Let's say I wanted to say, "He says hello".
It would be translated as "Deir sé Dia duit", right?
But what if I wanted to say, "Charlie says hello"?
Would I translate it as "Charlie deir sé Dia duit" or "Charlie sé Dia duit"?

Thanks :-)

Deir Charlie 'Dia duit' - Charlie says 'Dia duit'
Verb comes first...

You don't need the "sé", then?

sé means he; it's a pronoun just like in English.

Sentence structure in Irish goes something like:

[Verb] [Person doing the action] [Object upon which the action is performed] [Prepositions or Adverbs]

An example of this is:

Seán put the pens into the box quietly.
Chuir Seán na pinn isteach sa bhosca go ciúin.

In English, you can rearrange "quietly" to something like "Seán quitely put the pens...", but you've to be careful doing that in Irish because Irish has a very established system of cleavage whereby pertinent information is moved to the front of the sentence via usage of the verb, "is". Examples would be:

Isteach sa bhosca a chuir sé na pinn go ciúin.
Go ciúin a chuir sé na pinn isteach sa bhosca.
Seán a chuir na pinn isteach sa bhosca.

All three sentences above have basically the same meaning, but the listener will look at you funny if they think you've messed up the emphasis.

ooooh that explains alot. Thanks! =^_^=

Wait - isteach is a preposition, box is not. Why does isteach come before box, then?

Prepositions typically group together with a noun. For instance, you don't just say:

He went for a walk with.

but you'd say:

He went for a walk with John.

You take the preposition and whatever it's grouped with.

isteach sa bhosca > into the box (Lit. into in the box)

istigh sa bhosca > inside the box (Lit. inside in the box)

GRMA! And do you use "sa" after a preposition?

No. Here comes a little complication. . .

The Irish for "in" is: i
The Irish for "the" is: an

Therefore, "in the" would be something like: ins an (The "ns" sound is added to help the vowels blend)

"ins an" is further reduced to: sa

Therefore, sa means: in the

"isteach" is a word that loosely translates as "in", but it's more of a helper word which indicates that inward movement is taking place. In Irish, there are dual forms of words depending on whether there's movement taking place. For instance, the Irish for "up" is "suas" when there's movement, but "thuas" when there's no movement. Similarly, the Irish for "in" is "isteach" when there's movement, and "istigh" when there's no movement.

If you want to say "into", you use "isteach" in conjunction with "i":

Chuaigh sé isteach sa seomra.
He went into the room.

As a native speaker of English, you'll notice that Irish is far more elaborate in some ways in that it has many different forms of words depending on the context. There are three words for "up": thuas suas anuas

The first is used when the object is stationary.
The second is used when the object is moving away from the speaker.
The third is used when the object is moving away from the speaker.

Also there's two forms of each pronoun, one stressed and one unstressed.

'sa' is the preposition. Istigh and isteach are adjectives. Isteach describes movement inwards : istigh the condition of being inside.

Chuireann sé a pheann isteach sa bhosca. He put his pen into the box.

Chuireann sé > he put
a pheann > his pen
isteach > in/ inward/ into/ inside
sa > in the
b(h)osca > box

Coinníonn sé a pheann istigh sa bhosca. He keeps his pen in the box.

Coinníonn sé > he keeps
istigh sa bhosca > in/ inside the box

quote:

Chuireann sé > he put

The past tense is: Chuir sé (He put)
Present Tense is: Cuireann sé (He puts)

quote:

Coinníonn sé a pheann istigh sa bhosca. He keeps his pen in the box

Ní cheapaim go ndéarfaí an cainteoir "istigh sa bhosca" seachas "sa bhosca", .i. gan an "istigh".

Don't know what I'd do without the Daltai! Thanks guys!