here we go again 🤪

1. Seilbh (Ownership)

Hata Sheáin (Seán's hat) Seol an bháid (The boat's sail) Teach Mháire (Máire's house) Cóta an f hir (The man's coat) Gúna an chailín (The girl's dress) Geansaí an bhuachalla (The boy's jumper)

2. Dhá ainmfhocal le chéile (When two nouns come together)

Seomra ranga (Classroom) Mála scoile (School bag) Clár ama (Timetable)

3. An t-ainm briathartha roimh an ainmfhocal (Verbal noun aka ag in front of the noun)

Ag imirt peile (Playing football) Ag dúnadh an dorais (Closing the door) Ag léamh leabhair (Reading a book) Ag foghlaim gramadaí (Learning grammar)

4. Réamhfhocal comhshuite (Following a compound preposition)

Ar fud na tíre (All over the country) Ar feadh seachtaine (For a week) In aice na háite (Beside the place) Ar chúl an tí (Behind the house)

5. Cainníocht (Measurement)

A lán oibre (A lot of work) Beagán airgid (Some money) Go leor trioblóide (A lot of trouble) Níos mó matamaitice (More maths)

6. I ndiaidh na bhfocal seo a leanas (After the following words)

As far as I understand it, “imíonn” (root: imigh) means to leave somewhere and “fágann” (root: fág) means to leave something.

For example, you might leave (imigh) a room - imíonn Pól an seomra nuair a críoch an clár teilifís - but you would leave (fág) a ball outside - fágann Seoirsín an liathróid amach gach oíche.

The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day is known as Seachtain na Gaeilge - Irish Language Week. This annual festival, which takes place in Ireland and many other countries with Irish-descended (or Irish-interested) communities and technically runs from March 1-17, celebrates all of Irish language and culture. It's a great time to learn about Ireland, Irish history, literature, music, and of course, to learn a bit of Irish Gaelic, or Gaeilge. We all know Sláinte and Erin Go Bragh, but there's so much more to it than that.

The linked article includes a lot of helpful tips for getting started on your language journey and these two articles offer additional information and resources.

As someone who's been giving Gaeilge a go for a couple of years now (and not making as much progress as I'd like), my best advice to you is this - get yourself a book or a language program that includes audio or video resources. Gaeilge can be difficult when you're first starting, since the spelling and grammar rules are very different from what you might be used to, but hearing it spoken helps immensely! Also, PRACTICE. The more you use a language, the better it will stay in your head.

typically they’re not direct translations of English endearments, as they naturally tend to vary from language to language, but yep! Irish has many many terms of endearment!

One thing to note is that in Irish you do have an equivalent of ‘my’, but you also have what is called a vocative case, easily recognisable by the particle ‘a’ right in front of the noun. Maybe you're already familiar with it, it’s a grammatical case used to address someone, if you're talking to someone directly (e.g. how are you, darling? darling is a vocative). So if you're calling someone a ‘pet’ or a ‘sweetheart’ or whatever without saying ‘my’, the vocative steps in (tbf ‘my’ just kind of masks the vocative, but that's a whole another story which i won't bore you with, especially since most endearments are considered grammatical exceptions anyway).

When addressing someone, i think that the vocative might sound a bit more ‘natural’ than the use of ‘my’, (which may be considered a bit ambivalent or a bit redundant, or maybe just a little too intense), but technically speaking neither is wrong so i'll list them both.

Modern Irish, also known as Gaeilge (in Irish) or Irish Gaelic (in countries like the USA where Irish is uncommon), is spoken by over a million people in and out of Ireland today as a first or second language. It is recognized as the official language of the Republic of Ireland, taught in schools, used in Irish broadcasting and news reporting, and spoken in everyday social situations. It can also be a lot of fun to learn! (x)

Here are some basic phrases in Irish* 

*There are three major dialects in Irish– Munster, Connacht, and Ulster. This post will be using the Munster dialect, as that is the one my teacher uses and I am more familiar with. Other dialects may vary in spelling, pronunciation, or use different phrases.

Dia dhuit       Hello

Dia dhaoibh      Hello (Plural form)

Dia is Muire dhuit      Hello (Reply)

Dia is Muire dhaoibh   Hello (Reply, plural)

These two phrases literally mean “God to you” and “God and Mary to you” respectively, but they are used as greetings in all contexts, religious and nonreligious.  You can also use “heileo” (hello), which tends to be more informal.

Conas atá tú?         How are you?

Conas atá sibh?     How are you? (Plural)

Tá mé go maith, agus tú féin?     I am well / I am good, and yourself? 

Tá mé go dona.     I am not good

Slán            Goodbye

Oíche Mhaith        Good night

Más é do thoil é / Le do thoil        Please

Go raibh maith agat / agaibh        Thank you / Thank you (Plural)        

Tá fáilte romhat     You are welcome.

Tá brón orm          I am sorry.

Gabh mo leithscéal        Excuse me

In Irish, there is no single word for “no”. Instead, to say no to a question, you rephrase the statement to be negative. For example:

Aon scéal?        Any Story? / What’s up?

Níl aon scéal agam.     I have no story.

There are also a few Irish phrases that are commonly recognized outside Irish-speaking circles, such as: 

Sláinte         Cheers (Literally, “health”)

Fáilte            Welcome

Céad Míle Fáilte    Hundred Thousand Welcomes

Éire go Brách        Ireland to the end of time / Ireland forever

Póg mo thóin         Kiss my ass

For help pronouncing Irish, there are many resources online where you can find text-to-speech audio, IPA notation, and recordings of real speakers. Here are a few:

Forvo.com

Focloir.ie

Abair.ie

Irish Phronology on Wikipedia

its just so hard when everytime i open any of these documents i feel the urge to immediately crash my car full speed into a police station

this painting by andrew wyeth has got SO many ghosts in it. most andrew wyeth paintings have ghosts in, but this is off the scale!

this painting by dragan bibin has only one ghost as far as i can tell, but it's a really scary ghost (the dog thinks so too)

this painting by meraud guevara looks very peaceful, but unfortunately it has a ghost in it. i can't tell you where, but it does

you might think you can see the ghosts in this dorothea tanning painting, but you're wrong. the little girls are just ordinary girls. the actual ghost is behind one of those doors.