Tip of the Week 19

First of all, Frank, your message arrived the morning we were leaving for a few days, so I did not have time to attend to your request then.
 
I suspect that, from the sweep I've made of my records, that here we have one of these situations where the English cannot simply be translated directly to Gaelic. We must remember that in English some things are very often expressed in a rather roundabout way, whereas Gaelic tends to be rather more direct. For example, when we say, to take one of your own examples, "Did you remember to send the CD to John?" the "did you remember" part is rather redundant. What we really mean is "Did you send the CD to John?"
 
Again, because of a lack of examples in my records, I surmise that we would not use the negative form i.e. "not remember" but would say "forgot". For example "He did not remember to lock the door" would be " Dhiochuimhnich e an doras a ghlasadh."
 
When it comes to something like: "I couldn't remember his name", I rather suspect that the rambling nature of English is evident again. I think you would say, "Cha robh cuimhne agam air ainm." which means, literally, "I did not have a memory on his name."
 
"Tha cuimhne agam" "I remember", describes a state rather than an action, so it cannot be used to give a command or reminder. Here we have to use "cuimhnich". Note also that in Gaelic you do not say e.g.
"Remember to lock the door"., but you say "Cuimhnich gun glas thu an doras" which is rather closer to "Mind [that] you lock the door."
 
But you can tell someone to remember something.
 
Ach cuimhnich, cha do dh'innis mi sin dhut!
But, remember, I didn't tell you that!
 
More next time.
 
Cailean
Am Marcair Dubh
Is i a' Ghàidhlig Cànan mo Dhùthcha.