Hello everyone. I was wanting to get a tattoo sometime soon of "Christ be my leader" in Irish Gaelic. Thank you, I appreciate it!

So, are you looking at this as something like "May Christ be my leader" or "Christ - be my leader!" (Kinda "commanding" him, if you will). It could change the translation of the sentence.

There would, as galaxyrocker says, be a difference between commanding, or appealing to, the saviour, to be your leader

A Chríost bí (thusa) ’mo threoraí. - O Christ, be (thou) my leader.

Or wishing that he would be,

Go raibh Críost mar threoraí dom. - May Christ be my leader.

The first version is a variation on a modern Irish rendering, by Aodh Ó Dúgain, of the Old Irish hymn, Rop tú mo baile - Be thou my vision.

Bí thusa ‘mo threorú - Be thou my guidance.

I was thinking something more along the lines of using the subjunctive copular form. Gura mo threoraí é Críost. (May Christ be my leader) or Gurab é Críost mo threoraí (May my leader be Christ). Not sure if that would be any better than the other structure, however.

I think in this case the word order should be:

Gurab é Críost mo threoraí.

or shortened to
Críost mo threoraí


And to add another version:
Críost mo cheannaire.

I like that.

That doesn't work, MacBoo. Verb and possessive adjective must be in the same person: Bí (thusa) i do threoraí agam/dom (Or mar threoraí, of course). The apostrophe stands for i.





Here, the apostrophe stands for do/ag, with threorú being the verbal noun.

Yes of course, I should have thought it through. Thanks for the explanation.

Here's the link for the other post by the way:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3597

In the duplicate thread, which hopefully will soon be locked, the OP asked this question:

"What did you guys mean by dom/agam?"

"Dom" and "agam" are what are known as "prepositional pronouns"...basically conjugated prepositions. They are used extensively in Irish, where English might use a simple verb form. Literally translated, they mean "to me" and "at me" respectively, but literal translations don't really work well with this kind of Irish idiom. In the sentences you were offered, the meaning would translate, roughly, as "May Christ be as a guide to-me/for-me," but the more idiomatic translation would be "May Christ be my guide."

Redwolf