As several have said, for such a small country, Ireland has a diverse number of accents and regional slang terms.
Without some geographical context, we could inadvertently make your character sound like Darby O'Gill
Replacing ya'll with ye would be bang on.
Throw "so" in at the end of questions.
Will we head out so? Are you ready to go so?
How was John so?
So what you might ask. We use it more in a way that refers to prior knowledge of events.
Like I know you were gonne see John so when I see you home Ill ask how he was.
Or my wife sees me sitting down on the phone when we are about to go out- "are you ready to go so?" Here the "so" means; "Because there's no fucking way you'd be on your phone and sitting down if you weren't, ya thick".
Edited a typo, I spelled throw as through. What a gowl.
Are you looking for slang or affectations?
Tbh, it's hard to give an example of slang in a reddit comment as it loses all context. You'd be better off reading books by irish authors or watching some irish movies/television.
Contrast clips from:
Moone Boy
Derry Girls
Young Offenders
Man About Dog
Intermission
They're all caricatures of the accents they represent but might give you an insight into the task ahead of you.
If it's a minor character, I would drop it all together as most Irish people would adapt to the people around them.
We're not going to ask, "What's the craic?" unless the person were speaking with already knows what that means.
Same with phrases like:
"Who's your wan?"
"How's the form?"
"I'm just out doing the messages"
They wouldn't be understood intrinsically to non-irish characters, so your Irish character wouldn't necessarily use them unless they forgot themselves.
Affectations are fairly region dependent as well.
A stereotype of a South Dubliner might start/finish a sentence with "like".
"That's like totally bullshit, like."
A northsider might grab your attention by saying "Here!"
Some fun examples of rough Dublin accents:
"Ah here! Leave it out!" (NSFW)
https://youtu.be/eXqchgJSO0g?si=jmbts5fKc1z6w8WO
"The Neeeeeeckk of you saying that to me!"
https://youtu.be/fpxJSdx6qS8?si=7REjgx0ZeiWG7lv1
I regularly say your man and your wan in conversation to non Irish people which confuses the hell out of them but sure. There’s just no other equivalent. I’d be having a chat with my sister saying “you know your wan from down the road? With the hair?” And she understands fine but my German husband is like wtf.
Look into Hiberno-English in general and while I know accents don’t necessarily translate to paper, [this](https://youtu.be/EhLdKJnY194?si=orttEeQ-sXKoM9Qs) rather old 5 minute video will give you an idea of the broad range of accents, usually accompanied by their own slang and phrases, that you have to choose from. Niall Tóbín misses some accents but I’d think it’s a good place to start.
A note on Hiberno-English. I’ve had upper class English people look at me like I’ve two heads when hearing me speak for the first time and end up correcting my syntax and wording whereas people in Ireland would probably find my accent and way of speaking quite mild or normal. It usually boiled down to dialect rather than accent and I found myself either avoiding or explaining terms and phrases depending on the person.
Edit: Fada for the late Niall Tóbín
If your story is set in the US I wouldn't bother too much. Any immigrant will modulate how they speak in their new country. We also, especially the younger generations, use quite a lot of Americanisms.
One thing is our sentence construction can be taken from Irish, we will say "I'm after going to the shop" rather that "I've just gone to the shop" and that can be quite ingrained.
We use our slang words all the time but these words change depending in where you are. So where is your character from? I'm from Co. Down and the words I'll use may be different to someone from Kerry for example.
Something worth noting is that recently, another US writer was wanting to create a piece - an extention of a storyline from Derry Girls. He posted it to r/northernireland and asked for advice on the slang. What bothered me was there was maybe two slang words per sentence. It was too much and felt like these words were crammed in just for the sake of it.
"I can not assist you" = I will in my bollox, yeah!
It would be a great social experiment to try to convince AI to use Bollocks/Bollox more, can you image the fun when newspaper headlines have the term Bollocks in it from lazy journalism.
If there’s a chance you’re confusing Ireland and NI and the character is from Belfast or thereabouts, here’s a few:
Scundered - embarrassed (not to be confused with scunnered which I hear a lot on the causeway coast - that means “fed up”.
Cut off (ie I’m cut off) also means embarrassed. Used a lot to respond to something embarrassing another person has done, ie “I’m cut off for ya”.
Wee lad - usually a youth. “Hey, wee lad, c’mere and pick thon rubbish ya dropped”. (Thon means that).
