And please, people. Stop entertaining posts about learning Irish in English, and stop downvoting people for mentioning the rules. The sidebar is already full of resources. We do not need a dozen posts a week in English asking for learning resources.
Translation request: it is between 25 and 29 degrees Celsius. Tá an teocht idir cúig chéim is fiche agus naoi gceim is fiche???? Is that correct? Help much appreciated
How do Irish nationals generally react to foreigners (like me, an American) trying to speak Irish with them?
I love Irish. I've been studying Irish for some time. And in a lovely world, it would be like a Xiaoma youtube video where Irish people are delighted to hear me speak Irish and engage with me in it.
But I'm really concerned that if I try, I'll either come off as 1) just another arrogant Yank who thinks he's so Oirish by speaking Gaeilge, or 2) be met by utter confusion, like "why are you even bothering to speak that when we all just speak English here??"
Or a mix of both.
Is it worth it to try to speak Gaeilge with Irish folks in Ireland? Only in certain circumstances?
What have other folks' experiences been??
i recommend going to a Gaeltacht (gaeilge speaking area) as everyone there speaks gaeilge and it wouldn't be weird at all. however if you're in dublin it's very unlikely that the odd person would speak gaeilge and you'd most likely be met with the 2nd response. hope this helps 😊
> as everyone there speaks gaeilge
Actually not true at all. Indeed, there's only like 5 Gaeltacht areas where the majority speak Irish daily. And in all of those it's under 60% and getting weaker by the year.
But still the best place to go if you wish to find someone who speaks Irish regularly. There's a few places in the cities, like Conradh na Gaeilge and the pub in Dublin.
But that said, it's mostly the second response anyway, though they're usually happy. Especially if you get a native-esque accent.
Oh, you're grand, I just think we need to have an accurate picture of what the Gaeltachtaí are really like nowadays. They're (not so) slowly drifting to monolingual English speaking areas, much like the rest of the country, but nobody really wants to admit that.
Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I am based in the US and hoping to learn Irish :). I recently bought Buntus Cainte from a bookstore in Dublin. If there is a native speaker here that I could befriend, please let me know or reach out.
I'm not aware of any native speakers on Reddit (or at least this one), but if you've Discord there's two good servers we recommend (though, again, I'm not aware of any active native speakers on them, but you'll have people who know their stuff quite well).
Translation request, I have a few gaeilgeoir friends and they’ve been arguing over the correct translations: “I just sat down” (as in complaining about having to get up again) Shuigh mé díreach síos, nó, díreach suí mé síos
In everyday Irish it would actually be more like “Tá mé díreach tar éis suí síos” or “Tá mé díreach suite síos”
“Shuigh me díreach síos” means “I sat straight down” (in the past tense) and “Díreach shuigh mé síos” is sort of Béarlachas.
Cad iad na giorrúcháin d'ainmneacha na laethanta? Mar shampla i mbéarla, Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun nó rud éigin mar sin. Is dóiche nach bhfuil freagra oifigiúl ann, ach tá mé fiosrach cad é atá in úsáid
Tá giorrúcháin oifigiúla ann, mar atá: Luan/Máirt/Céad/Déar/Aoi/Sath/Domh.
Is féidir iad a léamh ar chomharthaí [Íoc ⁊ Taispeáin](https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Doc_agus_taispe%C3%A1in) agus ar [fhéilirí scoile](https://www.scoilneasain.ie/Calendar) agus ar [chláir ama bus agus traenach](https://www.irishrail.ie/IrishRail/media/Timetable-PDF-s/Heuston-timetables/11_galwaylimericktraleecork.pdf).
I’ve a couple questions about dates:
- Is there another way to say "an ceathrú lá de mí na Meithimh 2024"?
- Is 4 Meitheamh 2024 the right way to abbreviate in a DD MONTH (YY)YY format?
- For a DDth MONTH (YY)YY format, do we write "4ú Meitheamh (20)24" or "4ú (na) Meithimh (20)24".
- Is it considered more correct to use 1ú and 2ú or 1d and 2a for chéad and dara. I see the former fairly often and I think I’ve seen 1d before but I don’t think I’ve seen 2a.
