Fòram na Gàidhlig

Ciamar a chanas tu "have had" no "have not had"?

"I have had difficulties."

"I have not had sleep"

"I have never had so much fun"

Fòs, ciamar a chanas tu "An example would be"?

Channainsa...

Tha trioblaidean air a bhith agam - I have had difficulties.

Chan eil moran cadail air a bhith agam - I have not had much sleep - but maybe there is a more nadar way of saying this?

deagh dhùrachdan

Gaelic uses the past tense quite often where English uses the Present Perfect, especially colloquially, in my experience.

So you could also say:

Bha trioblaidean agam / bha duilgheadasan agam / bha dragh orm (na làithean seo)
Cha d' fhuair mi mòran cadail. - I didn't get / I haven't had a lot of sleep

c.f.

Bha mi riamh deidheil air - I have always been fond of him
Cho fuar 's a bha mi riamh - as cold as I have ever been.

The context makes the aspect clear, if required.

An example would be - just keep it simple and say "mar eisimpleir"

Seo na chanainn-sa - here's what I would say:

Tha trioblaidean/duilgheadasan air a bhith agam - "I have had difficulties."

Cha d' fhuair mi cadal - "I have not had sleep"

Cha d' fhuair mi a leithid de thlachd a-riamh - "I have never had so much fun"

Horogheallaidh's ways of saying it are just as good. The questions now is, why did I use 2 different structures? Maybe it has to do with if you actually want it

ETA: Cross-posted with faoileag. Also good, take your pick

Perhaps there's a little difficulty with left-bank English here (if you imagine the Atlantic flowing south-to-north). While I'm not totally conversant with that dialect (or those dialects), I get the impression that the "have got" feature of most right-bank dialects does not feature much on the left bank. Likewise "didn't get". For instance, I feel it would be more natural for a right-bank English speaker to say "I didn't get much sleep" rather than "I didn't have much sleep" or "I haven't had much sleep". Now, I don't think that would apply to, e.g. "I have got difficulties", which tends to indicate the present possessive rather than the past, or "I got difficulties"; or "I have never got so much fun" or "I didn't ever get so much fun": those examples are not to do with attainment, whereas the "sleep" example is (or lack of attainment!).

Anyway, so long as you understand what's behind such as "Cha d' fhuair mi mòran cadail", that's the main thing. And also why it would not be so appropriate for the other examples. I mean, "Fhuair mi duilgheadasan" or "Bha mi air duilgheadasan fhaighinn" would imply that you went out of your way to seek problems. Similarly in the "fun" example.

Yes, fully agree with the recommendations you got. Although Gaelic does have the PluPerfect, it tends not to use it unless it's crucial to logic/understanding and cannot be deducted from context. As a rule if thumb, if you have "air a bhith" more than once or twice on a page, you're overusing it

Moran taing, a h-uile duine. Seonaidh, thank you for your explanation. One of my problems is, being both a left banker and a right banker, I learned both and I go back and forth between the two styles. I started out with right bank but finished most of my education on the left.

I had thought to simply say 'I had dificulties' instead of 'I have had difficulties' but never know which is right.

I'd say that depends entirely on context for the English as well, which one of the two sentences you would use, had or have had.

When you say "I have had...", my brain is tempted to add sees an implied word: "often" -- "I have often had".

In this case, there's a great structure: 'S tric a +past.

I think it works like this (disclaimer: I'm a learner)
I have often said that - 'S tric a thuirt mi sin