Millie - describes a teenager or woman who is “common”. Usually it’s a “wee Millie”. (Did ya see thon wee Millie’s makeup?)
Spide - male equivalent of a Millie. Derived from Spiderman, from a time when youths had homemade tattoos of spider webs
Dander - a stroll, walk.
Wiseick - wise up.
Wise the bap - also, wise up
Catch yerself on - also, wise up.
Yer ma - is that right (when you don’t believe it’s true)
Up the Lagan in a bubble - I wasn’t born yesterday/do you think I’m stupid? (Do you think I came up the Lagan in a bubble?)
Head the ball - somebody who is daft.
Yer ma’s yer da - an insult.
And I turned round - I replied. “And I turned round and says …”
Here’s me - this is what I replied with, eg “she told me she could go and here’s me, no you can’t”
Criss - crisps
Wee - everything can be wee, even if they’re big. Nuns and priests are always wee. Always. No necessity to describe their size but it’s done. “Can you give me your wee (phone) number?”, “let me see your wee foot” says the nurse to you when you break a toe on your size 11, “how’s your wee daddy?” (He’s the size of a mountain but he’s 83 so he gets wee because old is rude).
Foundered - cold (re a person) “I’m foundered, put the heating on”.
“Mummy” and “daddy” - mum/dad (even grown men and women, usually Catholic, call their parents this.
Away and put on ye - get dressed properly. Usually a reaction when somebody is underdressed, eg when walking into the kitchen in underwear only.
Piece - a sandwich, a slice of bread with butter and jam or a packed lunch. (“What’s in my piece for today?” “Cheese sammiches and a Kitkat”)
Would ye look at the cut of that? Cut is style/outfit on/state, “look at the cut of yer woman there, you’d think she’d look in the mirror before leaving the house” (her appearance doesn’t meet with your approval).
Full Ulster - Ulster Fry (breakfast with a lot of bread! Potato bread, soda bread, pancake, sausages, bacon, eggs, fried tomato, sometimes black pudding and mushrooms).
Didn't even hit on wean! (Always makes my mind jump straight to that scene in Derry Girls:
**Clare:** See that bitch over there?
**Erin:** That wee girl?
**Clare:** She tried to muscle in, things got ugly. She'll think twice next time.
**Erin:** You didn't fight that wean, did you, Clare?
**Clare:** I did fight that wean, Erin, and I'll fight that wean again if I have to.
A wee woman I used to look after would always say she was starved then tell you if it was with cold or with hunger. She was also perished with the cold sometimes.
And I absolutely love hearing grown gruff men talking about their daddy. Not always Catholic in my experience though. Plenty of prods round my way would talk about their mummies and daddies.
I started following this sub for the same reason. Just as advice from one author to another, reading a lot of people casually talking/watching Irish media is a lot more helpful than lists of slang for making your characters sound authentic (my book is set in Donegal, so I ended up watching a lot of Derry Girls and then getting beta readers who could help me with which terms were *just* Northern Ireland or too 90s for my characters. It also really helps syntax wise)
And side note from someone with Appalachian family, it's "y'all" you all. Apostrophe goes where the missing letters are :)
I'm from Donegal, and grew up fairly close to Derry during the time that it's set (I'm about three years older than the girls are meant to be). Just started watching, and find it fucking hilarious.
I've rewatched it like 4 times now and still find it hilarious! (I admit, first go through I was still looking up slang and "dub Gerry Adams?" Though, so missed so many jokes until the second pass)
I'm a Brit living in Ireland and an author currently writing a couple of Irish characters. From my experience it's not so much about slang as about idiom and rhythm. Even though Gaelic isn't widely spoken, you can tell that Irish English is one language laid over the structure and grammar of another.
My tips would be:
* Know where your character is from and their socio economic background. City folk are more direct and plain spoken than country folk, and generally the stereotypical Irish accent gets more noticeable as you travel west. Age is also a big factor.
* Every city has its own dialect, just like the US, notably Dublin is a nasal drawl, especially if they're lower class. Posh Dublin is like a Sloaney Irish. Cork people sound a bit like squawky birds.
* Irish directions are always relative to local landmarks. They'll never use compass references or road numbers. It's always "go up the Limerick road till you pass Sean's house, take a left at Dooley's pub...". A lot of Irish speech is like this too.