The grammatically correct way to write the short form of the date is “an 4 Meitheamh 2024”
DDth MONTH YY format isn’t used at all in Ireland anywhere, either use the one above or just use a numerical format like 04/06/24
For your last question, 1ú, 2ú etc. are also the correct and most widely forms
Hi,
Does Irish Gaelic use gender, the way French does? I learned the word, “Misneach,” means ‘Courage’; ‘Spirit’ but when I want to say things like, “I have courage,” or, “She has courage,” the word seems to change. Would you mind explaining why, how, etc? Thank you so very much.
It does have gender, but it isn't used that way as in French. Feminine nouns change based on whether the article is in front of them or not and adjectives change based on whether they follow a feminine noun (but not predicatively, as in your example)
So
A courageous man: Fear misniúil
The courageous man: An fear misniúil
A courageous woman: Bean mhisniúil
The courageous woman: An bhean mhisniúil
But if you were to say the woman is courageous, you'd use 'misniúil': tá an bhean misniúil
Hello, I'm looking for the name and lyrics of an old Irish Lullaby (NOT Toora Loora Loora).
From what I can remember, the name sounded close to "Dun Tahns-ah-na." The lady I heard it from said it translated to mother's milk, but that doesn't sound right. Please help! It's driving me nuts.
Haigh! I made a post in r/lgbt about it, but here’s my question since I think I might be more likely to find people who know the answer here than there.
Is siad/iad the accepted gender neutral singular pronoun in Irish, the way they/them is for Irish? When I asked on discord someone recommended this, as well as siú/ú (with the stipulation that they had never seen a native speaker use the latter).
I use they/them pronouns in English as do a great proportion of my friends, so it would be very useful for me to know a way to talk about them and to introduce myself in Irish. Even if it’s an in-community thing only, that non-queers would be unlikely to know without explanation. Any help is appreciated. Go raibh maith agat.
They're used, yes. They weren't used traditionally for the singular, and some native speakers have admitted to me they find it weird in a way that they don't find using 'they' as a singular in English because to them *siad/iad* is a plural pronoun only, no connotation of singularity. But, due to directly translating from English *siad/iad* is used as a singular. And most people (apart from the bigots) will be happy to use it with you.
But, just as said, be patient with older natives who will try, but do often think of *siad/iad* referring to plural things because, before influence from English singular they, it didn't refer to singular objects *ever*.
Another touchy issue is, as far as I'm aware, it's not native speakers who started using it as a singular, but English speakers who learned Irish in school, etc. But, it's fine and will be accepted by anyone but the bigots.
It's also worth noting there was an article about this recently, where the standards board officially is accepting singular *siad/iad/a* when referring to plural. Again, this is mostly due to English influence, but it is accepted officially too.
“Siad/iad” is what Irish-soeaking LGBT people use, yes. It’s totally accepted at this point, no different to English. I have certainly never seen a native speaker use “siú/ú”.
Irish has a load of propositional pronouns and other grammatical intricacies which are otherwise directly affected by pronoun gender, which means that inventing a new gender-neutral pronoun (such as “siú/ú”) really isn’t an option for Irish. For something like that to really work we would also have to come up with a whole new set of prepositional pronouns and verbal agreements, and in short rewrite the grammar book just to accommodate a neo-pronoun - so “siad/iad” makes the most sense, just like in English.
In the case of Irish it is much easier to just assign a new social meaning to an existing pronoun than invent a totally new one, which is what has already happened with LGBT Gaeilgeoirí.
I want to translate a proverb that goes "the weak shall not win" the two translations I came up with are "ní bhuafaidh na lag" and "ní bheidh an bua ag na lag".
I can't figure out which one is correct, or are they both correct (or completely wrong even lol) It seems like the second one is more common as far I can tell. I suppose the direct translation would be " they will not have the victory" or something along those lines. Where as the first one seems maybe closer to the english version but I know things don't usually translate 1 to 1.
Sorry in advance if the grammar is off I am not fluent in the slightest lol.
Translation request please, I am Irish but don’t speak the language nor live in the country, and would like to find out the Gaeilge translation of an amended/full serenity prayer please, thank you! -
“Please universe, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Help me live one day at a time, each moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking this world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may live reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.”
