Showing Ownership Using the Copula + Le

Showing ownership using the copula + le

We've learned how to directly indicate ownership using possessive adjectives mo, do, a, ár, and bhur.

Seo é mo theach.This is my house.

Sin é a leabhar.That's her book.

There's another way to show ownership which also allows you to translate the concept of a possessive pronoun. That is, how to say This is mine, or That's yours. We don't always want or need to say the noun we're referring to, so we replace it with a special form of my or your to take the noun's place.

The copula 'is' plus the preposition 'le' is how this can be done in Irish. Let's start by learning how to ask to whom something belongs; whose something is.

Cé leis é seo?Whose is this?literally, Who with (is) this?

Cé leis an carr sin?Whose car is that?

Do you recognize the prepositional pronouns formed with le? We'd answer like this.

Is liomsa é sin.That's mine.

Is leisean an carr sin.That carr is his.

Additionally you may notice the prepositional pronoun is usually emphatic in the answer. Contrast the regular prepositional pronouns for le with their emphatic counterparts.

liom, leat, leis, léi, linn, libh, leo

liomsa, leatsa, leisean, léise, linne, libhse, leosan

I find, an easy way to grasp the meaning of the emphatic is to add, “as opposed to something/someone else” onto whatever has an emphatic ending.

leatwith you

leatsawith you, as opposed to with someone else

To wrap things up, remember that you may encounter ceann with the emphatic too. Sometimes, to say That's mine, Irish uses a construction with ceann, which we've learned can mean one in the sense of this one or that one.

Seo mo cheann. Sin do cheannsa.This one's mine. That one's yours.

Cé leis an ceann seo?Whose (one) is this?

Notice in the first example, that an emphatic ending goes on the end of the 2nd instance of ceann, to show contrast. Mo and do are adjectives, so the emphatic ending has to go on the noun they modify.

Complete the following exercises having to do with showing ownership.

Fill in the blanks and translate.

1. Níl a fhios agam ______an hata sin. (whose)

______.

2. Sin é ______, ach seo é ______. (hers, theirs)

______.

3. Tá mo charr níos mó ná ______. (yours) [ceann]

______.

4. ______an teach ar an taobh dheis. (ours is)

______.

5. ______an gairdín is fearr sa tír. (yours is)[plural]

______.

Random questions

1. Take a shot at constructing the emphatic prepositional pronouns for ag.

agamsa, agatsa, ______, ______, ______, ______, ______

2. What does ceann mean literally? Would you use it to refer to a person? If not, what would you use?

3. What does Cé leis mean literally? How do we translate it figuratively?

4. What's the pattern that we see in the endings of emphatic pronouns? We know that they follow the broad-slender rule, but what else is going ón?

5. Take a guess at how we might say, “This was mine,” in the past tense, using the copula + le construction. hint: What's the past tense of is?