Plé:Geneva, Alabama

Dia duit, a MhacCambridge! Quick question: why would the pronoun in this article be "í" instead of "é"? I have been basing it on the noun "príomhbhaile" it refers to. If this isn't correct, how does one know which word to use? GRMA, always happy to have new input to improve my Irish. Réaltaeolais (plé) 15:45, 27 Iúil 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A Réaltaeolais, a chara,

Your sentence was: Is é Geneva an príomhbhaile agus an chathair is mó i gContae Geneva ...

The pronoun (a subpredicate or rather a subsubject here) refers to the noun Geneva, not to príomhbhaile or cathair. You'd say "Is í Bríd an múinteoir", wouldn't you?

Geneva is originally Latin for an Ghinéiv or French fr:Genève, all of them are feminine. So I'd assume Geneva, Alabama to be feminine, too. There are of course many foreign names without a clear gender, e.g. Nairobi or Tokyo. Here I'd use generally é. -- MacCambridge (plé) 16:51, 27 Iúil 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ceart go leor, a MhacCambridge, go raibh maith agat as do chomhairle. Creidim go dtuigim anois. So, it's best to look at the gender of the word in whatever language the proper noun came from, or barring that, referring back to the name for the place as Gaeilge. Réaltaeolais (plé) 23:35, 27 Iúil 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on every particular case. And often it is better to avoid gender allocation at all, e.g. "Cathair is ea Tokyo." instead of "Is cathair é Tokyo," - But this works only for indefinite predication. (BTW: I corrected your Irish sentences above, if you don't mind) --MacCambridge (plé) 01:07, 28 Iúil 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  GRMA :) Réaltaeolais (plé) 02:55, 28 Iúil 2017 (UTC)[reply]