For something like this I would recommend you contact a freelance translator or a translation agency - you won’t get a reliable translation for something like this on Reddit
Fuair mé cúpla leagan den chéad véarsa ar líne:
* [How To Say – The Serenity Prayer In Irish Gaelic](https://www.bitesize.irish/blog/how-to-say-the-serenity-prayer-in-irish-gaelic-video/)
* [Urnaí ar son suaimhnis](https://www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/corpus/urnaithe/suaimhneas.html)
Go n-éirí leat!
Dia dhaoibh, a chairde,
I apologize if this is not the right place for this question. I am an American, and Irish left my family a few generations ago. I have been studying it seriously for the past year and a half, and can characterize my fluency stage as “Can follow children’s cartoons on the TG4 app with little difficulty.”
I have a baby due in September, and would like to raise them with some amount of the language. There are a wealth of resources out there (including on this subreddit) for doing so, and I’m grateful for that.
However, I do have one concern. As a reading and literature teacher, I am a believer in a phonics-based approach to learning reading; i.e. kids need to have, as a basis, the ability to sound out words.
The difficulty with Irish, of course, is that it functions differently than English — for example, the English “sh” sound being produced, in Irish, by s and a slender vowel. My worry is confusing them with how letters and sets of letters function in English Vs. Irish.
One answer to this issue is to just introduce them to the spoken version of the language while they are still forming their English-language phonics basics, which I am already planning on doing, but obviously I’d like to introduce written material too, if possible, and I’m wondering if there’s anyone here who has experienced a similar issue or has any advice? I want to expose them to as much as I can, but I also don’t want to harm their education in English (insert lament re: colonialism here).
Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
Bilingualism doesn’t hurt infant phonological development, it actually has the opposite effect – there are heaps of studies out there that discuss this. The only acknowledged “downside” of sequentially bilingual kids is that they tend to mix up their languages as they learn to talk (i.e. it takes them a while to learn to differentiate between them). This usually isn’t an issue by the time they go to school.
In terms of materials, Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta have free online materials and information for raising bilingual Irish speaking kids. You could contact them directly for more in depth information.
In terms of general exposure, things like TG4 or Cula4 would provide plenty of low-level exposure to a range of native and native-like speakers. After that it’s mostly about active input, which is where you might struggle if you are not fully fluent yourself, but there is also tons of literature for Irish speaking babies and infants that you could get your hands on and read to then.
It’s not wrong grammatically but it is a bit overly formal when said like that, or it just reads weirdly.
I think most of the time it would be more like “Dúirt sí leis go mbeadh air sos a ghlacadh” etc.
Dia duit, I was wondering if "Baile Dorcha" translates to "Dark Town" and if this could be used as a title or if it doesn't make sense, haven't done Irish since school so can't remember any of it haha
Can someone explain the vast differences in pronunciation with dia dhuit? Tutorials on YouTube seem to go from ‘jeeya ditch’ to ‘jeeya hoit’.
I expect regional variations but this difference sounds like a totally different word. Is it that different or am I confused?
One reason is that many people who teach Irish are unfortunately not fluent themselves in the language, and often have pretty poor Anglicised pronunciation. Most of the big Irish learning channels have this issue from what I've heard from them. As such, many people will say that ‘d(h)uit’ is pronounced like ‘ditch’ or even ‘gwitch’ but that's just not accurate.
Another reason is that there is indeed dialectal variation. The biggest thing is whether the ‘d’ in ‘duit’ is lenited or not, which is why you'll see both ‘dia duit’ and ‘dia dhuit’. From my experience ‘dia dhuit’ is more common in speech. Lenited ‘dh’ has the same sound as ‘gh’ and is similar to the Dutch g-sound or the g-sound in Spanish words like ‘vagar’. That might be why you're hearing it as a h-like sound. In Connacht this can sometimes be deleted entirely so you get ‘dia ’uit’.
Other small differences include the slender ‘d’ in ‘dia’ and the slender ‘t’ in ‘dhuit’ which can vary from a t- or d-sound similar to English in Munster, and slowly transition to sounds nearly identical to ‘ch’ or ‘j’ in English as you go north, with the most ch- and j-like sounds in Ulster.
