Dia duit,

I am getting an iPod and I would like to have the phrase "Touch, and die" engraved as Gaeilge on the back. Could someone please translate this for me?

Go raibh maith agaiv (is that right?)

P.S. What is the difference between Le do thoil, and Ma's é do thoil é?

Les meas,
Dion

mo chara, dion

Well lol, someone correct me if I am wrong but it depends on who your talking to when you say thank you


Go raibh maith does not change,

But Agat/agaiv is subject to change it can mean


Upon/at me......upon/at you....upon at you PLURAL and a bunch of others, its called a prepositional pronoun, like in DHUIT that means to one person or YOU but to YOU GUYS like in more than one you would say Dhaoibh.....I think thats the spelling.........but back to the original you would most likely use AGAT(at YOU)

and here is a chart I made from info I got on this site and it will help you on prepositional pronouns, because they usually are pretty consisten in the ENDINGS

LOL and correct me if it isnt called a prepositional pronoun


Le With
Liom With me
Leat With you (Singular)
Leis With him, with it (Masculine)
Léi With her, with it (feminine)
Linn With us
Libh With you (plural)
Leo With them


now someone can correct me because I am not that far, but I am almost sure this isnt wrong :-D(hopefully not)


Hope this helps in SOME WAY


La meas(SP)

mo chara, dion

Well lol, someone correct me if I am wrong but it depends on who your talking to when you say thank you


Go raibh maith does not change,

But Agat/agaiv is subject to change it can mean


Upon/at me......upon/at you....upon at you PLURAL and a bunch of others, its called a prepositional pronoun, like in DHUIT that means to one person or YOU but to YOU GUYS like in more than one you would say Dhaoibh.....I think thats the spelling.........but back to the original you would most likely use AGAT(at YOU)

and here is a chart I made from info I got on this site and it will help you on prepositional pronouns, because they usually are pretty consisten in the ENDINGS

LOL and correct me if it isnt called a prepositional pronoun


Le With
Liom With me
Leat With you (Singular)
Leis With him, with it (Masculine)
Léi With her, with it (feminine)
Linn With us
Libh With you (plural)
Leo With them


now someone can correct me because I am not that far, but I am almost sure this isnt wrong :-D(hopefully not)


Hope this helps in SOME WAY


La meas(SP)

Dion, A Chara:

Your request will most likely need to be altered some. Direct english to Irish almost never works. I'm away from my books right now but I'll try to get you something later this afternoon.

Regarding your other questions:

Le do thoil and Ma's é do thoil é are interchangeable. One may be heard more frequently in some parts of Ireland than in another but they are both understood uniformly to mean "Please". Literally, they mean "with your pleasure" and "if it is your pleasure" if I'm not mistaken.

Go raibh maith agaibh (pronounced like agiv) is the correct spelling of "Thank you" to a group.

Go raibh maith agat is for one person.

Alsander: Great job! You're getting into this full swing it seems. It is indeed a prepositional pronoun. One very small correction, though. In your closing it's "Le Meas" not "La". Le meaning "with", as you already know, and Meas meaning respect. Keep at it...you're doing great!

Bain leis seo, agus fáigh bás

Dion:

there you have it. Straight from a native speaker. You can take that one to the bank!

Or more succcintly
Bain leis, agus básaigh

LOL did I put la? oh god! I meant le and know that it is not LA but all my typing in spanish LA just became kind of, I dont know programmed in and automatic...and I am glad I could help hopefully some how.........hopefully soon I can answer more

Le do thoil
(Le duh Hoy-l)

Ma's é do thoil é
(MASH AY duh HOY-L AY)??

First of all, go raibh maih agaibh(all), but what is the difference between Bain leis, agus b‡saigh and Bain leis seo, agus f‡igh? Is one more archaic?

And secondly, what are the respective dialects of Ma's Ž do thoil Ž and Le do thoil. Is the first one Ulster, and the second Munster?

Thirdly, Am I correct in understanding that Dia dhaoibh is used to adress, a group instead of Dia duit? If so, how is it pronounced?

