I'm trying to say something along the lines of "I'm not allowed to require a book that costs more/is more expensive than $30 of the students" (these students being adult learners).

Níl cead agam leabhair atá níos daoire ná $30 a iarraidh ar na scoláirí

(?)


This is a just a talking point I'm working on for my own information. I sometimes script conversations in my head (which is one way of saying I talk to myself, I guess!) and realized I wasn't sure about this one.

GRMA

Redwolf

Leabhar - is singular. The rest looks correct.

GRMA!

I had to read the English version twice (along with the Irish) to understand it properly, but maybe that was just me .

My first construal of the Irish version was "... to ask the students for a book that costs less than..." rather than "... to require of the students a book that costs less than...". Since "rud a iarraidh ar dhuine" can be "to ask someone for something" or "to ask/require something of someone" according to context *("to do something" if it's a verb, of course), it might be less ambiguous - in both languages - to stick a verb such as "have/get/buy" in there?

Níl cead agam iarraidh ar na scoláirí leabhar atá níos daoire ná $30 a bheith acu (/a fháil/a cheannach).

"I'm not allowed to require/ask the students to have (/get/buy) a book that costs more than $30."

Or am I, as a learner, seeing potential ambiguities which a native speaker would take in his/her stride? What do you think, Bríd?

*(Obviously there's no real difference between "ask someone for help" and "ask help of someone".)

I didn't think it was ambiguous. But I suppose it might be to some people, I'm not sure if "a iarraidh" is common to all dialects. But adding "a cheannacht" (with T in Connemara) would make it clearer.

That's what I meant about learners imagining possible ambiguity where native speakers see none. It's "a cheannacht"with "t" in Ulster too. I was just being caighdeánach. Yet another Munster version inflicted on the majority ...

Surely you mean "bestowed from on high"?

_________________
The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Or coming out of the ground like that film with Kevin Bacon!

_________________
__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

I guess it could be kind of ambiguous...I do tend to over-think things a bit when I'm trying to translate them. Basically, the issue is that I'm not allowed to require students to purchase a text that costs more than $30 (including shipping).

I was practicing talking points for a conversation group. The question as to why I make my own materials, rather than just having the students work from an established text, is one that comes up occasionally, and I realized that I wasn't quite sure how to phrase that in Irish.

Redwolf

The phrasing just seemed awkward to me. hence my suggestion of the addition of a verb 'have/get/buy' for disambiguation.

Nice try, An Lon Dubh but No. "Shat upon from on high" might be more accurate...