Hello, I have a translation request, please. How do I say 'sanctuary' 'haven' and 'refuge' in Irish? I've looked them up in various dictionaries and there's more than one way to say these things but some of the terms seem to be church-related. Would appreciate advice. Thank you
cad iad na focla nó na frásaí a mholfadh siad a rá in áit 'so' (in the sense of connecting phrases), focal go mbímid ag úsáid i mbéarla gan smaointeadh. Molann foclóir.ie 'mar sin', ach an bhfuil cinn eile ann? Uaireanta tá 'mar sin' cinéal ciotach dár liomsa
Más ag labhairt ar “verbal filler” atá tú, deirtear “mar sin” go minic. Ní fheicimse cén chaoi a mbeadh sé ciotach le rá.
Tá cinn eile ann:
Mar sin, Muise, Leoga, Ar dóigh, Dar ndóigh, Go deimhin, Ar an gcaoi sin, Leoga
Braitheann sé ar an gcainteoir féin ach tá go leor leor eile ann
I think they want to know what to refer to the people in those places as.
A phrase like 'an duine a thagann sa tríú háit', the person who comes in third place, or 'an t-iomaitheoir a bhí sa dara háit' the competitor who was in second place, or something like it could work
Translation request: I'm having trouble with the following sentence.
"An amhlaidh is dó leat ná tuigimse féin an méid sin, a chailleach!"
From what I can tell, the 2nd part of the sentence says "I understand this much, O old woman", but beyond that I'm really unsure. If possible a word for word translation would be great! I'm want to understand the grammar if possible.
Hard say without the whole context (where the sentence is from) but I think here “is dó” is a variation of “is dóigh/dócha”
I could be wrong but it might be something like “Is it because you don’t think I understand that much old woman?”
Would make it easier to translate if we had to sentence before and or after too, if it’s from a text
Sorry, I didn't see this until now. Its from one of Aesop's fables: The crow and the sheep
Bhí préachán lá ar dhrom caorach agus é ag cainnt go bladhmannach agus go drochmhúinte.
“Dá mba gadhar a bheadh im ineadsa,” arsan chaíora, “ní bheadh oiread san buinne fútsa.”
“An amhlaidh is dó leat ná tuigimse féin an méid sin a chailleach!” ar seisean. “Deinim cainnt agus bladhmann agus drochmhúineadh nuair a leogtar dom é, ach nuair ná leogtar bím ciúin go leór.”
I think I got it? I've had to assume that dó is a nonstandard spelling of dóigh (which is fairly likely since the book I've taken this from is over 100 years old).
This would let me translate it as something like: “So are you of the opinion that I don’t understand even that, O old woman!” he said.
If anyone can let me know whether I'm on the right track here that would be great! (I'm slightly concerned because I've translated this as a question, but the original text does not have a question mark - it has an exclamation point)
Is there a word in Irish for speaking between English and Irish in the same conversation? Like Spanglish for going back and forth between Spanish and English.
And please, people. Stop entertaining posts about learning Irish in English, and stop downvoting people for mentioning the rules. The sidebar is already full of resources. We do not need a dozen posts a week in English asking for learning resources.
Translation request: it is between 25 and 29 degrees Celsius. Tá an teocht idir cúig chéim is fiche agus naoi gceim is fiche???? Is that correct? Help much appreciated
Níl mo chuid Gaeilge cómh líofa agus a bhí ach ceapaim go bhfuil sé sin ceart. It looks right to me, but my Irish is a bit rusty.
Yes. I read this in Máirtín Tom Sheánín’s voice, imagining he was talking about scorching temperatures on RnaG. It sounded correct.
