Why is "á" used in these sentences instead of "a".

Cad atá á dhéanamh ansin agat?
Tá a fhios aige cad atá á dhéanamh aige.

I'm wondering if the reason is that pronouns are used after atá. So to use "a" you need to write this:

Cad atá tú a dhéanamh ansin?
Tá a fhios aige cad atá sé a dhéanamh.

Is this the relavent rule?:

http://www.nualeargais.ie/gnag/verbnom1 ... nom.Objekt

Are these correct?:

An obair atá Pól a dhéanamh = An obair atá á dhéanamh aige.
Is maith liom an obair atá an fear a dhéanamh. = Is maith liom an obair atá á dhéanamh aige.
Nach deas an teach atá mé a thóigeáil? = Nach deas an teach atá á thóigeáil agam?
Pingin ní raibh mé a shaorú. Pingin ní raibh á shaorú agam

á = ag + a = at its/his/her/their

The Irish sentence:

Táim ag déanamh na hoibre = I am doing the work

Literally means:

I am at the work's doing.

So when you want to say "I am doing it", you have to say "I am at its doing":

Táim á dhéanamh = (literally) I am at its doing = I am doing it.

The passive version of this is:
Tá sé á dhéanamh agam = (Literally) It is at its doing by me = It is being done by me.

More to come...

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Thanks for your reply. What is the a in:

Ní féidir é sin a dhéanamh.

and why is it not ag?

"A" plus the verbal noun is how you form the infinitive in Irish. "A dhéanamh" is the equivalent of "to do." If you were to translate that sentence literally it come out to "Not possible that to do."

"Ag" before the verbal noun is the equivalent of the "-ing" suffix in English: "ag déanamh" -- "making/doing."

Redwolf

Two point of clarification:

When the verb is transitive (has an object) in Irish the object comes before the verbal noun linked by a, so "to do it" is é a dhéanamh literally "it to do" (here é "it" is the object). So, although the English is "to do it", the Irish word order it "it to do". (You can't say déanamh é* or a dhéanamh é*):

a dhéanamh + é becomes é a dhéanamh

Similarly, you don't say ag déanamh é* in Irish, the object pronoun é (í/iad) gets combined with the pronoun ag to become á, which behaves like the possessive pronoun a, so that:

ag cur + é becomes á chur "putting it/him" literally "at its/his putting"
ag cur + í becomes á cur "putting it/her" literally "at its/her putting"
ag cur + iad becomes á gcur "putting them" literally "at their putting"

For other object pronouns mé, thú/tú, sinn/muid, and sibh, the forms are:

do mo chur "putting me" literally "at my putting"
do do chur "putting you (sg)" literally "at your (sg) putting"
dár gcur "putting us" literally "at our putting"
do bhur gcur "putting you (pl)" literally "at your (pl) putting"

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Thanks for the very helpful answers.

I'm still a little confused when the verbal noun follows atá.

For example:

Cad é atá tú a dhéanamh ansin? What are you doing there?
Sin é an fear atá ag obair sa mhonarcha. That is the man who is working in the factory.

How should I think in order to understand that a is used in the first sentence and ag in the second?

My attempt to literally translate the first sentence is:

What's it which (is) you (to) do there?

But why to do instead of at do (doing)?

Actually, I googled and got:

Cad atá tú a dhéanamh? 40,000 matches
Cad atá tú ag déanamh? 80,000 matches
Céard atá tú a dhéanamh? 1,000 matches
Céard atá tú ag déanamh? 6,000 matches

so I really don't know what to think.

Can someone explain this for me?

That's a good question barra.

First of all atá simply means who is/which is.

Now, as mentioned previously, a is used for the infinitive and ag is used for the continuous:

a dhéanamh = to do.
ag déanamh = doing.

However in certain circumstances a is also used for the continuous. One case is the sentence you gave:

Cad é atá tú a dhéanamh ansin? What are you doing there?

If the object comes before atá you use a for the continuous. For example (from Gramadach na Gaeilge):

Is maith liom an obair atá an fear a dhéanamh I like the work which the man is doing

Now because it translates as doing, you would expect ag déanamh, but since the object an obair comes before atá you use a dhéanamh.

In your example it is a little more complicated, because the object is Cad = What.

(By the way it's not just atá that this happens with, but any verb a bhaineann, a bhuaileann, e.t.c. These all mean which/who is, which/who takes, which/who hits.)

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Thanks! Does this sentence contradict what you said about the object being before atá?:

Cad é atá ag dul?

I think these sound right to my ears:

Cad atá tú a dhéanamh?
Céard atá tú a dhéanamh?

ag sounds a bit more awkward. I'm guessing a is simply used in the continuous sometimes because it allows the sentence to flow a little better. Maybe its even a short form of ag in this case. What do you think?

BTW, is this correct:

Céard atá á dhéanamh acu? What which at its doing by you.

I think its much better to listen to what sounds right than to try to make sense of this in terms of grammar. Would you agree?

It's not actually a short form of ag (it's really a short form of do), but I think you're right about it making the sentence flow better.


Well acu would be by them, outside of that it's fine.


If it works for you and leads you to produce good sentences, then yes. I for instance don't just pick up things "by sound" in another language, I wish I had that ability!

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal