I would be grateful if someone could answer something for me.

Lá breá atá ann
Scoil nua atá inti

I was told that once upon a time you wouldn't have had the word 'it' in the Irish language as everything was masculine or feminine, so it would have been:

Q - An bfuil an scoil oscailte inniu?
A - Tá sí oscailte inniu

My question is, would anyone anywhere use the proper response when dealing with feminine words or is the use of the masculine respone the accepted norm everywhere?

Thanks

quote:

use of the masculine respone the accepted norm everywhere?

No. It is wrong. But people make mistakes!

To confuse things more, for example "cailín" is a masculine word although it means a female person... isn't practical gender used in such cases instead of linguistic gender? Technically speaking, would sé be possible when relating something to cailín rather than the girl who sí is?

Remember the root of cailín is caile. It is rarely used but unlsess I am very much mistaken it is fem.

It is the -ín diminutive which makes the word masc.

The practical gender would be used, not the grammatical one. This is always true of people - so if the title was masc, still the feminine pronoun etc would be used if the concrete person was female.

e.g.

uachtarán [ainmfhocal firinscneach den chéad díochlaonadh]
ceann stáit i bpoblacht; ceann oird rialta nó scoile nó cumainn