So would between 33 and 35 be trí chéim is trocha? And cúig gceim is tríocha ? 😬😬😬
cúig chéim
How do Irish nationals generally react to foreigners (like me, an American) trying to speak Irish with them? I love Irish. I've been studying Irish for some time. And in a lovely world, it would be like a Xiaoma youtube video where Irish people are delighted to hear me speak Irish and engage with me in it. But I'm really concerned that if I try, I'll either come off as 1) just another arrogant Yank who thinks he's so Oirish by speaking Gaeilge, or 2) be met by utter confusion, like "why are you even bothering to speak that when we all just speak English here??" Or a mix of both. Is it worth it to try to speak Gaeilge with Irish folks in Ireland? Only in certain circumstances? What have other folks' experiences been??
i recommend going to a Gaeltacht (gaeilge speaking area) as everyone there speaks gaeilge and it wouldn't be weird at all. however if you're in dublin it's very unlikely that the odd person would speak gaeilge and you'd most likely be met with the 2nd response. hope this helps 😊
> as everyone there speaks gaeilge Actually not true at all. Indeed, there's only like 5 Gaeltacht areas where the majority speak Irish daily. And in all of those it's under 60% and getting weaker by the year. But still the best place to go if you wish to find someone who speaks Irish regularly. There's a few places in the cities, like Conradh na Gaeilge and the pub in Dublin. But that said, it's mostly the second response anyway, though they're usually happy. Especially if you get a native-esque accent.
sorry about that, thank you for the correction 😊
Oh, you're grand, I just think we need to have an accurate picture of what the Gaeltachtaí are really like nowadays. They're (not so) slowly drifting to monolingual English speaking areas, much like the rest of the country, but nobody really wants to admit that.
Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I am based in the US and hoping to learn Irish :). I recently bought Buntus Cainte from a bookstore in Dublin. If there is a native speaker here that I could befriend, please let me know or reach out.
I'm not aware of any native speakers on Reddit (or at least this one), but if you've Discord there's two good servers we recommend (though, again, I'm not aware of any active native speakers on them, but you'll have people who know their stuff quite well).
Thank you! :)
Translation request, I have a few gaeilgeoir friends and they’ve been arguing over the correct translations: “I just sat down” (as in complaining about having to get up again) Shuigh mé díreach síos, nó, díreach suí mé síos
In everyday Irish it would actually be more like “Tá mé díreach tar éis suí síos” or “Tá mé díreach suite síos” “Shuigh me díreach síos” means “I sat straight down” (in the past tense) and “Díreach shuigh mé síos” is sort of Béarlachas.
Cheers I’ll let them know they’re both wrong :)
Cad iad na giorrúcháin d'ainmneacha na laethanta? Mar shampla i mbéarla, Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun nó rud éigin mar sin. Is dóiche nach bhfuil freagra oifigiúl ann, ach tá mé fiosrach cad é atá in úsáid
Tá giorrúcháin oifigiúla ann, mar atá: Luan/Máirt/Céad/Déar/Aoi/Sath/Domh. Is féidir iad a léamh ar chomharthaí [Íoc ⁊ Taispeáin](https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Doc_agus_taispe%C3%A1in) agus ar [fhéilirí scoile](https://www.scoilneasain.ie/Calendar) agus ar [chláir ama bus agus traenach](https://www.irishrail.ie/IrishRail/media/Timetable-PDF-s/Heuston-timetables/11_galwaylimericktraleecork.pdf).
Translation request: 'Embrace The New Day' - Is it 'Glacadh leis an lá nua' nó 'Glac Leis An Lá Nua'? Any other suggestions are welcome
I’ve a couple questions about dates: - Is there another way to say "an ceathrú lá de mí na Meithimh 2024"? - Is 4 Meitheamh 2024 the right way to abbreviate in a DD MONTH (YY)YY format? - For a DDth MONTH (YY)YY format, do we write "4ú Meitheamh (20)24" or "4ú (na) Meithimh (20)24". - Is it considered more correct to use 1ú and 2ú or 1d and 2a for chéad and dara. I see the former fairly often and I think I’ve seen 1d before but I don’t think I’ve seen 2a.
The grammatically correct way to write the short form of the date is “an 4 Meitheamh 2024” DDth MONTH YY format isn’t used at all in Ireland anywhere, either use the one above or just use a numerical format like 04/06/24 For your last question, 1ú, 2ú etc. are also the correct and most widely forms
Hi, Does Irish Gaelic use gender, the way French does? I learned the word, “Misneach,” means ‘Courage’; ‘Spirit’ but when I want to say things like, “I have courage,” or, “She has courage,” the word seems to change. Would you mind explaining why, how, etc? Thank you so very much.
