“If you don’t like Law and Order, you can go to Hell!”

[STLbhoy]

I’m a beginner learning Gaeilge, and as an exercise I will sometimes hear something throughout the day and wonder how I would translate it – it really helps with finding tough sentence structures that you wouldn’t normally get in Rosetta Stone or Duolingo and learning how a native speaker would put it.

My Grandpa said this the other day – “If you don’t like Law and Order, you can go to Hell!” – and I could not figure out how I would say that at all. My first attempt was something like “Má ní maith leat Law & Order, is féidir leat Ifrinn a ??? thú” but I couldn’t think of the verb for “go” in this context, and anyway I have a feeling this is probably stretching to be very literal. How would a native speaker say something like this?

[eadaoin]

Is féidir leat dul go …

[Héilics Órbhuí]

Mura maith leat Law & Order, téigh i dtigh diabhail
nó … bíodh an diabhal agat

Literally these mean “go to the devil’s house” and “have the devil”, which are idiomatic expressions approximating “go to hell” in English.

Translation should never be approached word-for-word. I’d encourage learners of any level to look up expressions that are likely to be idiomatic (focloir.ie and teanglann.ie should be your best friends – use them).

[Labhrás]

I’m a beginner learning Gaeilge, and as an exercise I will sometimes hear something throughout the day and wonder how I would translate it – it really helps with finding tough sentence structures that you wouldn’t normally get in Rosetta Stone or Duolingo and learning how a native speaker would put it.

My Grandpa said this the other day – “If you don’t like Law and Order, you can go to Hell!” – and I could not figure out how I would say that at all. My first attempt was something like “Má ní maith leat Law & Order, is féidir leat Ifrinn a ??? thú” but I couldn’t think of the verb for “go” in this context, and anyway I have a feeling this is probably stretching to be very literal. How would a native speaker say something like this?

I’m not a native speaker.

má ní > muna > mura

Mura maith leat Dlí agus Ord is féidir leat dul go hifreann.

I don’t know if “you can” in the sense of “you should” (or similar) should be translated as “is féidir leat”
Acc. to https://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/can (#19) it can be used.
For: she can go to hell there is: bíodh an diabhal aici, tig léi dul go hifreann, téadh sí i dtigh an diabhail
I’d probably prefer simple imperative, so in 2nd person: bí an diabhal agat, téigh/gabh go hifreann, téigh/gabh i dtigh an diabhail

Mura maith leat Dlí agus Ord téigh (téir, téire, gabh in dialect) go hifreann.

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