~RibeRóibéis~ wrote:
Sorry, I should have said that I want to translate "we would be enabled to speak Irish fluently". But thanks for your reply
But that English sentence does not **necessarily** require the
saor-bhriathar in Irish.
There is a misconception that the
saor-bhriathar is passive, and that where the English has a passive, the Irish should use the
saor-bhriathar.
But the
saor-bhriathar is an active verb in Irish. Or at least
buailtar is, whereas
táthar buailte would be passive.
I said "necessarily", as it would depend on the whole of the context, but
do chuirfeadh san ar ár gcumas Gaelainn do labhairt go líofa would be fine.
Do chuirfí or
do cuirfí is active, but without stating the subject: "someone would put", "people would put". The subject is not mentioned, but there is an active subject. "It would put" or "that would put" has a clear subject--
do chuirfeadh sé/san. I don't think you can base any of this on the English sentence, but rather on the internal logic of the Irish, and so whether there is a passive in English or not wouldn't come into it.
It would be interesting to know if the
saor-bhriathar is overused by learners of Irish. I suspect so.