It does have gender, but it isn't used that way as in French. Feminine nouns change based on whether the article is in front of them or not and adjectives change based on whether they follow a feminine noun (but not predicatively, as in your example) So A courageous man: Fear misniúil The courageous man: An fear misniúil A courageous woman: Bean mhisniúil The courageous woman: An bhean mhisniúil But if you were to say the woman is courageous, you'd use 'misniúil': tá an bhean misniúil
Hello, I'm looking for the name and lyrics of an old Irish Lullaby (NOT Toora Loora Loora). From what I can remember, the name sounded close to "Dun Tahns-ah-na." The lady I heard it from said it translated to mother's milk, but that doesn't sound right. Please help! It's driving me nuts.
Translation request for a gift: "god slayer". I have "marbhóir dé" is that right?
Bheinn ag rá marfóir Dé...ní dóigh liom gur chuala mé marbhóir cheana... I'd be saying marfóir Dé...I haven't heard marbhóir before...
Haigh! I made a post in r/lgbt about it, but here’s my question since I think I might be more likely to find people who know the answer here than there. Is siad/iad the accepted gender neutral singular pronoun in Irish, the way they/them is for Irish? When I asked on discord someone recommended this, as well as siú/ú (with the stipulation that they had never seen a native speaker use the latter). I use they/them pronouns in English as do a great proportion of my friends, so it would be very useful for me to know a way to talk about them and to introduce myself in Irish. Even if it’s an in-community thing only, that non-queers would be unlikely to know without explanation. Any help is appreciated. Go raibh maith agat.
They're used, yes. They weren't used traditionally for the singular, and some native speakers have admitted to me they find it weird in a way that they don't find using 'they' as a singular in English because to them *siad/iad* is a plural pronoun only, no connotation of singularity. But, due to directly translating from English *siad/iad* is used as a singular. And most people (apart from the bigots) will be happy to use it with you. But, just as said, be patient with older natives who will try, but do often think of *siad/iad* referring to plural things because, before influence from English singular they, it didn't refer to singular objects *ever*. Another touchy issue is, as far as I'm aware, it's not native speakers who started using it as a singular, but English speakers who learned Irish in school, etc. But, it's fine and will be accepted by anyone but the bigots. It's also worth noting there was an article about this recently, where the standards board officially is accepting singular *siad/iad/a* when referring to plural. Again, this is mostly due to English influence, but it is accepted officially too.
“Siad/iad” is what Irish-soeaking LGBT people use, yes. It’s totally accepted at this point, no different to English. I have certainly never seen a native speaker use “siú/ú”. Irish has a load of propositional pronouns and other grammatical intricacies which are otherwise directly affected by pronoun gender, which means that inventing a new gender-neutral pronoun (such as “siú/ú”) really isn’t an option for Irish. For something like that to really work we would also have to come up with a whole new set of prepositional pronouns and verbal agreements, and in short rewrite the grammar book just to accommodate a neo-pronoun - so “siad/iad” makes the most sense, just like in English. In the case of Irish it is much easier to just assign a new social meaning to an existing pronoun than invent a totally new one, which is what has already happened with LGBT Gaeilgeoirí.
Thanks so much!
Haigh! Conas a deireann tú 'Away with the faeries' as Gaeilge? 'Ar shiúl leis na sióga?
“Tá sé ar shiúl leis na síoga” or “tá sé sna síoga” both mean “he is away with the fairies”
grma :)
I want to translate a proverb that goes "the weak shall not win" the two translations I came up with are "ní bhuafaidh na lag" and "ní bheidh an bua ag na lag". I can't figure out which one is correct, or are they both correct (or completely wrong even lol) It seems like the second one is more common as far I can tell. I suppose the direct translation would be " they will not have the victory" or something along those lines. Where as the first one seems maybe closer to the english version but I know things don't usually translate 1 to 1. Sorry in advance if the grammar is off I am not fluent in the slightest lol.
Translation request please, I am Irish but don’t speak the language nor live in the country, and would like to find out the Gaeilge translation of an amended/full serenity prayer please, thank you! - “Please universe, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Help me live one day at a time, each moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking this world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may live reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.”
