Irish Translation Forum

learner1 wrote:

Bodhránbob wrote:Since Angel's is written as singular in the request..maybe aingil would would be a more direct translation?

Liza, and I also, assumed that it was plural and that the misplaced apostrophe was a result of a typing error. After all if it was "angel's (sing) wings" would it not be preceded by an article, or am I missing something?

Gealún wrote:

learner1 wrote:

Bodhránbob wrote:Since Angel's is written as singular in the request..maybe aingil would would be a more direct translation?

Liza, and I also, assumed that it was plural and that the misplaced apostrophe was a result of a typing error. After all if it was "angel's (sing) wings" would it not be preceded by an article, or am I missing something?

I don't think the article is required and I don't think the original is a mistake. The lost child is now an angel and has a set of wings of his or her own. "On angel's wings" makes perfect sense in that context. The plural would sound more like she was being borne by other angels.

learner1 wrote:I don't think the article is required and I don't think the original is a mistake. The lost child is now an angel and has a set of wings of his or her own. "On angel's wings" makes perfect sense in that context. The plural would sound more like she was being borne by other angels.

In Irish when referring to collective things, like angels' wings, ladies' shoes, the genitive plural is used most of the time, if not all the time, (there's always an exception in Irish). In English the plural possessive is used and nouns that take their plural in "s" have an apostrophe placed after the "s" to mark this "case". You will these days often see just boys shoes but it is not really correct.

He wore boys' shoes.
He wore a boy's shoes.
He wore the boy's shoes.
He wore boy's shoes.

Can you spot the odd one out? (nothing really to do with the use of apostrophes to denote the "genitive" in English more to do with normal English sentence building).
You wouldn't say "He came on bus." sounds good even if it makes "perfect sense"
"On angel's wings" is faulty English. Because it is singular it needs an article: on an angel's wings; on the angel's wings. Without the apostrophe "s", on angel wings, would be possible.

And more importantly if you also take the time to look at kilmegan's request you'll see that it's the love that's being born on angels' wings, Cap, not the child.

Yes, it certainly looks like you've put me and kilmegan in our grammatical places regarding the English.

Gealún wrote:You wouldn't say "He came on bus." sounds good even if it makes "perfect sense"

Actually, I'd say he came by bus with no article, but in any case there is no indefinite article in Irish and constructions that back-translate as "on bus", etc. are quite normal in Irish.

In this case:

le sciatháin aingeal "by/with/on angels' wings"
le sciatháin aingil "by/with/on wings of an angel"

I'd still say both are possible but I doubt your ego would ever allow it.

@kilmegan - Sorry for your loss and sorry for getting the image slightly wrong above.

Elizabeth is a native speaker and although her spelling is sometimes weak her turns of phrase and word order are very natural, and unlike some others, her heart is always in the right place. I second her translation with one spelling correction only:

Eitleoidh ár ngrá chugat chuile oíche ar sciatháin aingeal.

...on wings of an angel... is fine
But that's not what we were talking about, and you yourself were never mistaken here were you?
But you are good at turning it around.
I'm an Irish Native and I would say he came on the bus