Fòram na Gàidhlig

Dè fear?

"Ma nach eil thu a’ dèanamh mearachdan, chan eil thu ag obair air ceistean gu leòr dhoirbh. Agus tha sin mearachd mhòr." no "Ma nach eil thu a' dèanamh mearachdan, chan eil thu ag obair air ceistean gu leòr dhoirbh. Agus, 's e mearachd mhòr a tha sin", no "Mur am bi thu a’ dèanamh mhearachdan, chan eil thu ag obair air ceistean a tha doirbh gu leòr. Agus, ’s e mearachd mhòr a tha sin.".

["If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And, that's a big mistake". ~ Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize Winner.]

Mura dèan thu mearachd, chan eil thu ag obair air ceist a tha doirbh gu leòr. Agus 's e mearachd mhòr a tha sin.

Ma + nach = mur(a)

I also think that the singular sounds more natural here than the plural.

Tried to replicate a Meme which reads:

I'm not saying it's hot, but two Hobbits just came and threw a ring.

Sgrìobh mi seo le :

Chan eil mi ag ràdh gu bheil e teth an-seo, ach bha dithis Hobbit dìreach air tighinn a-steach 's a thilgeil fàinne.

When I asked for assistance elsewhere, there was a lot of argument, but I no-one seemed to understood the reference. I'm hoping someone here does understand what I'm trying to achieve. One suggested the whole thing was idiomatic to English, and thus impossible to tr*nsl*t*.

Chanainn-sa "... tha dithis Hobbit dìreach air tighinn a-steach a thilgeil fàinne"

Chan eil mi ag ràdh gu bheil e teth ach thàinig dà/dithis Hobbit a-steach 's thilg iad fàinne?

GunChleoc wrote: dìreach air tighinn a-steach

Chan eil thu ag ràdh gu bheil rudeigin ceàrr le "dìreach air", a bheil?

~Sìle~ wrote: When I asked for assistance elsewhere, there was a lot of argument, but I no-one seemed to understood the reference. I'm hoping someone here does understand what I'm trying to achieve. One suggested the whole thing was idiomatic to English, and thus impossible to tr*nsl*t*.

Chuinnaic mi e. ’S e the blind leading the blind a th' air an duilleag siud uaireannan.

Chan eil dìreach "cearr" ann ach tha e fàgail an sentence nas toinnte a dh'fheumas a bhith, tha e nas simplidhe le simple past (thàinig) ach chan eil thàinig dà Hobbit dìreach a-steach cho math agus obraichidh e nas fhearr as aonais.

Aithnichear luchd-ionnsachaidh is iad a' cleachdadh verbal nouns fad an t-siubhail far am biodh simple past/future fada nas fhearr

A bheil mi ceart a' smaoineachadh, m.e., gur e "Tha mi dìreach air mo dhinnear ithe" a bhiodh dòigh nas nàdarra (no nadarra co-dhiù) airson "I've just (now) eaten my dinner" a ràdh na ruideigin mar "[Cha do] dh'ithe mi mo dhinnear [ach o chionn ghoirid]" ? Tha mise co-dhiù air a bhith a' cleachdadh "dìreach air" gun smaoin mar sin sa cho-theacsa siud — tha mi cinnteach gu bheil mi air chluinntin gu math tric, agus bidh e ag aontachadh leis an dual-chainnt Beurla agam (Glaswegian), mar "I'm just after (eating) my dinner". Tha fios am nach bi eadar-theangachadh literal mar sin an-comhnaidh ag obair, ach shaoil mi seo far an tàinig "after" mar sin nam dhual-chainnt (chuala mi sin àiteigin co-dhiù) agus gur e, ann an dòigh, an aon rud a th' annta. Nach eil

Chan eil càil cearr air "tha mi dìreach air mo dhìnnear ithe" ach san eisimpleir leis na Hobbits, b' urrainn dhut argamaid gu bheil e fàgail an dàrna pàirt nas toinnte na dh'fheumadh e bhith. "tha dà Hobbit dìreach air tighinn a-steach agus thilg iad fàinne" vs "thàinig dà Hobbit a-steach agus..." - chan eil mòran eatarra, tha an dà dhiubh a' mìneachadh an aon sequence of events.

~Sìle~ wrote:One suggested the whole thing was idiomatic to English, and thus impossible to tr*nsl*t*.

Well to be fair, it kind of is (I don't think it was me that said it). The whole "I'm not saying..." thing is an idiom specific to English stand up comedy. I'm not conscious of ever having encountered a similar usage in any other language -- maybe the local mainland Europeans can say otherwise though....
To me (native English speaker), understanding the meme really means putting my head into "English mode".

I'm not saying that you shouldn't tr*nsl*t* something necessarily if it isn't natural in the target language, but if you do so, it has to be a conscious stylistic choice.

Níall Beag wrote: The whole "I'm not saying..." thing is an idiom specific to English stand up comedy. I'm not conscious of ever having encountered a similar usage in any other language -- maybe the local mainland Europeans can say otherwise though....

If "I'm not saying..." simply means "I don't want to go as far as to claim ..." it's quite common in Czech ("Neříkám že ...") - not just in stand-up comedy, in everyday life. "I'm not saying I couldn't sleep but you did snore last night", "I'm not saying he's not trying hard but the results are inadequate" - I could make up thousands of [Czech] examples like this. Of course, you can consequently use it for comic effect: the Hobbit joke sounds quite natural when translated literally into Czech (in fact it never occurred to me it might not do so in Gaelic or other languages).

Fair point on the idiom but I don't think this is untranslatable. We just haven't considered a better idiom yet. I think "Cha chan mi gu..." would work fine here.

ithinkitsnice wrote:

GunChleoc wrote: dìreach air tighinn a-steach

Chan eil thu ag ràdh gu bheil rudeigin ceàrr le "dìreach air", a bheil?

Cha robh e cearr ach bha mi dhen bheachd gun robh e beagan cus dheth.

Tha iad air... sort of implies the "just"; so no need to add it again.

We are currently learning the idiomatic[?] phrase "chur droil", e.g. gam chur droil, gad chur droil, etc.

However, I have not learned to say that "Neil is driving Florence crazy", instead of "Neil is driving her crazy". Does that make sense? And, how do I go about it?

Chanainn: Tha N. a' cur F. droil