Hi all! Hope you're all doing well :P It has been yet another long while.

Anyhow, I have another question about Scottish Gaelic. I often see "B'e" used, but I cannot figure out exactly how. I've seen it translated to "It is" and "It would be", and probably others. What ...is it, exactly? Haha thank you!

Annabeth

It's a contraction of "bu e", meaning "he/it was" or "he/it would be". The present tense form of the former would be "is e" ("he/it is") or, more commonly, the contraction "'s e" or "'se", just as in Irish (minus the accent). I assume you already know that Gaelic, like Irish, has two forms of what in English we refer to as the verb "to be": (i) "is/bu" and (ii) "bha/tha/bi[thi]dh", all used in essentially the same way as in Irish (where the latter would be "bhí/tá/beidh").

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

Okay... So, a one sentence is "B'e mo dhurachd bhith ann", which the translation gives as "It is my desire to be there", but I gather that means it wouldn't really be "it is", so what would it be more directly?

Thank you

'S e is the literal "it is", but that implies a concrete reality. B' e (a contraction of "bu e") here makes it hypothetical. The change of thinking here is between English looking at the desire and considering it "existing" as long as you hold the dream in your head, whereas Gaelic sees the desire as inherently hypothetic.

If that makes sense.

"is" is a very odd verb, only having two forms: is (present) and bu (everything else).

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Oh! That makes sense Thanks!