Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón

Often a person's mouth broke his nose · Iss min-ik ah vrish bayl din-eh ah hrohn

Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón means Often a person's mouth broke his nose, and is said Iss min-ik ah vrish bayl din-eh ah hrohn.

Word for word

Taken literally it reads Is often that broke mouth of a person his nose. Irish often puts a sentence together differently from English, so the literal reading rarely matches the meaning.

How to say it

Say it Iss min-ik ah vrish bayl din-eh ah hrohn, written the way an English speaker would read it.

When you’d say it

Talk your way into trouble and your face pays for it. The Irish for least said, soonest mended, only funnier.

More like this

• Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste: Broken Irish is better than clever English
• Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin: There's no place like home
• Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam: A country without a language is a country without a soul
• Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine: People live in each other's shadows (We rely on each other)
• Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí: Praise the youth and they will flourish
• An té a bhíonn siúlach, bíonn sé scéalach: He who travels has stories to tell

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