Irish Translation Forum

Dia daoibh, I work in a drug rehabilitation clinic and I'm trying to start a 'Bród Club'. Táim ag lorg for affirmations so any molltaí/aistriúcháin agus help with gramadach would be thar barr.

Tá mé ag tosú leis an dá:
(1) What matters most is how you see yourself! (Cad nithe is mó é an chaoi a fheiceann tú féin!);
(2) You can't lead a cavalry if you think you look funny riding a horse! (Ní féidir leat i gceannas ar marcra má cheapann tú fhéachann tú greannmhar marcaíocht capall!)

Go raibh maith agaibh as do chuid ama, MrBonBons.

An rud is tábhachtaí an aithne agat ort féin.

Ní cosúil go mbeadh ceannas mharcshlua agat más dóigh leat go bhfuil dreach corr ort nuair a bhíonn tú ar mhuin capaill.

But much shorter is a traditional saying that gets the meaning across

Dhá dtrian den bhua – dealramh.

Gealún wrote:Dhá dtrian den bhua

Dhá thrian ?

fiairefeadha wrote:

Gealún wrote:Dhá dtrian den bhua

Dhá thrian ?

Tá an dá fhoirm de thrian ceart anseo, de réir mar a déir Ó Dónaill...ní raibh a fhios cinnte agam féin go dtí gur bhreathnaigh mé ar an bhfocal san fhoclóir.

I'll take Ó Dónaills word for it.

Gealún wrote:An rud is tábhachtaí ná an aithne atá agat ort féin

Seems to be a few corrections needed here.

fiairefeadha wrote:I'll take Ó Dónaills word for it.

Gealún wrote:An rud is tábhachtaí ná an aithne atá agat ort féin

Seems to be a few corrections needed here.

I'll go along with putting of "atá" in the sentence, (although I think you can get away without it myself), but the insertion of "ná" I don't understand...that changes the meaning to "The thing more important than knowing yourself", doesn't it???
There is no call for suspensive or pleonastic use that I can see here, but I'm maybe overlooking something so I hope you'll explain it to me, a chara.

I think " ná" takes the place of the English word " is" as in .. the most important thing is the self regard etc.. I have heard this usage but I don't know what the grammatical basis is.... Any more ideas?

I don't see that.
The "is" is already included; the full copular sentence would be
(Is é) an rud is tabhachtaí an aithne.. - The thing that is the most important is the knowledge..
By placing "ná" after the adjective you turn it into a comparative as far as I can see, or at least that's the most general use in a sentence like this.
Here's a list of some of the uses of "ná" and I can't see which of these would apply, so I'm hoping fiairefeada will explain it to me, maybe it's a dialectical thing.

Ní raibh aon duine beag ná mór ann - There wasn't anyone neither big nor small there
ná = nor
An fear is mó ná mise - The man that is bigger than me.
ná = than
Cé a casfaí orm ná an fear mór é féin - Who should I meet but the big man himself.
ná = but
Níl aon duine sa bhaile ná go bhfuil a fhios aige cad is ainm dó - There isn't anyone in the town that he doesn't know their name.
ná go = but that
And of course the famous
Is é ainm a bhí air ná Séadna - The name that he had was Séadna.
ná = (pleonastic) it has function rather than actual meaning.

Anyway maybe there's more but I don't know it. Hope ff comes on soon, because this is quite interesting. (Yes I don't get out much)

I think the pleonastic _does_ in fact apply here - but I am not able to explain why. Take the question over to irishlanguageforum. There there are people there who _do_ have the level of Irish to explain but they can't reply here because they have been banned by the new owners for protesting the invasive ads here.

Gealún wrote:Is é ainm a bhí air ná Séadna - The name that he had was Séadna

This is in the same context as the phrase above. I have never used a sentence like Sé an rud is tábhachtaí... without the [b]ná. [/b]It just sounds like wrong grammar to me. Thats how I learned it in school and how I hear native speakers using this type of construction. if there are exceptions to this in a dialect I'm interested in seeing this.