Irish Translation Forum

Guys, Do note that the poster wanted "you are forgiven," not "I forgive you." The speaker may or may not be the one doing the forgiving.

For example, a priest giving absolution wouldn't say "I forgive you," as it's God doing the forgiving...the priest in that sense is only acting as his proxy.

Redwolf

In that case: Tá [sé] maite daoibh - as kenailan previously suggested ( with duit in the singular). Grammarians, I know the subject can sometimes be omitted in this kind of construction. What about here?

Why not:

Maitear duit/daoibh = You are forgiven

Briseadh an mhallacht = The spell has been broken

iora_rua wrote:Why not:

Maitear duit/daoibh = You are forgiven

That implies a habitual action. It's the state - not the act - of being/having been forgiven that's meant here.

Well, being forgiven can never be an act on the part of the forgiven, but something that is done to him. But I see what you mean. Then I'd go for ´Tá sé maite duit/daoibh'.

iora_rua wrote:Well, being forgiven can never be an act on the part of the forgiven, but something that is done to him. But I see what you mean. Then I'd go for ´Tá sé maite duit/daoibh'.

Where did I imply "being forgiven" was "an act on the part of the forgiven"? I said "the act of being forgiven", which, being passive, clearly can only be done by the forgiver.

Well, what I meant was that 'being forgiven' can't be an act, period, so there is no need to imply that such a thing would be an act (which you in fact did - 'the act of being forgiven' - and did again in your last post). The forgiver is not acting out the act of being forgiven, he/she forgives. But I admit this is just splitting hairs on my part, so I'll leave it at that.

iora_rua wrote:Well, what I meant was that 'being forgiven' can't be an act, period, so there is no need to imply that such a thing would be an act (which you in fact did - 'the act of being forgiven' - and did again in your last post). The forgiver is not acting out the act of being forgiven, he/she forgives. But I admit this is just splitting hairs on my part, so I'll leave it at that.

Iora, you know your command of English grammar is better than that of the vast majority of posters on IGT, but you're missing something here. You said "'being forgiven' can't be an act, period...".
'You are forgiven' can be a state or an act, depending on context (ambiguity of English grammar).
'You are being forgiven' is an act ('continuous/progressive [present] passive' or whatever the term is).

EDIT: 'You are being forgiven': Obviously 'you' aren't doing the act; it's an act being done to/on you by whomever is doing it to/on you - hence the 'passive'. But still an 'act'.

And there's http://www.geiriadur.net and http://www.lexicelt.org

Errigal, I'm sure you're right, I'm just playing with words, and I just love the ambiguity of English. That's one of the things that makes it my favourite language.