Im just begining and this would be of immense value to me. I need to know all the forms that 'to be' takes as I am getting confused.

I am French

I was hungry

I was being ironic

I will be hungry

I would be cold

I could be there ( if it wasn´t for the bad weather)

If I was younger

When I was younger

I am speaking to your father right now

I was speaking to your mother yesterday

I will be speaking to your aunt next week

I will be tired when I return

I would speak to her if I were you

I would be speaking to him if he were here

Were I to speak , would anyone listen ?

If I spoke to him he would get angry

I should ( ought to ) speak to them

I chose ' to speak ' as a random verb to use with 'to be ' you can change it to another if it causes any unforseen complications. I
thank you in advance.

I am French ======== Táim francach

I was hungry ======= Bhí ocras orm / Bhí mé ocrach

I was being ironic ======= Is íorónta a rabhas / a raibh mé

I will be hungry ==== Beidh ocras orm

I would be cold === Bheinn fuar (Bheadh + mé -> Bheinn)

I could be there ( if it wasn´t for the bad weather) ==== B'fhéidir liom bheith ann ( mura mbeadh sé don tsíon )

If I was younger === Dá mbeinn níos óige

When I was younger === Nuair a bhíos níos óige / Nuair a bhí mé

I am speaking to your father right now === Táim ag labhairt le d'athair anois díreach

I was speaking to your mother yesterday === Bhíos ag labhairt le do mháthair inné

I will be speaking to your aunt next week ==== Beidh mé ag labhairt le d'aint an tseachtain seo chugainn

I will be tired when I return ==== Beidh tuirse orm nuair a fhillfidh mé / nuair a fhillim

I would speak to her if I were you === Labhróinn léi dá mba tusa mise

I would be speaking to him if he were here === Bheinn ag labhairt leis dá mbeadh sé anseo

Were I to speak , would anyone listen ? === Dá labhróinn, an n-éistfeadh éinne?

If I spoke to him he would get angry === Dá labhróinn leis, thiocfadh fearg air

I should ( ought to ) speak to them === Is ceart dom labhairt leo


Tá súil agam go gcabhraíonn sé sin leat!

When I go to the shop, there does be a lot of people there.

Nuair a théim go dtí an siopa, bíonn a lán daoine inti.


Tá = anois díreach, right now

Bíonn = repeated action, not necessarily right now.

Oopps!

When I was younger == Nuair a bhíos ní ab óige

I am French ======== Táim francach

No, absolutely not!!

Is francach mé
or
Francach is ea mé

are both fine. Táim francach is definitely not, it doesn't mean anything.

I thank you a million times for your replies and corrections. That is of such great help.
I wonder if I could ask a couple more things , how does the pronunciation differentiate between

bhi
bheidh
Bhíos
Bheinn

and why did you not use the form Ba ? I thought this was also a way of saying ' would be'
as in ba mhaith liom.

I would like again thanks for this , its clearing up a lot of fog around my grey matter

You're most welcome! Let me add that Fear na mBróg's contribution was excellent apart from the first mistake.

The pronunciation of those four words is quite easy, but there are some small differences in pronunciation. By the way, I guess you mean beidh instead of bheidh.

bhí is pronounced /v´i:/ (a bit like vee if applying the absurd habit of trying to give Irish pronunciation in English spelling)
beidh is pronounced /b´eg´/ (a bit like beg)
bhíos is pronounced /v´i:s/ (a bit like veas)
bheinn is pronounced /v´en´/ (a bit like venn)

ba is the way to say would in sentences where is is used instead of tá. To say I would be French you'd say Francach ab ea mé

Francach

It's both a noun and an adjective, just like "american" in English.

There's nothing at all wrong with my first example. The reason I used an adjective is because that's what the question asked!

Similarly, there's nothing wrong with:

Is francach mé

You'll hear that one a lot more than my example. But consider a question that explicitly wants an adjective out of you. You're at customs and you're asked your nationality. You don't reply "I'm an Irishman", you reply "I'm Irish". "Táim éireannach".

Ó Siadhail says that "ní ba" is used in past tense comparatives and superlatives, m.s. "Nuair a bhí mé ní ba óige". Are "ní ba" and "ní ab" both right?

ba shine
ba bháine
ba ghiorra

ab óige
ab áille
ab aoibhne

I definitely much prefer "ab óige", but "ba óige" is perfectly valid and I see it now and again.

FnaB
Tá mé francach is *wrong*. (It hurts to hear it).

a) Is francach mé.
b) Tá mé óg.

a) is unchanging so it is "is"
b) is changeable so it is "tá"


Celtoid
It is usually
ní ba: comparitive
I don't think one could ever say "ní ab"
ab, ba; superlative

However, these are both forms of the copula, which is as irregular as it gets!

wow , this is great stuff. Firstly , Jonas , do you have a link to a phonetics learning page ? I think now more than ever I should learn it properly.

Secondly does anyone have a link to a page that has good verb declensions for Irish Gaelic, along with some explanations for the celticly challenged ?

lastly
What use do the verb forms 'táthar ' and 'beifear' have , I mean when are they used , in what context? And I forgot to ask how you´d say

I have been and
I had been
in my orignal list.
mar choíche ,buìochas libh

Seán is watching me.
Tá Seán ag faire orm.

I'm being watched.
Táthar ag faire orm.

If I go there tonight, I'll be followed.
Má rachaidh mé chuige anocht, beifear do mo leanúint. (Leanfar mé)

"I have been". No such verb in Gaeilge. You just use the past tense. In being more specific you can say "riamh" = "before".

I have been there = I was there / I was there before

Hm, well - yes, I do have some links but I think they are rather bad. Here is the best one:
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipachart.html
More confusing than helping unless you're a trained linguist. I know the IPA perfectly well and use it almost daily and I still find those pages verging on the confusing side. They are definitely not beginner friendly. The good thing with them is that they cover the whole IPA. The bad thing is that this is rather a mouthful. For learning Irish you need only about 20% of those symbols - at the most. For all European languages combined you'd hardly need more than 50% of them. Do have a look at that page but don't think you'll have to master all that.

This is a decent introduction, but only focused on English: http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa040998.htm

This is the simplest one, it's alos the one I'd classify as most beginner-friendly:
http://www.esl-lounge.com/pronunciation/phonetic-chart.shtml

It's a good idea to learn the basic IPA since it is helpful when discussing any language.