This sentence is confusing me:

Is maith atá a fhios agam é!

I would literally translate it as:

Is good that is the knowledge of it at me.

And my first attempt at translating this was:

It is good that I know it.

But the real translation is:

I have good knowledge of it.

which is of course a very different meaning.

Can someone help me to distinguish the difference in Irish between:

It is good that I know it.
I have good knowledge of it.

I always think about it as "It is well that I know it" – it sounds a bit old-fashioned, but it makes sense and translates well from the Irish sentence, I think.

But isn't well = go maith?

The first one would be "Is maith an rud é a bheith a fhios agam"


Like most memory tricks, it only works if you don't think about it too much.

_________________
Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I think that is an Hiberno-English construction that would've come directly from the Irish sentence. That's how we would say it in Ireland. But I think the meaning in standard English is "Don't I know it well?" rethorical question ofcourse.




Maith - good, well. Depends on usage.

agam - in that sentence means possession. You have the knowledge in your possession.




It is good that I know it. -

That's really - Is maith go bhfuil a fhíos agam é.
I am very bad at grammar. So I'm sure others will explain why better.

Crossed with Mick

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Uh oh, does that make more sense than what I wrote?

_________________
Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I wasn't intentionally correcting you Mick, you posted as I was writing.

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

I know that, but now that I see it phrased differently I'm doubting myself. I didn't really think about atá vs. a bheith vs. go bhfuil, I just wrote what seemed to me like a good fit and now I'm wondering if mine is correct.

_________________
Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

For me, it's easier to think in Hiberno-English whenever I translate, or try to learn something in Irish. The words and word order of Hiberno-English are much closer to Irish, which makes it easier for a learner – well, for me anyway.

* edit: Here's an example that sort of illustrates what I'm talking about: I'm reading a book called Ar Muir Is Ar Tír which I would translate to mean "on sea and on land". I know that the standard English expression is "on land and at sea", but I'll stick with the more direct translation because it's the Irish language that I'm trying to learn, not English, so using the standard English expression doesn't help me as much as the direct translation.

This is very sound advice indeed. Listening to older Irish people speaking English is an excellent way of picking up the logic of Irish.

Posting after drinking a bottle of wine and trying to say something sensible though, is not all that good an idea. That sounded very patronizing.