Quandry on Translation

[SonicRed]

Hello All,

I am in need of minor assistance if it could be had.
For the following: "I had forgotten", as in "I had forgotten a thing but now I recall it and I am seeking to never do so again", which of the following would best fit said connotation: Raibh dearmad déanta agam, or Bhi me dearmad, or am I very far off and neither? I thank in advance any and all for their wisdom and assistance.

Blessings

[treegod]

I don't know the answer, but I've asked this on a forum which interest in languages and linguistics. I'll forward any answer there is.

[treegod]

There is no direct translation of "I had..." in Irish (no pluperfect). But there are a few options.

A simple "I forgot" can be "rinne mé dearmad or do dheinis dearúd.

Or you could use the imperfect ("I was...") déanainn dearmad.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Is there anyone else that speaks/knows Irish that could comment?

[treegod]

Yeah, that looks like Google Translate all right. You won't be surprised to discover that neither of these phrases is remotely grammatical.

The issue is that Irish altogether lacks a pluperfect. Even speakers of Irish English avoid it. There are a couple of constructions in Irish called the "perfect", but their use is limited to events completed in the present. So you can say "Táim t'réis déanamh dearmaid ar a ainm" to mean "I've just forgotten his name" but it doesn't make much sense to put this into the past tense without the right narrative context.

So you would simply say "I forgot" (rinne mé dearmad--or, the way I speak Irish, do dheinis dearúd) and rely on context to disambiguate whether you've since remembered again or not. Another possibility is to use the imperfect, i.e. déanainn dearmad. This makes it clear that your days of forgetting are over, but it implies that forgetting was something habitual, i.e. you would forget it, remember, and then forget again.

Here's the full answer I got on the other board. My own answer had been lacking necessary detail.

And another paragraph, added later.

SonicRed might also find it useful to know that rinne mé dearmad is Standard Irish whereas do dheinis dearúd is Munster dialect (specifically West Muskerry).

[SonicRed]

Thank you so very much for your assistance. I know the quote is not quite grammatically correct and therefore presents some difficulty, but your assistance was most helpful.

Blessings

[treegod]

Your welcome.

What was it for, if you don't mind me asking?

[SonicRed]

It's actually an old family motto and as such I was hoping to incorporate that aspect of my heritage with the Gaelic aspect of it. Abstract sayings like this one tend to pose complications however and I'm not sure I can do it justice. I was thinking of skipping the Gaelic and going straight to Ogham, but that seemed to me an even worse idea for multiple reasons.