Irish: A + Lenited Verbal Nouns in Interrogatives
Why is "What are you doing tonight?" translated as "Cad é atá tú a dhéanamh anocht?" and not "Cad é atá tú ag déanamh anocht?" Is it because "a dhéanamh" is part of é in the sentence like in "leabhar a léamh"?

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Yes, I think you're right. It is the same "a" in both kinds of sentence.

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I see, Claire. Thanks for your response. I just got this sentence from a dictionary. Is the literal translation "Cad atá tú ag déanamh anocht?" considered to be bad grammar though?

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I would normally say "Cad atá á dhéanamh agat anocht?"
I know a lot of my friends from the Kerry Gaeltacht would say "Cad atá tú ag déanamh anocht?" which is a bit more of a literal translation but is used a lot.

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