Hi,
I lived in Ireland as a young child and went to school for most of a year. At school I was taught Gaelic. All I remember is a phrase. But I don't know what it looks like written. I think the phrase may have something to do with leaving the schoolroom to use the bathroom.

This is my best phonetic spelling of the phrase,
an will khad augen dila moss, moss aba hele

Any help to what it really means and looks like?
Thanks

Amanda,

My Irish isn't good enough to work easily from phonics, but hang on. I have a feeling the native speakers know exactly what you're talking about.

I recently saw a movie on American TV about a girl who goes to a small town in the west of Ireland and she gets involved with a native named Seán. There is a scene that takes place on one of the Aran Islands in which an Islander is hurling rocks at the couple because he thinks they're foreigners. Seán explains to the girl that he'll have to speak Irish to the man to show him they're friendly. He then calls out to the man in Irish and immediately the couple is allowed to pass. When the girl asks what Seán had said to calm the man, he says,

"I asked him if we could go to the bathroom. It's the only Irish we had to learn in school because if we didn't ask in Gaeilge, the teachers wouldn't let us go, and we'd have to do it in our pants."

I believe your expression is what he said.

Bain sult as,
Pádraig

Yeah, what you're looking for is

"An bhfuil cead agam dul amach, más é do thoil é?" or "An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas, más é do thoil é?"

which means

"Can I have permission to go out please?" or "Can I have permission to go to the bathroom, please?"

I'm sure pretty much everyone who's gone to primary school in Ireland remembers that phrase!

Here ya go, a Phádraig.

http://www.daltai.com/proverbs/weeks/week81.htm

It means, "life is strange".

I stuck an "é" in there whereas the archive version doesn't. I always thought "Is" had to refer to an "é" or an "í" later in the sentence, but I think the noun "mac" does the job instead here.

Someone in New Jersey put a lot of effort into this. Thought I'd pass it on.


http://www.irishpage.com/prayers/stations/stations.htm

Thanks to everyone who responded. It answered a lot of unanswered questions in my mind.

Amanda

how do you say happy birthday in gaelic? please help

Hi jeanpaul,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's:

Breithlá sona duit!


Slan,

Oliver.