It can be difficult to work out sometimes if something is Béarlachas or not, or whether English and Irish have genuinely said things in similar ways for centuries. As nearby cultures, this would be unsurprising, according to the linguistic Sprachbund theory (possibly reflecting the Celtic substratum that underlies English?).
I am compiling a list of phrases from good Irish authors where an English speaker can leverage his knowledge of English and put the idiom directly into Irish in the knowledge that it will still be good Irish:
- Níor fhéadas a dhéanamh amach cad é an saghas ruda é: I couldn’t make out what it was. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Ba mhaith liom a dh’fhághail amach, má’s féidir é, cé r’ bh’ í féin: I’d like to find out, if possible, who she was. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Gur thuit [sí] i ngrádh leis: she had fallen in love with him. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Óir do chuir a máthair suas chuige í: for her mother had put her up to it. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Na Cheithre Soisgéil.]
- Do chíodh Cormac sinn, ach ní leigeadh sé air go bhfeiceadh: Cormac saw us, but he didn’t let on that he could see us. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Tháinig sé chuige féin: he came to (after being knocked out). [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Dheineadh daoine a ndícheal chun oiread des na prátaíbh miona do choimeád agus dhéanfadh an garaidhe do chur i gcóir na h-aithbhliana: people would do their best to keep as many of the little potatoes as would “do” to sow the field for the next year. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- B’éigean dom fanmhaint sa bhaile, agus pé múineadh a thug mo mháthair dom déanamh leis: I had to stay at home, and make do with whatever instruction my mother gave me. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Níor chuir san mé ó é bheith daingean am’ aigne gur am’ shagart a bheinn: that did not put me off from being sure in my mind that I would become a priest. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Ansan bhí rudaí eile nár airigheas riamh aon teacht thórsa: then there were other things I had never come across. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- An triail comórtais, féachaint cé gheóbhadh dul go Coláisde Mhaighe Nuadhat: the contest to see who would get to go to Maynooth College. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]
- Srutháin beag ag ruith ó-dheas tríd an ngearadh: a little stream running south through the cutting. [Peadar Ua Laoghaire, Mo Sgéal Féin.]