The Irish Language Grimoire — Translation
Translating between Irish and English is mostly the discipline of resisting the false friends, the obvious-but-wrong constructions, and the tendency to flatten one language into the rhythm of the other. The cases that recur most often:
The “to have” trap
Irish has no verb for “to have.” Where English says I have a book, Irish says Tá leabhar agam, which translates literally as “a book is at-me.” The fused preposition agam (ag plus mé) carries the possession. A learner who reaches for a “have” verb has already mistranslated.
The “on me” construction for emotions
Sadness, hunger, fear, illness, and other emotional or bodily states sit on the person, not in them. Tá brón orm, “sadness is on me,” means “I am sad.” Tá ocras ort, “hunger is on you,” means “you are hungry.” This is not poetic flourish. It is the standard, neutral way to say it.
Word-by-word translation will mislead you
Several common idioms cannot be translated by lining up the parts. Conas atá tú? (“how are you”) sits literally as “how is at you.” Cá bhfuil tú? (“where are you”) parses as “where is-it that you are.” Each construction has a structural pattern, a rule that produces it, and a worked example in the source documents.
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English to Irish
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Irish to English
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