how to say necessity is the mother of invention in irish

The term for proverb in Irish is seanfhocal /shan-uk-ull/. I’m sure that you are familiar with the English language proverb ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. Now lets learn a saying with a similar message in Irish! 

Here we go.. 

Múineann gá seift /moo-in-en gaw sheft/

Translated literally these words are ‘necessity teaches resource’

Let’s take a little look at the grammar of this seanfhocal..

Irish is a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) language. This means in simple sentences the verb comes first, followed by the noun (subject) performing the action, followed by the noun (object) on which the action is performed.

So, the verb here is Múin (verb) /moo-in/ (to teach, to instruct).

This verb in the third person singular, present tense is Múineann /moo-in-en/ (teaches).

Next we have our first noun: gá (noun) /gaw/ (necessity)

So, necessity teaches what?

It teaches the quality represented by our our second noun, which is: seift (noun) /sheft/ (resource)

Now, a certain amount of poetic licence must be allowed for with a proverb in English and, indeed, a seanfhocal in irish. So, while seift means ‘resource’, the Irish word for resourcefulness is seiftiúlacht (noun) /sheft-ohh-lukt/.

You will notice, also, that this seanfhocal does not feature the word invention. Should you like to add it to your Irish language vocabulary, the irish for invention is aireagán (noun) /arr-ig-awn/.