Hi there,
My husband and I are wanting to get matching tattoos that say "they lived happily ever after" in Gaelic. I have found different variations on it, but the common one was "Mhair siad go sona as sin amach". We are not looking for a literal translation but more of what you would find at the end of a Gaelic faery tale.
Can anyone help me out? Does the quote above look correct?
Many thanks!

At the end of Áille and Brúid (Beauty and the Beast), it has Mhair siad go sona suairc an chuid eile dá saol. That translates as something like: They lived happily for the rest of their lives.

I'm not sure that it is exactly what you are looking for, but it might start the discussion for you.

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Thanks! I guess the "Mhair siad go sona" part is right.....it seems its just the last part that varies...

"Happily ever after" is an English idiom that doesn't necessarily translate well. I'd say that both options are reasonable translations of it. The one you have comes out to, roughly, "They lived happily from that [time] out." The one Saoirse has is literally "for the rest of their lives."

I'm not sure that Irish has a traditional closing line for such tales, though it does have an equivalent to "once upon a time."

Redwolf

Cool,
I think I will go with Saoirse's "Mhair siad go sona suairc an chuid eile dá saol" since I like for the rest of their lives better than from that time out
So the literal translation of that is Mhair siad (they lived) go sona (happily) suairc an chuid eile dá saol (for the rest of their lives)

Now....can anyone give me the phonetic spelling/pronounciation so when people ask me I dont butcher the language

wahr shudd guh sonnuh soo-erhk uh khudj eh-leh dah heel

very roughly. But a recording would be much better (Bríd?)

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

FWIW, here's my recording of it. http://irishlearner.awyr.com/membrfaylz ... suairc.wma

Hi Gumbi,
your post just has "to be inserted" in regards to the recording of the verse......

The admin (Breandán) posts the files. I've e-mailed the file to him, it should be up shortly.

Awesome! Thanks so much...cant wait