"Níl iontu ach dlíodóirí."

Translation: They are only lawyers.

[vkigus]

Famous last words.

[DominicCol12]

Wait til you get the bill.You wont be laughing then !!!!

[RoryGallagher71]

I work in a law office. I have to remind myself of this daily.

[tooraloorali]

What about "They are nothing but lawyers?" To me that has the same meaning as "They are only lawyers" and is slightly closer to the Irish wording.

[Mmelosh]

"They are but lawyers" is accepted.

[Eikoopmit]

Wouldn't it be "they are not only lawyers"?

[talideon]

A more literal translation might be 'there is no(thing) in/to them but lawyers', and thus 'they are only lawyers'. That's not super accurate, but it might get the meaning across.

[obekim]

I would suggest that "They are not only lawyers" could be "Ní hamháin gur dlíodóiri iad" ["Not only that are lawyers they"].

See this example from http://www.focloir.ie/ga/dictionary/ei/neighbour:

"they're not only our neighbours but also our friends - ní hamháin gur comharsana dúinn iad ach is iad ár gcairde freisin iad"

I don't know if this construction can, not only introduce an "ach" clause, as above, but also be used absolutely.

Someone else might be able to enlighten us further.

[JohnClayborn]

Thats what i thought too.

[conormatthews]

Think of the níl and ach as "nothing but". So "Níl iontu ach" is becomes "they are nothing but...", or in this case "they are only..".

[DeborahAnn828887]

Thank you! That was just what i needed for this to make sense in my head

[Houtje2]

I have a problem understanding the word order. Why is it: Níl ach dalta inti. And: Níl iontu ach dlíodóir? Why comes ach in the first sentence right after níl, while in other sentences the preposition comes right after Níl.

[19O492554]

Níl ach dalta inti is an error (as suggested by Scilling in the comments on that exercise). The reverse exercise "She is only a student" has been updated to reflect this.

[Houtje2]

Okay, I will keep that in mind. Thanks.

[teaclud]

so the correct word order is always nil , prepositional pronoun, ach, noun?

[AllyT2]

Can someone explain the use of the negative article even though there is no negative article in the sentence?

[scilling]

A literalish translation would be “There isn’t in them but lawyers” — the “not … but” structure is used to express the meaning of “only”, akin to “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog” meaning “You’re only a hound dog”.

[DominicCol12]

Did Elvis speak Irish !!!??

[scilling]

Not that I know of — it was Leiber and Stoller who wrote the song, and I doubt that either of them spoke Irish.

[vacuousWastrel]

Or "it's been nothing but trouble" to mean "it's only been trouble".

[TellTheSeal]

Does the sentence in Irish potentially carry that same implication? that is, that they are "merely" lawyers and somehow limited as such? or is the Irish sentence no more than a factual observation that "all the members of that group of people happen to be lawyers"?

[teeling2]

I tried the word "attorney" and it was marked as wrong. Is there a separate word for "attorney" vs. "lawyer"?

[scilling]

Yes — “attorney” is aturnae.

[lpilot13]

Hows about 'They are only but lawyers.' ? This is a common way of speaking where I am from but was wrong when I tried it. Thoughts?

[scilling]

Where are you from? I haven’t heard that idiom before.

[GeorgeHorv4]

I tried 'They are but lawyers', and that was marked incorrect.