I use 'fan liom' when shouting at my kids - sorry, when calling sweetly to my children. I think 'fan orm' can also be used. Do they mean exactly the same thing? Is there any difference at all?

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Fan liom- stay with me

Fan orm- stay on me

You'd often hear on cop shows "stay on him" or "stay with him", don't think there is much difference in the Englsh either- maybe stay on him/ on his tail would only be used if your chasing him though. I would personally only use "fan liom". There are better ways to express chasing someone in Irish- "ar a thóir" or "ina dhiaidh" for example. Although in some dialects agam, orm, liom etc can be interchangeable, so maybe the slight distinction in the English hasn't followed through in the Irish.

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Fan liom -
It can also mean "wait for me".

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Wait for: 'fan + le' is what's normally taught but 'fan + ar' is in widespread use too. There's 'wait on' (not in the sense of 'attend,serve') instead of 'wait for' in English also, but that's non-standard and much less common.

That's how I always use it. Grma gach duine!

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You often be asking "Is '......' Béarlachas?". "Grma gach duine" seems Béarlachas to me. I'd think "Grma uilig/go léir" would be betta.
My contribution to 'fan le' v 'fan ar' was clearly time wasted

Thanks a mill. That kind of comment is really helpful. I sometimes wonder if some of the stuff I write here is awful, but people leave it go thinking that it's impolite to correct. Actually, I'd be delighted if people correct me if they see mistakes. We might see the post count go through the roof!

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There's a similar phenomenon in American English. We usually "wait in" a line, but in parts of the south, you "wait on" the line.

You'll hear the same thing with "for" vs. "on." Probably most people would say "we're late because we were waiting for Susie," but in some dialects one would say "we're late because we were waiting on Susie."

Redwolf