Go rabh maith agat,

Caitlín

A Chaitlín, a chara,

A quick answer: Shame on you! = Mo náire thú! (to one person)

Le meas,

Larry.

For information on the use of the Irish word for 'should' see http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/20/11825.html?1063725742

To say "You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" you can use the construction "Ba chóir duit náire a bheith ort!"

Le meas,

Larry.

How about this one?

Ba cheart go raibh náire ort!

"It would be right that you were ashamed£

Just for info:

Mo naire thú! literally means "you are my shame/embarassment/disgrace".

Ba cheart go mbeadh náire ort!

go raibh = that you were?

go mbeadh = that you would be?

I'm away from my resources and have been away from Irish (been dabbling in Swahili by necessity) for a couple of months. Just asking, to see if the brain is still working.

Le meas,

James

My gut feeling is that "Ba cheart go" forces the Modh conníollach

Thanks, all. Does the th in thú mean it's pronounced as an "h"? The deal here is that I'd like to respond to some anti-Irish comments, without making a fool of myself.

So, in the dialect I'm studying, where my nickname Cáit sounds like, "catch," how would Mo naire thú sound, spoken conversationally?

OK. Here's my stab at it. You are correct that the "th" gets treated like a lone "h."

Muh nayruh hoo.

Maybe the muh is better as mah...it's not really a hard "uh" sound but it's not really "ah" either.

We'll get better clarification shortly.

Le meas,

James

Wouldn't that be "Mo náire thú"?

Muh NAH-ruh hoo

I'd say "Mo náire thú" is the best one to use. True, when translated word by word it comes out differently than in English. That's life ;-) (Well, at least it's linguistics) Irish isn't English and there are countless expressions that aren't identical in both languages. The best known is "Go raibh maith agat", I doubt many would want to translate it as "May there be good at you" instead of "thank you". The Irish expression "Mo náire thú" is far better than any new-coined expression that is in fact "English with Irish words".

James and Dawn have given different pronunciations, but they are both right. (If I understand the "English phonetics" correctly). In Ulster it would be /m@ ne:r@ hu/ as James wrote. The long /e:/ could be either an e or a longer form of the "a" in cat /ae:/.
The pronunciation in Munster and Connacht is Dawn's /m@ na:r@ hu(: ) / with the "a" being close to the "aw" in "law" or "a" in "father".

Thank you all. I love this site!

Caitlín