English - Irish translation

Giving everyday English a natural Irish construction

Not every English am needs the same Irish expression

English uses “be” for a profession, a location, and a feeling. Irish does not simply substitute one fixed word in all of these sentences. “She is a teacher” can be “Is múinteoir í”. This identifies a profession using the copula is. A straightforward description of where someone is uses a different kind of construction.

For a profile or introduction, make the intended statement explicit before translating. “Teacher” by itself could be a role heading, an address to someone, or part of a sentence. Including the person and the complete statement helps avoid an English-shaped Irish fragment. A correct formula for one introduction should not be stretched to cover every sentence containing “is”.

A feeling can use a different grammatical picture

“I am hungry” is “Tá ocras orm”. The expression presents hunger as being “on me”; orm combines a preposition with a first-person reference. The useful result is the ordinary Irish sentence, not an attempt to replace each English word with a matching Irish word in the same order.

For a practical request, distinguish the condition from the action wanted. Saying that someone is hungry is not the same as ordering a meal or asking when lunch begins. Include the requested action in the English source when that is what you need to communicate. The translation can then preserve both the situation and the intended response without inventing a demand.

Like and would like are different jobs

“I like music” is “Is maith liom ceol”. In this construction, liom is part of how Irish expresses the person who likes something. Do not replace it with a stand-alone pronoun merely because English begins with “I”. Save the whole phrase, including the object of the preference, so you can recognise its grammatical pattern.

An English statement of enjoyment is different from a polite request beginning “I would like”. If you are writing to a café or asking for information, make clear whether you describe a general preference or request something now. Leaving out a modal word in a short English message can change what the Irish translation asks the recipient to do.

Keep the written Irish intact when reusing it

The accent called the síneadh fada belongs to Irish spelling. Copy it with the rest of the word rather than removing it to make the text look more familiar. A saved phrase should retain its complete written form, even if you also keep a personal note about pronunciation. An English-style respelling is only an aid and should not replace the Irish message.

Irish also changes some initial consonants in grammatical contexts. A word may therefore look different inside a sentence from its dictionary headword. Do not “repair” such a change merely because a dictionary displays the unmodified entry first. When adapting a saved translation, check the whole construction again. A change of person, possession, or surrounding phrase can require more than replacing one English noun with another.