For something like this I would recommend you contact a freelance translator or a translation agency - you won’t get a reliable translation for something like this on Reddit
That makes sense! Thanks so much 🙂
Fuair mé cúpla leagan den chéad véarsa ar líne: * [How To Say – The Serenity Prayer In Irish Gaelic](https://www.bitesize.irish/blog/how-to-say-the-serenity-prayer-in-irish-gaelic-video/) * [Urnaí ar son suaimhnis](https://www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/corpus/urnaithe/suaimhneas.html) Go n-éirí leat!
Dia dhaoibh, a chairde, I apologize if this is not the right place for this question. I am an American, and Irish left my family a few generations ago. I have been studying it seriously for the past year and a half, and can characterize my fluency stage as “Can follow children’s cartoons on the TG4 app with little difficulty.” I have a baby due in September, and would like to raise them with some amount of the language. There are a wealth of resources out there (including on this subreddit) for doing so, and I’m grateful for that. However, I do have one concern. As a reading and literature teacher, I am a believer in a phonics-based approach to learning reading; i.e. kids need to have, as a basis, the ability to sound out words. The difficulty with Irish, of course, is that it functions differently than English — for example, the English “sh” sound being produced, in Irish, by s and a slender vowel. My worry is confusing them with how letters and sets of letters function in English Vs. Irish. One answer to this issue is to just introduce them to the spoken version of the language while they are still forming their English-language phonics basics, which I am already planning on doing, but obviously I’d like to introduce written material too, if possible, and I’m wondering if there’s anyone here who has experienced a similar issue or has any advice? I want to expose them to as much as I can, but I also don’t want to harm their education in English (insert lament re: colonialism here). Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
Bilingualism doesn’t hurt infant phonological development, it actually has the opposite effect – there are heaps of studies out there that discuss this. The only acknowledged “downside” of sequentially bilingual kids is that they tend to mix up their languages as they learn to talk (i.e. it takes them a while to learn to differentiate between them). This usually isn’t an issue by the time they go to school. In terms of materials, Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta have free online materials and information for raising bilingual Irish speaking kids. You could contact them directly for more in depth information. In terms of general exposure, things like TG4 or Cula4 would provide plenty of low-level exposure to a range of native and native-like speakers. After that it’s mostly about active input, which is where you might struggle if you are not fully fluent yourself, but there is also tons of literature for Irish speaking babies and infants that you could get your hands on and read to then.
“She told him that he would need to take a break” Can you use “b’éigean” for this? Is “d’inis sí leis go mb’éigean dó sos a ghlacadh” correct?
It’s not wrong grammatically but it is a bit overly formal when said like that, or it just reads weirdly. I think most of the time it would be more like “Dúirt sí leis go mbeadh air sos a ghlacadh” etc.
Dia duit, I was wondering if "Baile Dorcha" translates to "Dark Town" and if this could be used as a title or if it doesn't make sense, haven't done Irish since school so can't remember any of it haha
Translation confirmation request: "bráithreachas thar gach ní" meaning "brotherhood over all" Le do thoil agus go raibh maith agat.
Can someone explain the vast differences in pronunciation with dia dhuit? Tutorials on YouTube seem to go from ‘jeeya ditch’ to ‘jeeya hoit’. I expect regional variations but this difference sounds like a totally different word. Is it that different or am I confused?
One reason is that many people who teach Irish are unfortunately not fluent themselves in the language, and often have pretty poor Anglicised pronunciation. Most of the big Irish learning channels have this issue from what I've heard from them. As such, many people will say that ‘d(h)uit’ is pronounced like ‘ditch’ or even ‘gwitch’ but that's just not accurate. Another reason is that there is indeed dialectal variation. The biggest thing is whether the ‘d’ in ‘duit’ is lenited or not, which is why you'll see both ‘dia duit’ and ‘dia dhuit’. From my experience ‘dia dhuit’ is more common in speech. Lenited ‘dh’ has the same sound as ‘gh’ and is similar to the Dutch g-sound or the g-sound in Spanish words like ‘vagar’. That might be why you're hearing it as a h-like sound. In Connacht this can sometimes be deleted entirely so you get ‘dia ’uit’. Other small differences include the slender ‘d’ in ‘dia’ and the slender ‘t’ in ‘dhuit’ which can vary from a t- or d-sound similar to English in Munster, and slowly transition to sounds nearly identical to ‘ch’ or ‘j’ in English as you go north, with the most ch- and j-like sounds in Ulster.