Fourthly, and I don't mean to be a problem, but how do you say the following (with pronounciation preferably, but not neccesarily):

sorry
yes
no
and Celtic Knot

Le meas, ( I take it that it is "Le" not "Les" like in my first post?)
Dion

Sea is yes I BELIEVE Níl or ní is no but dont quote me on the no one....on sea its like SYEA and if I am right on níl it is NEEL(like the name or I kneel to pray)

and it is Le

and yes Dhaoibh is for more than one person...


Look at that chart I gave you

Look at the endings, dhuiT dhaoiBH(you plural)

You can kind of piece together somehting like what the others forms of DHUIT would be, meaning AT YOU or UPON you............


I hope I am right and could help in some way

Dion,

Again, there isn't a true english-Irish equivalent to these phrases. What you have is the transferance of an idea or a concept not a word for word relationship.

Sorry = Tá brón orm Tah bron orum Literally, the sorrow is on me.

There is no "yes" or "no" in Irish. There is a repetition of the verb in question in an affirmative or negative context. The closest you can get to a straight "yes" or "no" would be

Is ea = yes pronounced ish - ah

Ni hea = no pronounced nee - hay

But these don't work in all instances. Mar sampla (for example): Tá tú go maith? (Are you well?) Táim. (I am)

There simply is no "yes" and "no" in Irish. You have to understand the grammar and the vocabulary to answer in the affirmative or the negative.

Celtic Knot I'll have to leave to others with a larger vocabulary than mine. If there is no post later in the day I'll get in the books and let you know what I find.

Dia dhaoibh is pronounced roughly, De-uh yiv and you are correct that this is the pluralized form.

I am not certain on this but I believe Le do thoil is found more in the Conamara/Galway region and Ma's é so thoil é is found more in the Munster dialect. Don't quote me on this, though. I've read them both so much that I've forgotten which is which.

Le meas,

James

Celtic Knot should be something like:

Snaidhm Celtach

I think the spelling is off on Celtach....I'll have to check.

knotwork = dualaíocht, snaidhmobair

Is iad sin na focail a úsáidtear sa leabhar ealaíne _Seoda na hÉireann_. Focail bhaininscneacha is ea iad:

dualaíocht Cheilteach
snaidhmobair Cheilteach

What is the difference between duala’ocht and snaidhmobair?

I'm afraid that since I'm just beginning Gaeilge and don't have the assistance of "Now You're Talking" or any other work beyond a simple Oxford BŽarla-Gaeilge focl—ir, I have no idea what that second line said beyond "word...book...girl...Ireland...word...whate?"

So according to the chart, sl‡n leat is "bye with you" (singular)?

So back to my original reason yo posting this string: What is the difference between "Bain leis seo, agus f‡igh b‡s", agus "Bain leis, agus b‡ssaigh"?

Le meas
Dion

The first is more verbose ie: touch this and you will die. The second is more succinct ie: Touch it and die. These aren't literal translations but this is the conceptual difference between the two.

The more you play around with this language the more you'll come to understand that it is less about translating words from one language to another and more about tranferring a concept.

It's tough but it's Fun!!

BTW, your fadas aren't coming across. I don't know what keyboard or what strokes you're using but I find it easier to just use the cut and paste option at the bottom of the page.

Le meas,

James

Go raibh maith agat James, I have tried cutting and pasting, but that doesn't work either:-(Sometimes, I'll come back to a previously posted message, and the fadas seem to have fixed themselves though. (shrugs)

Dion

Dennis wrote:
Is iad sin na focail a úsáidtear sa leabhar ealaíne _Seoda na hÉireann_. Focail bhaininscneacha is ea iad:

These are the words used in the art book "Treasures of Ireland". They are feminine words.

Dion, a chara
there is no 1:1 equivalnece between languages. As Dennis posted,these are two possible ways of translating knotwork.

OOPs! I screwed up in my post above.

You cannot ask the question "Tá tú go maith?" That construction is grammatically flawed.

You must ask "An bhfuil tú go maith?" to which the response would be "Táim" or "Níl mé."

I inadvertently gave the incorrect construction in my example of why there is no "yes" and "no" in Irish. Sorry. I know better.

(fadaless message)
Taim- I am Nil me- I am not?
We all make mistakes.

So dualaiocht and snaidhmobair are both feminine?

>>So dualaiocht and snaidhmobair are both feminine?

that's what Dennis wrote