Top o’ the morning to ya! In this lesson, I’m going to teach you common Irish vocabulary and expressions. This includes words for the family, insults, drinking expressions, and more. The Irish words in this lesson are part of the Irish English dialect. Many of them are not part of standard English. I am NOT Irish. I am English. This video is for people learning English, to give them an introduction to the Irish English accent and dialect. Please forgive me for my attempt at the Irish accent!
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TRANSCRIPT
Hello, there. Welcome to the lesson. Today’s lesson is an Irish lesson and we’re going to learn to speak like Irish people. We’re going to learn some expressions that they use over in Ireland and also some slang. And sometimes I’m going to speak like an Irish… Irish clover, not like a real Irish person, but how the clovers over speak there over in Ireland. Okay? So, when you want to begin a conversation, you could say: „What’s the craic? What’s the craic?” That means: „What’s going on?” or „What’s the gossip?” A similar phrase is: „What’s the sto-…? What’s the story? What’s the story?” That means: „Hello.” You can just… Instead of saying: „How are you?” you just go up to them and say: „What’s the story?” it means, like that.
Next, our exclamations. Irish is a very… Irish… The character of Irish people, there’s so much humour in it that there are so many exclamations that sound very Irish that you can… That you can use. Some of them are clich�s, and I don’t think Irish people say them all the time. For example: „Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Oh, bejesus!” We can say that if we’re surprised, or we want to emphasize something. But this is an Irish ism, it doesn’t mean they say it all the time, and the same with: „Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” If we say that, this is like a stereotypical Irish phrase. And maybe the case… Maybe the whole section here is stereotypical phrases that really brings out the Irish character.
„Away wit ya! Away with ya! Go away with ya!” That means go… It actually means: „Go away. Go away, you”, but we would use that if you… It would be used if you don’t believe something. If you don’t… If you don’t believe what the Irish clover is saying, you can say: „Away with ya! Away with ya!” And if you wanted… If you thought somebody had done something that was offensive or they acted a bit rude or something, you could say: „Oh, the cheek of it! The absolute cheek of it!” That’s to show that you’re mildly offended about something.
Now, this is a Irish phrase that, unlike the other ones isn’t stereotypical. This is one that’s apparently used now. So it’s newer… It’s like how the language is evolving and it’s a newer kind of expression. If you don’t believe what somebody is saying, you think they’re being, you know, they’re sort of having a joke with you, you don’t quite believe them 100% and you may also use this expression if you want the other person to laugh, you can say: „Get out of that garden! Get outta that garden!” And it’s just a way of saying… It’s a very similar meaning to: „Away with ya!” but a different phrase.
Now we’ve got more phrases, here. For example, if you say: „Fair play to ya. Fair play to ya. Fair play to ya”, that means: „Well done.” If you think somebody did some… Perhaps something good happened to someone in their life, maybe they got a new job, you could say: „Fair play to ya”, it means: „Well done.”
Irish people are famous for saying: „That’s grand. Oh, that’s grand.” And it means… Well, as an English person if you look at the phrase, you’d think „grand” means something really good, like, brilliant or fantastic, but actually in the Irish use it just means „fine”. It’s not, like, the most emphatic, enthusiastic. It just means fine. So, if you think something’s find or good, you can say: „That’s grand. Aye, that’s grand.”
Here’s a figure of speech. Whereas over in England people will often say at the end of a sentence: „Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?” in Ireland, they add „like” on the end, so they say: „Do you know what I mean, like? Do you know what I mean, like?” The Irish clover says something, and wants you to agree, will say: „Do you know what I mean, like?”
The next, many Irish people are known for having the „gift of the gab”. Oh, let’s say in terms of the whole world’s people, the Irish… The Irish people are known for having the gift of the gab, and that means that they’re very good at speaking, very charming when they’re speaking. And often when somebody has the gift of the gab then you always want to believe them as well. So, Irish clovers have the gift of the gab, you see? They do. […]
