Hi everyone, I'm having a but or trouble telling the difference when I should use certain phrases for ability vs permission, and am hoping you all can help me clarify.

From what I can see "cead a bheith agat rud a dhéanamh" speaks purely to having permission, not ability.
And then these expressions can only speak to ability - "in ann rud a dhénamh" and "ábalta rud a dhéanamh".

Where I'm getting mixed up is with "is féidir le duine" and "féadfaigh".
In FGB, "féadfaigh" is defined as "to be able to" or "ought to", however, looking at gaschaint.ie, all usages of féadfaigh seem to be in the context of permission, e.g:

• Má tá do dhóthain agat féadfair an bord a dh’fhágaint = If you have eaten enough, you may leave the table
• Féadfair na bolgóidí a chur isteach tú féin más maith leat = You can put the bubbles in yourself if you like
• Féadfaidh tú briosca a bheith agat tar éis do dhinnéir = You can have a biscuit after your dinner

It seems féadfaigh matches pretty close to "can" in English. If so, can you also say things like "féadfaidh mé snámh"?

Then where does "is féidir liom" fall on this spectrum? Looking at FGB it seems it translates to "possible for me" which I guess could cover ability, but maybe not permission?
But then conversely, there's a thread from a few years ago (here) which says that "Ní féidir liom a rá/"Ní thig liom a rá = "I can't say it, whereas "Nílim in ann a rá = "I don't have the ability to say it.

I suppose after writing all of the above, I am now also a little mixed up with "in ann" etc. For example, could I say something like "nílim in ann teacht anocht"?
And also how can tig le be used? Is this used in Munster at all do you know? I'm not sure if I've come across it outside of Ulster Irish.

I'm guessing that all these expressions can be used in all kinds of scenarios where "can" in English is used, but I'm just not 100% sure how and when.

Yes, féad in future tense (féadfaidh) is having permission, too.



There is ability (in ann, ábalta) in strict sense and possibility (is féidir, tig le, féad) in a broader sense.
Nílim in ann teacht anocht. = I cannot come tonight (because I don’t have the ability: e.g. my leg is broken, etc.)
Ní féidir liom teacht anocht. = I cannot come tonight (because I don’t have the possibility, e.g. I have something else to do, I must prepare for an exam, etc. - although I would have the ability)

ábalta AR rud a dhéanamh

Féadfair na bolgóidí a chur isteach tú féin más maith leat

This sentence is nonsense. The tú féin is the problem here. It should be féadfair féin.

Yes, it is a literal translation of the English "You can … yourself"
But there is no "you … yourself" in Irish, just "you self"

Thanks everyone! The nuance there is super helpful and that's much clearer to me now!


Is this definitely the case? All three native speakers in this instance use the same syntax, with all speakers seeming very strong:

• Connacht: Féadfaidh tú na bolgóidí a chur isteach thú féin más mian leat
• Ulster: Thig leat na bolgóidí a chur isteach tú féin más maith leat
• Munster: Féadfair na bolgóidí a chur isteach tú féin más maith leat.

Also interesting, but not sure why - the Connacht speakers pronounces "Féadfaidh tú" as "Féad tú".
And with the Ulster speaker, she has "tig" with a séimhiú, is this the case in Munster also? Much in the same way you get chím?


Just a note that FGB has the "ar" as optional, but let me know if omitting it is poor.

Er... FGB is not an authoritative source. It is just a book compiled by those pushing their made-up standard. Peadar Ua Laoghaire outranks everything in that dictionary.

As for the tú féin thing, it is upsetting to realise the approach being taken towards Irish by those "in charge" and the teachers in the schools, but the younger generations do not have the Irish of their parents. The fact that the speakers on the gaschaint CDs said something is not very convincing at all.

Is Ó Donaill 1977 not a good source? I've seen lots of béarlachas on foclóir.ie so I generally only use it as a last resort, but does Ó Donaill have the same issues? What about de Bhaldraithe?

Béarlachas is ea é, is dócha.
The English idiom "you … yourself" is quite pecular. It would be strange for other languages to develop the same structure without any English influence.
In case of nouns/names it is a bit different. E.g. "Séan féin". It is usually Seán é féin. And this é féin is often put at the end, just as in English. Probably still béarlachas but not that obvious.

But here it should be:
Féadfaidh tú féin …
Thig leat féin …
Féadfair féin …



The modal verb féad is usually used in future/conditional due to its modal nature.
Féadfaidh tú means "you can", not "you will can". But the future form depends on dialect and is not obligatory (except in the meaning of "tá cead agat"). Féadann tú is possible as well.

Féad tú …, hm, I don’t know. Féadfaidh tú /fe:tə tu:/ can probably easily be shortened to /fe:(t) tu:/, maybe to avoid the sequence /tətu:/. (The speaker would probably say /fe:tə me:/, etc.)

In Munster, there is no tig le. It is limited to northern dialects and lenited only in Ulster.

It is chím because there is/was originally a leniting pre-verb do-, do-chím.
But afaik never so in case of tig (= tagann).



In Munster, it is obligatory, I’d think, but not so elsewhere.

In the back matter to my Séadna (which will be published later this year or in 2026), I have this:

Tagaim: with le, “to be able to”: although this is generally known as an Ulster idiom, PUL has dá dtiocfadh liom baint ón dtairbhe do dhein an scilling and níor tháinig léi (“she wasn’t able to”) here (=in Séadna), and mar a thagann liom-sa in his novel Niamh.

It's not quite true to say that this is not found in Munster literature. Although after a brief search, I couldn't find it in the Irish of Amhlaoibh, and I wonder if this reflects Father Peter's exposure to wider Irish.

(NB "I will can": "can" as a model verb can't be used with "will" in English. The only way you can put it in the future is to say "I will be able to".)