Tag Archives: idiom
Three Ways to Say “Keeping Your Nose to the Grindstone” in Irish without Using the Words for “Nose” or “Grindstone” – Is é sin a rá, cora cainte atá difriúil ar fad i bhfoclaíocht ach mar a gcéanna (beagnach) i gciall Posted by róislín on Aug 31, 2017
(le Róislín) In the most recent blogpost (nasc thíos), we did some discussion of noses (sróna) and grindstones (clocha líofa), which led to an interesting vocabulary work-out. In today’s post, we’ll actually look at some more traditional ways of saying “to keep your nose to the grindstone,” none of which mention noses or grindstones. This…
Happiness Is … Lots of Ways to Say “Happy” in Irish (including “Happy Christmas”) Posted by róislín on Dec 3, 2011
(le Róislín) Recently we talked about some of the more whimsical (i.e. jingle-ish) ways to describe Christmas (“Holly Jolly” and “Berry Merry”) in English and pondered their translatability into Irish. Today let’s get back to the more traditional Irish phrase, and look at its various forms (singular and plural, greeting and response): Nollaig Shona duit…
Mayday! May Day! Bealtaine! Posted by róislín on May 1, 2011
(le Róislín) Bhuel, not exactly! “Mayday” as an emergency call comes from the French “(Venez) m’aider” (Come help me!)* and the Irish for “mayday” as an SOS remains “mayday,” so we have “córas mayday” (a mayday system) for sailing, etc. In fact, “SOS” also remains exactly the same in Irish, as an internationally understood abbreviation. …