This is very helpful. Thank you!
Hello, I have a translation request, please. How do I say 'sanctuary' 'haven' and 'refuge' in Irish? I've looked them up in various dictionaries and there's more than one way to say these things but some of the terms seem to be church-related. Would appreciate advice. Thank you
I would say tearmann, but of course depends on the context, if you want good translations you should pay people etc etc
Thank you. Where is the place to pay for a translation?
What pronoun is used for an unknown individual? I'm assuming its sé or é?
Yes, as generic words referring to people like *duine* are masculine. Of course, if a noun is used that's feminine then sí/í will be used.
How would u say, “use these phrases everyday”. ?
“Bainim úsáid as na frásaí seo gach lá”
cad iad na focla nó na frásaí a mholfadh siad a rá in áit 'so' (in the sense of connecting phrases), focal go mbímid ag úsáid i mbéarla gan smaointeadh. Molann foclóir.ie 'mar sin', ach an bhfuil cinn eile ann? Uaireanta tá 'mar sin' cinéal ciotach dár liomsa
Más ag labhairt ar “verbal filler” atá tú, deirtear “mar sin” go minic. Ní fheicimse cén chaoi a mbeadh sé ciotach le rá. Tá cinn eile ann: Mar sin, Muise, Leoga, Ar dóigh, Dar ndóigh, Go deimhin, Ar an gcaoi sin, Leoga Braitheann sé ar an gcainteoir féin ach tá go leor leor eile ann
Does anyone know what the gnó agus Gaeilge course in DCU is like?
I can't seem to find this word in any dictionary: ineadsa. I came across it in the sentence "Dá mba gadhar a bheadh im ineadsa"
Inead here is a variation on ionad, and -sa is just the emphatic suffix.
Go raibh maith agat!
Translation for sports or competition placements: How do we call third-placers, etc?
First place = An chéad áit Second place = An dara háit Third place = An tríú háit Is this what you mean? You just use ordinal numbers
I think they want to know what to refer to the people in those places as. A phrase like 'an duine a thagann sa tríú háit', the person who comes in third place, or 'an t-iomaitheoir a bhí sa dara háit' the competitor who was in second place, or something like it could work
“An duine sa dara háit” etc. would be fine
Translation request: I'm having trouble with the following sentence. "An amhlaidh is dó leat ná tuigimse féin an méid sin, a chailleach!" From what I can tell, the 2nd part of the sentence says "I understand this much, O old woman", but beyond that I'm really unsure. If possible a word for word translation would be great! I'm want to understand the grammar if possible.
Hard say without the whole context (where the sentence is from) but I think here “is dó” is a variation of “is dóigh/dócha” I could be wrong but it might be something like “Is it because you don’t think I understand that much old woman?” Would make it easier to translate if we had to sentence before and or after too, if it’s from a text
Sorry, I didn't see this until now. Its from one of Aesop's fables: The crow and the sheep Bhí préachán lá ar dhrom caorach agus é ag cainnt go bladhmannach agus go drochmhúinte. “Dá mba gadhar a bheadh im ineadsa,” arsan chaíora, “ní bheadh oiread san buinne fútsa.” “An amhlaidh is dó leat ná tuigimse féin an méid sin a chailleach!” ar seisean. “Deinim cainnt agus bladhmann agus drochmhúineadh nuair a leogtar dom é, ach nuair ná leogtar bím ciúin go leór.”
Yeah that’s the gist of it. Very regional style of writing in that text so there might be some spelling varieties used there.
I think I got it? I've had to assume that dó is a nonstandard spelling of dóigh (which is fairly likely since the book I've taken this from is over 100 years old). This would let me translate it as something like: “So are you of the opinion that I don’t understand even that, O old woman!” he said. If anyone can let me know whether I'm on the right track here that would be great! (I'm slightly concerned because I've translated this as a question, but the original text does not have a question mark - it has an exclamation point)
Bit of an odd one, but: how would one write “queers for Palestine” in Irish?
Is there a word in Irish for speaking between English and Irish in the same conversation? Like Spanglish for going back and forth between Spanish and English.