Hi, I have been trying to find the proper, grammatically correct translation for "...and so she would dance". I would love to get this has a tattoo! Here is the poem I got this from so you can understand the context of it.

"She realized she was lucky - because she could actually see it - how the trees got more beautiful each year...how they danced with such graceful pride, surviving each season's change...and she knew their beauty lied not in the perfection, but the growth...and she could see it - in the trees, the people around her, and some days, even in herself...and so she would dance"

Sort of like the end of a story "and they lived happily ever after".

A little over a week ago I was in Ireland and had the chance to talk to a Gaelic teacher and he said that, to keep it in context, it would have to be "...and because of this, she would dance" and wrote this translation down for me "...agus dá bharr dhéanfadh sí rince". Does this look right?

Another translation I found on another forum was "...agus mar sin rinceadh sí". But I don't think that context is right.

So, what I would like, is the closest, literal, grammatically correct translation of "...and so she would dance" in the context of the poem/ending of a story.

Thank you in advance for any help!

I think it would round out better with sin and the f should be removed because the English "would here" is in the habitual past not the conditional (this is a common error of English speakers translating into Irish.)

"...agus dá bharr sin dhéanadh sí rince"

Await other opinions ...

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Just on the first one: ... agus dá bharr san/ sin dhéanfadh sí rince (what you had before was: and because (of this) "she would do dancing"- (don't worry that makes sense in Irish)- you were missing "of this".

Second one: Rinceadh sí is the wrong tense- the Aimsir Gnáthchaite or the habitual tense (used to describe something that happened continiously in the past- similar to "used to" in English". So in effect what you are saying there is she used to dance. The correct form:

agus mar sin/ dá bharr sin rincfeadh sí

After reading your request again I am not sure if you mean she would dance as in the future or she would dance as in the past???

dá bharr/ mar sin are just to of the many ways of expressing and so/ due to. however "mar sin" is probably closer to "and so" then dá bharr ( more, as a result of)

Wait for more discussion and input from the rest of the gang.- I see Breandán got in ahead of me!

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Cian, you've missed a lot of the background on this, so I'll try to catch you up.

It is in fact the Aimsir Gnáthchaite or habitual tense that it required, not the conditional. "She would dance" here means "she used to dance (whenever she realised how lucky she was, for example)".

I originally proposed ...agus mar sin rinceadh sí, which was gramatically correct, but after discussion it was decided that déan rince was more idiomatic.

Before ceiligirl's teacher proposed ...agus dá bharr dhéanfadh sí rince, we had proposed ...agus mar sin dhéanadh sí rince. (Note the habitual past tense, not the conditional.)

As you have pointed out, agus mar sin and agus dá bharr sin are just different ways of saying "and so".

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

,

Yep, scratch that so Rinceadh sí is correct.

' bhfuilir fhéinig ag feidhmiú ar shuíomh eile mar san a bhreandáin?

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

Níl mé in ann athchlárú ansin.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

ceiligirl, apart from the missing "sin" I have just realised what your teacher gave you has the wrong tense:


dhéanfadh sí rince as given by your teacher means "she would dance (if it were possible but it is not.)"

dhéanadh sí rince means "she would dance (at every available opportunity, etc.)"


Some confusion arises because "would" has multiple maenings in English that require different tenses in Irish.

This is compounded by the fact that the only difference in spelling is the f and that f is silent in some dialects.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

`

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

Well spotted Breandán, the teacher must have gotten it confused like I did, forever confusing myself

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

Anyway in certain dialects (Donegal, at least for some speakers), the conditional is used as past habitual too. It's not sure it's a Béarlachas, since you can find that phenomenon in Scottish Gaelic too (for centuries) and in other Celtic languages.

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