Carlsberg Ireland just sent this Christmas message via Facebook:

Nollag shona duit!

Who was paid for that translation? Talk about counter-productive!

Another beer company (or maybe the same one, I can't remember) had Cúpla Focail on their beermats a few years back. If they are trying to appeal to Irish speakers, then they have a problem! Imagine the ridicule they would subject themselves to if they wrote Hapy Chrismas.

Irish is different, it seems.

, they must have gotten that from the sight that shall not be mentioned!

Google translate has "happy Christmas" as Nollag sásta

And "happy Christmas to you, gives: both "Nollag Shona d(h)uit" and Nollaig Shona dhuit but you have to spell the English incorrectly and click on their option in order to get the correct Irish

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

My guess is that someone sees 'Christmas' written somewhere and thinks, 'That is how Christmas is spelled' and uses it like that from then on. Someone sees 'Lá Nollag' and thinks, 'That is how Nollag is spelled' and uses it like that from then on. One language's logic being applied to other languages often doesn't work, but people often don't realise that.

I contacted Oxfam last year about something similar. They had 'Nollaig shona duit' and something like 'Beannachtaí na Nollaig...' 'Nollaig' correct in one, but not the other. It's not an excuse, but easy to see how it happens. By the way, Oxfam said they would change it for this year, but I forgot to look - didn't quite get around to buying cards this year...... Did anyone see any Oxfam cards this year?

Dála an scéil, I think it is always worth contacting the companies/organisations in question and politely pointing out the error(s). If they fix it, it is better to have some correct Irish going around the place than the world being flooded with 'Happy Holidays'.

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That may show Google's American bias. We say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Christmas." If you type in "Merry Christmas," you get "Nollaig Shona," and "Merry Christmas to you" gets "Nollaig Shona duit." "Merry Christmas to you all" nets "Nollaig Shona daoibh go léir."

That's another problem with machine translation...it doesn't take into account the different ways in which people use English!

Redwolf