sé...sí...it...?

Jay Pentatonic

I've recently read that if we want to say the pronoun "it" we can use sé or sí...:eek:
I was never aware of this!! I always thought we only use sé.

So is this like in German, when you're talking about something that's feminine, you use sí...but when talking about something that's masculine, you use sé.
or is this simply just another dialect thing:rolleyes:

I'd love to hear some info
Thanks:)

conchubhar1

ye - along with siad if you are talking about something plural

example:
Is aoibhinn liom kíla - an bhfuil siad ar eolas agat?
I love kíla - do you know (of) them

Múinteoir

Jay1989 wrote: »

I've recently read that if we want to say the pronoun "it" we can use sé or sí...:eek:
I was never aware of this!! I always thought we only use sé.

So is this like in German, when you're talking about something that's feminine, you use sí...but when talking about something that's masculine, you use sé.

Yeah, but there's only two genders in Irish, as compared to three in German. So consider yourself lucky! And no, it's not a dialectic thing.

Jay Pentatonic

Does anyone else find that there are more masculine words than there are feminine?
It's pretty helpful:), because for me the fem. words sort of "stand out" more (since there are less of them)...so everytime I'm not too sure about a word, I just guess it's masculine & most of the time I'm right...
...most of the time :pac:

staryplough

when you learn a new word you should also learn it's gender at the same time, that way you will not have to guess.

ie. ainm (m)
oíche (f)
peann (m)
abhainn (f)

a good way to learn is to put the article in front of the new word and the effect the article (the) has will determine gender

an t-ainm
an oíche
an peann
an chathaoir

LimeFruitGum

Watch out for various patterns in noun endings. That usually works for me. For example, I know if I see a noun ending in -óg, it is usually Fem.

Yes, you would have to be aware of the noun's gender in Irish, if you want to ensure accuracy. Knowing the gender will help with the Genitive case, or whether a noun/adjective should take a seimhiú(h) or not.

Take the word "scoil", a feminine noun. If you want to describe the school, the accompanying adjective has to take a "h", because scoil is Fem.

E.g.: Cárta Gnó (masc) but Scoil Ghnó (fem)
You can't put a "h" in "an scoil", but the "h" in the adjective "gnó" shows that you knew Scoil was feminine and you're making the adjective agree with its noun.