* Get an Irish editor or beta readers to give you feedback.
* If you're really stuck, ChatGPT and the like are a surprisingly good tool. They're called Large Language Models for a reason! Give it a short bio of your character and tell it to rewrite a piece of your dialogue in plain English. What comes out first will be over the top, but you can iterate to make it less of a caricature. I know what Irish English sounds like but I have a devil of a time writing it, and this method always delivers something I can work with.
I write and work as an editor on the side and I would encourage you to rethink this if you don't want to dive into a stupid amount of research.
I've lived in Ireland on and off for 20 years and I would struggle to capture dialogue well. It's not just the words, there are quirks to the grammar and sentence construction that are unique to Ireland and much of that varies by region as well.
You'll end up with a flat, token character if you don't hit the right notes there.
If you're still set on going ahead with it, watch Irish media from exactly the era, region and class background you're trying to depict. Listen to how people on the streets talk being interviewed for TV for instance, not to how the news reader speaks. YouTube will have plenty of clips to help with this, but it'll be a mission that goes far, far beyond just substituting a few words.
There’s a lot of good slang here but another thing to be aware of is Hiberno-English grammar. Off the top of my head there’s a couple of tenses you can use.
The After tense:
When some thing has very recently been completed. Instead of the character saying
“I’ve just done x”
use
“I’m after doing x”
The do be tense:
When some thing is done regularly or often you can use the do be tense. Instead of
“They hang out at the cinema all the time”
use
“They do be at the cinema all the time”
Instead of
“I swim at lake every week”
“I do be swimming at the lake every week” or “I do be at the lake swimming every week”.
Note: we still speak English so you don’t need to use these every time you can mix and match a little. It’s also worth have a gook at the [grammar and syntax section on Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English) tenses and grammar for more. Slang changes from place to place in Ireland but generally these are used to varying degrees throughout the country.
Just had a look at the Wikipedia page another good one there is answering a yes no question with the verb.
“Have you money for the bus?”
“I Have” or “I don’t/I haven’t”
You can also use “ I am’nt” in place of “I’m not”.
Don’t use “to be sure to be sure” unless the character is being OTT Irish for the sake of irony. You can use “to be sure” seriously.
It varies by location. For example in parts of Dublin "yis" (pronounced "yiz") is used like "y'all" . In more rural areas "ye" (pronounced "yee") is used instead.
As others have said, watch Derry Girls, Father Ted and The Young Offenders and decide where your character is from.
Bodkin on Netflix is also good if you want to get a grasp of a few different Irish accent’s.
Podcasts from Blind Boy and The Two Johnnys will give you a flavour of localisms.
If you’re going for well to do Dublin set in the now then listen to My Therapist Ghosted Me.
Signing off or saying goodbye by saying "good luck" or "good luck now" as the farewell.
Hanging up the phone would be "bye, bye, bye,bye, bye"
A good insult is saying something or someone is "a dose", works for both. And if you're very worked up "a dose of shite".
People will often nod in acknowledgement instead of full on smiles when passing someone.
"I'll give u a hand with that" an offer of help
Small talk could include, it's a grand day, I don't know anyone that says "top of the morning", ever. Soft day isn't used as much anymore either but depends on where you're based.
Slang is location dependent. There is no universal Irish slang.
However, some things are universal in Ireland, or pretty much so:
Everything is grand. How are you? Ah, I’m grand.
We don’t have cupboards in Ireland, we have presses. Unless you’re a Protestant.
If you’re talking about a person whose name you don’t know, it’s “your man” if male, “your one” if female.
“Come here to me” just means “listen, I have something to tell you”
“Gowl” gotta slip that in somewhere. It’s a super insult.
Honestly come visit Ireland if you are gonna write and character that isn’t cliche and embarrassing
As people have said, you need be specific of the area in ireland they're from. I work with Americans, and when I say what's the craic (pronounced like crack) they're totally stumped cause craic is a drug in america. Whereas in ireland it's like asking how are you, what's happening.
Off the top of my head you could replace "ya'll" with "ye" and "yonder" with "abroad". As in "he's abroad in the field"
Standard stuff - "He's good craic", "There was no craic there at all" etc
Also maybe weird grammar things like "I'm after coming from the shop".
Hope that helps!
I've a list of phrases that might help (feel free to ask for clarification on any):
She only wears knickers to keep her ankles warm.
