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  5. "Tuilleadh go leor airgid an …

"Tuilleadh go leor airgid an oíche sin."

Translation:A lot of money was earned that night.

December 4, 2014



Wait I just realized the English word "galore" comes from "go leor"!! Always fun to find word connections between languages! My favorite is how "whiskey" is an anglicized pronunciation of "uisce" :P


Heh. Today I learned!


Wow! At last actual Irish cognates! Thank you!


These are borrowed words, not (strictly speaking) cognates.


Doesnt "Uisce beatha"come the Latin "Aqua Vitae" also?


Which is then brought back into Irish as "fuisce".


Didn't like ' much money was earned on that night' maybe that's poor English.


I believe i bhfad is the Irish word for "much", at least to DL's way of thinking.


To DL's way of thinking, there is a difference between a determiner and an adverb. i bhfad is an adverb that can be translated as "much" or "far" or "a lot" (i bhfad níos mó - "much bigger"/"far bigger"/"a lot bigger"). You could add "way", "a good deal", "a fair bit", "quite a bit" as further idiomatic translations. The "much" that Joshua807325 is suggesting isn't an adverb, and "much money" wasn't included as an alternative answer because it simply didn't cross anyone's mind - it's not a "natural" translation when translating go leor into English, though it would be reasonable to translate "much money" into go leor aigid.

You also won't find any mention of i bhfad in DL's transtaltions of phrases like "How much?", "There is much between them" or "I like it very much".


Does go leor mean plenty, a lot, and enough? Or does context play a part in the "correct" translation?


Yes, yes and yes. Yes.

From the FGB entry for leor:

.2. (In phrases) Go leor enough; plenty. (a)Go leor de rud a bheith agat, to have enough of sth.; to have plenty of sth. Tá go leor againn ann, there are enough of us; there are quite a few of us. Tá go leor a shílfeadh (go), many would think (that). Tá go leor le rá aige, he talks a lot. Tá go leor ráite! Enough said! Bhí go leor leor airgid acu, they had lots and lots of money.


If I may make a suggestion - don't worry about the translation. English has its own vagaries about these words. Instead, try to understand the logic of the Irish in its own terms. 'Leor' is in origin an adjective meaning 'sufficient' . The phrase 'i bhfad' is an intensifier.

Compare 'a lot' in 'Jimmy has a lot of problems' (go leor fadhbanna) and 'They are a lot worse than Jimmy thought.' (i bhfad níos measa) They aren't at all the same kind of thing. The first is describing the quantity of something (a noun); the second, the intensity of an adjective. Hope that helps.


Can I then have 'enough money was earned that night'??


Depending on context, possibly, but not the most likely use.

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