I just noticed today that Google Translate does not offer pronunciations for Irish translations. That's such a shame; I use Google all the time for help in pronouncing words and phrases in various languages.

I'm using Foclóir.ie for pronunciations of individual words, but I often want help with combinations of words (especially in Irish, where there are so many mutations!)--like, say, "the top of the hill" or "the white car near the big house." I can get pronunciations for Google translations of phrases into Japanese, Russian, German, etc.--but not for Irish.

Am I missing a resource where I can get whole phrases and sentences of my choosing pronounced for me automatically?

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

www.abair.ie

This will give you an Ulster pronunciation (specifically Gaoth Dobhair) and a Connacht one (Conamara). I believe they're still working on a Munster version.

It works best if you put in one word at a time rather than phrases and sentences.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Before you go any further I would like to say that Google translate is terrible at translating Irish, its bloody shite to put it bluntly, so be careful! We often have a good mock about it here, of what it produces. to master Irish pronunciation you could listen to Irish language songs by singers that have good pronunciation (usually natives) but you have to be careful here too because some singers have very poor pronunciation. You could also listen to a native speaker reading Irish here:

http://wikisource.org/wiki/Mo_Sg%C3%A9al_F%C3%A9in

to listen to the audio scroll down and select one of the chapters, there should be an audio play button on the right hand side of the title after you select a chapter. Even if you do not understand the words just listen to the mutations and the way the words are pronounced and the overall rhythm.

As for pronunciation sites there's forvo, that's mainly for one words though. There are learning courses you can buy that have audios with scripts that you can follow. Though you have to pay for these and you have to watch out for the standard of pronunciation. Maybe someone might suggest some good ones.

Cian

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

I can second this. And just to add...I really can't recommend using Google at all...it makes a total mess of Irish.

Redwolf

P.S. What Cian said.

If you wonder why we're so down on Google "trashlate," you might want to give this a read:

http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com/blog ... anslators/

Thank you, everyone! When I saw your comments on Google Translate for Irish, I was partway through an experiment with it using the word úll. The context is, I am writing a blog entry about the challenges to the Irish neophyte of using Irish dictionaries, so I thought I'd try to come up with different forms of úll in different phrases.

I know not to trust Google Translate for any language. Still, unless I am completely clueless, it DOES seem very, very bad at Irish.

Here are some of the phrases I came up with. I don't think Google agreed with me on a single one of these "apple" forms. I am not sure I am right on all of these, but I feel pretty sure I did better than Google.

an t-úll = the apple (Google Translate tells me this is supposed to be an úll)

praghas an úill = the price of the apple

dath na núll = the color of the apples

na húlla = the apples

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

You're correct on all of these except for the third. It's "Dath na n-úll." That hyphen is important. But other than that, you're bang on, and Google, not suprisingly, is full of shite.

Redwolf

Thank you, Redwolf!

Oops, yeah, I keep forgetting to hyphenate my n's.

It's not the first time I've made that same mistake.

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

yep you are much better than google trashlate !

As Redwolf said small mistake:

dath na n-úll

But

If the "ú" in úll was capitalised you would drop the hyphen e.g Dath na nÚll.

Likewise, in the nominative with t-prefix:

An t-athair (the father) but An tAthair (The Father...i.e God)

An t-ospidéal/ an t-otharlann but An tOspidéal and an tOtharlann...never capitalise the t e.g not An TOtharlann etc...)

Cian

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

What helped me to remember it was a fellow ILF member pointing out that Irish words CAN begin with "n," so when it's a mutation, it either needs a hyphen (when writing lowercase) or needs to be lowercase (when the main word is uppercase) to avoid confusion.

For example:

Ár nAthair or ár n-athair = "Our father"

But...

Ár Nathair or ár nathair - "Our snake"

Redwolf