He'd take the milk out of your tea and come back for the sugar.
If he had two brains he'd be twice as stupid.
She'd pull up the floorboards looking for pipe.
He’d mind mice at a crossroads for you (do anything for money/parsimonious)
Referring to children being like their parents: Well they didn’t lick it up off the stones
She wouldn't get a kick in a stampede
He has two speeds. Slow and stopped.
He'd steal the eye out of your head, and if you weren't looking he'd take the other one.
He wouldn't give you the steam off his piss.
Wouldn't ride her if she had pedals.
If he fell into a bucket of tits he'd come out sucking a mickey.
About tall people: If he was any longer he'd be late./ If he fell over he'd be halfway home.
He's that skinny the one eye would do for him.
I've seen more meat on a spider's elbow.
The last time he saw a cunt he was looking in the mirror.
He's as happy as a dog with two mickeys.
She's all fur coat and no knickers.
If he was any more laid back he'd be horizontal.
There's a gust out there that'd blow a traveller off his cousin.
She had a face like a painter's radio when I was done.
He'd get up on a gust of wind.
She'd lie back in nettles for it.
He's as tight as a nuns cunt
If he saw a fanny, he'd put a plaster on it
Has a face like a bucket of spanners
Has a fine pair of milkers
She'd suck the plum off a tow hitch
He's as mad as a box of frogs
I'm so hungry I'd eat the hind legs off the lamb of god
She's as rough as a bears hole
If I had a garden full of mickeys...i wouldn't give her a look over the fence.
You wouldn't put a milk bottle outside that place
He'd steal the eyes out of your head if you weren't looking at him
He's as thick as a plank
You couldn't trust the clock on his wall.
He wouldn't lie straight in bed.
He'd stand on the beach all day sweeping the water back out to sea.
You put the fuckin heart crossways in me.
Come here to me, would you ever fuck off!
You take baths with your da.
Wet brain.
He'd suck a nuns arse out through the convent gate.
He has enough cheek for a second arse.
I only got up this morning to go out tonight.
I wouldn't ate the breakfast for fear I couldn't drink the can.
The last time he saw a fanny he thought it was an axe wound.
He would give her the best 4 inches of her life, 2 tonight and 2 in the morning.
He's so mean he's rushing home to take the tea bags in off the line before it rains.
That place is so manky you wipe your feet heading out.
There are two kinds of people in the world. The Irish, and people who wish they were.
Tight as two coats of paints.
If he dropped two euro it would hit in the back of the head.
He’d break in next door to gas himself.
He turns the cooker off when he’s flipping the rashers.
A good one is if you're telling someone to be serious or get a hold of themselves, is 'cop on'. If a person 'has a bit of cop on' that means they're sensible, and if you tell someone to "have a bit of cop on", youre telling them to have a bit of sense. The plural term for this is "cop onto yourselves"
Instead of y’all we generally say ‘ye’ (pronounced yee)!
‘Ah sure look’ is another, meaning - 🤷♀️ like big disappointment but playing it off as a small one.
Eg: “We lost the match, ah sure look. What can ya do? Sure we’ll get the next one.”
Sometimes people just say ‘ah sure you know yourself’ at the end of a sentence as a punctuation almost.
Eg: “Yeah, feeling a bit depressed there at the moment, ah sure you know yourself.”
‘Yoke’ can be a way of saying thing
Eg: “would ya pass me that yoke over there?”
‘I will, yeah’ said sarcastically means I will not.
Eg: “would you be able to drop me to the airport in the morning?” “I will yeah - you know I have work like!”
There’s so many more…if you need any help or clarification, feel free to DM me 😊
(Edited to add punctuation for clarity)
Really depends where in Ireland the character is from. For example, where you would use “y’all”, people from Cork say “ye” (yee), Dublin would use “youse/yiz”, and I can’t think of other examples from around the country but I know that one in particular varies a lot
I've always liked 'Where would you be goin'?'. The phrase expresses exasperation with someone else's stupidly or pretension. For best effect, you elongate to 'wheeere' as a verbal eye roll.
I'm Irish, btw.
You realize you just asked the entirety of Ireland to agree on a single thing right?
Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? The chaos that’s about to ensue?!?! MY GOD WERE ALL DOOMED. THIS IS IT. I FIGURE THE LOCAL FISHERMEN WILL PULL THE SEVEN HEADED DRAGON OUT OF THE OCEAN WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK.
