Can anyone confirm for me that sa choill means in the woods, as in the sentences My friend and I went for a walk in the woods. and The children played in the woods.

Doing a search on Google, I also see people writing sna coillte so I am confused as to which is the correct form, but there seem to be far fewer results for this phrase anyhow. Perhaps that is a result of people Englishifying Irish maybe?

Thanks in advance.

I would say "sa choill." I'm guessing that people are writing "sna coillte" because they feel a need to pluralize it, but that's imposing an English form where it isn't really necessary in Irish.

Redwolf

I agree.
And in Conamara we say "sa gcoill".
"Coill" is also used for "forest".
Coillte - in plural, is only needed for woods in different locations.

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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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In the traditional song Mo ghille mear, there is the expression "níl guth gadhair i gcoillte cnó" for "dogs don't howl in the [chest]nut woods". I think that song is originally from Ulster, or perhaps even the Hebrides, so maybe it's a northernism.

Just remembered that the song comes from a poem by Seán "Clárach" Mac Domhnaill, and that I wrote abut that a while back in the Scottish Gaelic thread. He was definitely Irish, although I don't remember from where. I have Mayo McDonnell's in my family, so maybe he was from there.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I would read that as meaning woods plural, i.e. more than one location, as Bríd said earlier. In other words that dogs don't howl in chestnut woods, as in any of them.

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in Donegal:

in the wood : ins a' choillidh
in the woods: ins na coillte

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

What we may be encountering here is a feature of American English. We tend to say "the woods" whether we're talking about one particular forest or several different forests. For example, I would tell people, in English, "I love living in the woods" whereas in Irish I'd say "Is breá liom bheith i mo chónaí sa choill."

Redwolf

We tend to say the same here actually.

Thanks, everyone. Much appreciated.

And yeah, in my section of America (Western Massachusetts), we would say "in the woods" when we mean one particular wooded area or wooded areas in general. I guess if we meant several wooded areas, we'd say something like "I hike through/in several of the woods behind my house." (adding "several" there to indicate that the plural is meant) lol Ugh