní bhítear - a mbítear?

Other verbs, e.g. 'come' and 'cost' which appear in our text, take on these forms as well. As with 'tá' and 'bíonn' these verbs also appear as the first element of the simple sentence:

	affirmative	negative	question (indirect form with eclipsis)
	I come = tagaim	I don't come = ní thagaim	do I come? = an dtagaim?
	you come = tagann tú	you don't come = ní thagann tú	do you come? = an dtagann tú?
	he comes = tagann sé	he doesn't come = ní thagann sé	does he come? = an dtagann sé?
	she comes = tagann sí	she doesn't come = ní thagann sí	does she come? = an dtagann sí?
	we come = tagaimid	we don't come = ní thagaimid	do we come? = an dtagaimid?
	you (ye) come = tagann sibh	you (ye) don't come = ní thagann sibh	do you (ye) come? = an dtagann sibh?
	they come = tagann siad	they don't come = ní thagann siad	do they come? = an dtagann siad?

For the verb 'cosnaíonn' we have only given the forms in which it is most likely to appear, i.e. with 'it' and 'they'.

	affirmative	negative	question (indirect form with eclipsis)
	it costs = cosnaíonn sé	it doesn't cost = ní chosnaíonn sé	does it cost? = an gcosnaíonn sé?
	they cost = cosnaíonn siad	they don't cost = ní chosnaíonn siad	do they cost? = an gcosnaíonn siad?

There is a small difference in how the present tenses of 'tagann' and that of 'cosnaíonn' are formed. This has to do with how many syllables are in the 'root' of the verb. The 'root' is the same as the imperative form (like giving an order, e.g. come!, work!). So, 'tagann' has only one syllable in the root, which is 'tar'. 'Cosnaíonn' has two syllables in the root, which is 'cos-naigh'. Thus 'tagann' ends up with two syllables and 'cosnaíonn' with three: cos-naí-onn.

3. The question words 'cé and cá'

We have already learned the question words for 'how' - 'conas' and for 'what' - 'cad'.The next question words we learn are'cé' - 'who' and 'cá' - 'where' .Cé is as simple as 'conas' and 'cad' in that it is followed by the independent form of the verb.Thus you get cé atá ann? You might even get cé tá ann? for who is there? (literally, 'who is in it'?).Cé is also used before leis in the Irish question phrase

cé leis é? = who's is it?, whom does it belong to?

'Cá' - 'where' is followed by the dependent form of the verb, i.e. after it 'tá' is turned into 'bhfuil', other verbs, as we'll see later, corrsepond to the form 'dtagann' or 'gcosnaíonn' after it. For the moment it is good to learn phrases like

cá bhfuil sé / cá bhfuil sí /cá bhfuilid ? = where is he / where is she / where are they?