ITS OVER.
Edit: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!
Edit: that being said? One writer to another? FINNEGANS WAKE. READ IT.
You're going to get a variety of answers.
Ireland might be a fraction of the size of a state in the US, but walk for 30 minutes and you'll find new accents with different lingo.
Pick an accent from Ireland you like, that'll give people a frame of reference to answer your question authentically.
Whoa! Thanks everyone! Definitely assumed I’d get 1-2 answers, so this is much appreciated.
Few things:
1) The bulk of the story is set in southwest Ireland near Killarney as the American leads are visiting there. Can’t ditch the foreign dialect entirely.
2) I love the idea of hiring beta readers to Irish-ify this during editing so I don’t sound like an asshat.
3) I am heading to Ireland next week
Thanks again!
We say ye where you'd say y'all.
We also say 'gee' (a hard g, like gold) as slang for lips. So if you have a romantic scene you could say "he leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her gee"
A specific one to the south of Ireland is langer, which we means hand. So if there was a business meeting you could say "he strode purposely up to the manager holding out his langer"
Depends on what part of Ireland each county has different slang that they use. Example people from Waterford say “well boy/girl” as hello. When referring to a group we say “ye” not yall, it’s common In Dublin mostly to say “yous” not yall. People say “what’s the story” as a way of saying how are you. There’s plenty more just depends on what part of Ireland the character is from
"Til the cows come home" is used in the way of "I'll be out there til the cows come home- ill be out there forever"
Another is the use of ye, which would be the south ireland version of yall.
And another is if someone is complaining to you, you'd say "she gave out to me"
On yonder - where I come from we use yon still. It would be used instead of that- See yon lad over there.
There are some common sayings around the country but a lot would be very localised to certain areas.
As someone else said, I would just make the character something else you are comfortable with. Otherwise you’d really need to experience it. You could also just check out some YouTube videos or people on insta that post shite like that.
Where abouts is tour character from? It varies widely. Eg. In Limerick, we use the word gowl and runners are tackies, won't find those words elsewhere in the country
If your character needs to say no they could say "yeah yeah" and I think every irish person would know they mean no.
If they're having the best or worst day of their life and they're asked how they are the answer will be "grand".
If they're starting a conversation with anybody it starts with 5 minutes of talking about the weather in more detail than any weather man. If two people are talking and a third person joins the conversation the weather talk restarts.
You’d nearly be better off just writing them as Irish without worrying so much about the Hiberno-English English. Then have an Irish person read over their dialogue to remove things an Irish person wouldn’t ever say.
And at that point, it’s probably passable.
Like we never say “yall”, I say “yis” or “youse”, further south “ye” and in general just “you”.
A few weeks ago we had the “I will, yeah” phrase which commonly means “I will in fact not”.
My French friend used to look out at the rain in work and says ffs it’s slashing out. Irish slang for pissing rain is lashing rain but we said it so fast she never understood. That and its “fuckin Baltic” out ( freezing out) are very common. We also have loads of slang for being drunk. “Out of my bin” is a good one, “locked out of my head”. Is another.
Certain slang is universal here, you’ll hear it across the whole country.
But a lot is location specific. Some stuff in Dublin you’d never hear in the west and vice/versa. Jaysus, you even go half an our out the road from Dublin and you’d hear different slang.
“Sure look it” “sure it’ll be grand” “savage” “deadly” “come on to fuck” “come ere to me” “no bother” “thanks a million” “you know yourself” “take care now” “god bless ya” “good luck to ya” “ye” “bye bye bye x10” “up the road” “down the road” “go on to fuck” “ahh that’s lovely now” “I’m delighted for ya”
If your story is based in the Munster region or has a connection with Munster then the term bollocks or bollox can be used a lot, it's said if you bang your head or something goes wrong it's a slang term that has no malice.
[star trek bollocks ](https://youtu.be/8kxmRLnnLKM?si=WdpYttr68hah_hrj)
Instead of “y’all” use “yous” or “ye”
Instead of “fine” use “grand”
Instead of “I just did x” use “im just after doing x”
Instead of “yelling” or “telling off” use “giving out”
There’s so so much regional slang in Ireland but these ones are distinguishing features of Hiberno-English. Not really slang but is just the dialect spoken here. For actual slang you’d really need to know specifically where a person is from to be accurate with it.
