I had wanted to use the words Serenity and Fate in a tattoo that I'm getting (Lord, I'd swore that would never happen!)

I wanted to verify that serenity is suaimhneas.

Also, I found fate as cinniuint, with an accent over the u. But I also found references saying if it's standing alone, to place "an" in front of the word with a space. Another reference said to use "an" and then change the spelling to chinniuint with an accent over the u. Could someone verify which is most correct?

Also, I was given the pronunciation of suaimhneas as "sue iv noss". Is this correct, and what would be the pronunciation of fate please?

Thank you for your time.

As a hapless beginner, I've learned one thing well: stay tuned until the native speakers chime in, when it comes to something as permanent as a tattoo. Good luck to you!

An is the word "the" which would give you "the serenity" etc. I'd pronounce "suaimhneas" as swiv nyas and "cinniúint" as kin yount which is as close as I can approximate them.

'suaimhneas' is pronounced as "seem-ryas" in Connemara.

"Dán" is an alternative word for Fate.

For a tatoo, I wouldn't bother with the definite article.

cinniúint	Fate
An chinniúint	The Fate i.e. some specific instance of fate

quote:

An is the word "the" which would give you "the serenity" etc. I'd pronounce "suaimhneas" as swiv nyas and "cinniúint" as kin yount which is as close as I can approximate them.

Not necessarily. We might always translate the Irish "an" as "the", but there's plenty of places where it shouldn't be translated as "the", and this is one of them.

I agree with both Aonghus and Fear_na_mbróg...

For the sake of brevity in a tatoo you could omit the definite article but it should be included when you're using an abstract noun such as "cinniúint" or "suaimhneas"

quote:

it should be included when you're using an abstract noun such as "cinniúint" or "suaimhneas"

As I said above, that would suggest a specific instance of fate or serenity to me.

Tá an t-suaimhneas faoin dtuath go hiontach
ach
Is breá liom suaimhneas

I would translate suaimhneas as "tranquility". Do tranquility and serenity have the same meaning in English?

For what it's worth, Suaimhneas is pronounced "SOO-a-nuss" by the postmaster in Ceann Trá in Co Kerry. I would have previously pronounced it "SOO-av-nuss" but don't know if that's a genuine dialectic pronunciation.

About 12 months ago I recall a radio poll (on John Creedon RTE Radio 1 I think) for the "most beautiful Irish word" and if suaimhneas didn't win, it was there or thereabouts.

quote:

Suaimhneas is pronounced "SOO-a-nuss" by the postmaster in Ceann Trá in Co Kerry

Yeah, a typical South pronunciation (cf. deimhin "jeye-in", cuibheasach "keessach" etc.).