Hi There,

Please could you assist me in translating "Suspend Disbelief" into gaelic. Basically, it means believe that anything is possible, live life with an open mind and imagination.

Thanks in Advance,
Sam

It isn't always possible to reproduce expressions from one language in another, and some short expressions can be especially hard to reproduce with equal brevity. Here is a literal translation of the English expression, but perhaps one of the native speakers could come up with something more natural which they might use in a situation where they were asking someone to hold off on judgment and give a listen to something.

With just the two words in English as you have them, it would be the imperative/command form (as in "Do this!"), and that could be said this way in Irish:

Cuir do dhíchreideamh ar fíonraí [If said to one person]
Cuirigí bhur ndíchreideamh ar fíonraí [If said to more than one person]

With a tattoo or a slogan, a logical case can be made for using either the singular or the plural, since it is arguably addressed to one person at a time. If you were speaking live to a group, you would definitely need to use the plural form, but slogans, proverbs, and the like often use the singular.

If what you wanted was how to say it in an infinitive manner, as in "to suspend [one's] disbelief", then this would work, at least literally:
díchreideamh a chur ar fíonraí

The Irish text means essentially "to put disbelief on hold". The verb suspend came to English from Latin (perhaps through French), and it does not have a direct equivalent in Irish, so far as I am aware, at least not in this context.

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

Hi CaoimhínSF,

Thank you so much for your prompt response, and for the detail supplied. It is much appreciated. I will take your advice an await other responses to confirm the translation prior to use.

Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cuirigí. Small spelling mistake. In any case, a literal translation would be a very bad idea here, it makes no sense at all in Irish to "suspend disbelief".

Typo corrected. Thanks, Gumbi. My bad typing again.

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

Hi Gumbi,

Would it make sense to say díchreideamh a chur ar fíonraí?

Thanks,
Sam

Creid é neomat....Believe it for a moment.

I've never seen or heard the word for disbelief used. However, that is not to say that it can't be used.

Leath do dhíchreideamh....using "leath" in the sense of " leath uait an chaibireacht"..."pack it in" or "cop on"...meaning to drop or change a certain behaviour.

Definitely not. It's like translating from Irish to English and saying "Tea is good with me" Is maith liom tae - it actually means "I like tea". Generally speaking, most especially when idioms are concerned, word for word translations don't work.

Hi again folks,

This is a follow on to my previous post. I would just like to enquire as to whether Creid é neomat is similar to "Suspend Disbelief" (I understand that the word disbelief does not really exist in Irish Gaelic). Is it correct that means something like "Believe in this moment"?

Thanks!

Sami, I have merged your two threads. When asking for further feedback, please use the original thread and "bump it up" in the queue by posting to it again. That way, people can see the older comments and we don't risk re-inventing the wheel each time.

In this case, Gumbi gave you Creid é neomat as an alternative meaning "Believe it for a moment", and explained why he thought that my suggestion would not work. I don't have anything to add, though others may have comments, but note that the word neomat is a dialectical version of the standard word nóiméad.

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