to say "he was the oldest man", would you you say
b'é an fear is sine or
b'é an fear ba sine

thanks!

could you say,

B'é an fear é gur sine?

quote:

b'é an fear is sine or
b'é an fear ba sine

Both are used, as far as I know.
In Donegal people say:
Ba dh'é an fear is sine / ba sine.
I think "b'é" is more Connemara.

Croga -> No it is wrong. You can't use "gur" there, in my opinion.

"He was the oldest man (in the town)"

Ba é an fear ba shine sa bhaile é.
Arbh é?
B'é!

Another way is this
Bhí sé ar an bhfear ba shine ar an mbaile.
An raibh?
Bhí.

This latter translation implies some doubt and would properly represent "among the oldest" or "possibly the oldest".

is sine = oldest with the present tense of An Chopail.
ba shine = oldest with the past tense of An Chopail.

There are dialects that don't lenite after "ba" but the CO does ... When writing it is not obligatory to elide the "a" in "ba". The new CO is likely to make clear the relatively limited role of the CO "for official use" in contrast to the wider and welcome predominance to be accorded the dialects in all literary spheres and in speech.

As far as I know there's no difference between 'ba é an fear ba shine...é' and 'bhí sé ar an bhfear/fhear ba shine'. 'Amongst the oldest men' = 'bhí sé ar na fir ba shine'.