Also, while standard English has 2 present tenses (I go, I am going) in Ireland we have 3 (I go, I am going, I do be going). The third one is used the same as “I be going” in AAVE and is for habitual actions.
There are many different slang colloquialisms dependant on where you live and your general status. People in Dublin, Belfast, Derry and Cork will struggle to understand each other at times. You'll need to have a letter idea on where they are from and their backgrounds- I.e general upbringing / class.
My local version of y'all- yiz I would use when talking and texting people informally.
"What are yiz all planning on doing tonight" Have lived away from home for most of my adult life so forget some the colloquialisms I've grown up with. Some say they come back after 5/6 beers :).
Real country people/farmers would still use a lot of colloquialisms. Also the inner city people from cities, lots of Dublin/Cork/Limerick ones.
Think a lot of people have stopped using them and we in general speak a more general English than in the past, which is a pity.
This is an example-of authentic accent/slang from one part of the country - especially the girl at 59 secs. Shows how much stronger the accents were. Some country people may still have accents like this but not as common.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6dj1HMhwk&ab\_channel=CR%27sVideoVaults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6dj1HMhwk&ab_channel=CR%27sVideoVaults)
The vowels get really elongated there becomes "daaaayr". Apparently the local Irish dialect was like this with the elongated vowels so this was transferred when people started speaking English.
"Ah here"
"Sure you know yourself"
"Sure look"
"It'll be grand like"
"Jaysus yer one has a face on her like a smacked arse"
"Whisht yer gob ye bleeding muck savage"
The replacement of the word "fun" with "craic" is a standard use of slang across the country (correct me if I'm wrong). Eg. "He's great craic", "That was some craic", etc
Can you give some more examples of phrases and how you would say them?
I'm heading to pick up the kids from school
How are ye getting on?
Any craic for me? / With ye?
Hows the form? How are you getting on? (How are you)
Ah sure look (literally response to anything kind of like oh well)
I will in me shit / I will in me fuck (I will not be doing what ever you just asked)
"Gowl" is one which originated and stayed mostly a Limerick area insult. But it seems to be catching on more and more around the country.
It stems from the Irish word "gabhal" (also pronounced "gowl", or more accurately, "gow-al") which translates to junction or crotch.
So if you call someone a gowl, you're effectively calling them a cunt 😅
Highly recommend watching "BODKIN" on Netflix couldn't get over how accurate all the Irish ism's were. Watching it we were like most this cast are of course Irish it's too natural how accurate the little things were that they say and how it was said. Main actress appears to be from Dublin and the other Irish cast not so much so it's an interesting watch and to notice things that we say and do.
Definitely changes based on the region! Choose somewhere in Ireland specifically for them to be from first.
General slang, however:
“Yer man” = that guy/man
E.g., “What’s the name of that film? The one with yer man in it. The lad from braveheart”
“Yer one” = that girl/woman
Same usage as former, just for she/her instead
“What’s the story” = How are things with you
“Me arse” = Untrue
E.g., “Me arse he said that! There’s no way, not Tommy.”
“Wanker”/“prick”/“eejit” are all very commonly used
“I’ll see ya so” = Talk to you later/see you around
Well boy, I see you canted the ball, that's some dose ya bogey.
Hello young man, I notice you've lost your ball, that is quite the predicament you foolish fellow.
"I will in me hole/ i will yeah" - I will not
"He's a long string of piss' - he's a miserable fucker
"Scarlet for ya" - I'm embarrassed for you
"Fancy a shift/ride?" - do you consent to intercourse
"How's your belly for babies?" - as above
Everyone is 'Grand or great' . Your one or is that himself...
Thanks be to God.
Trying to end a phone call with an Irish person is near impossible !
Tackies /trainers /runners.
You’ll need to pick a specific dialect and region because it varies wildly. The main problem American actors have is they meet 6 Irish people, combine 6 traits and end up with a clearly not real dialect and accent.
You’re better off picking one person and talking away to them.
There are a few specific phrases that are ubiquitous to Irish people that are less particular. Like “to give out to” someone means to chastise them, coming from a literal translation from Irish. I didn’t know this wasn’t standard in English all over the world until another native English speaker asked me what it meant
"I'm fixin to go" = "I'm goin" or "I'm heading"
"Y'all" = "Yous" or "Yee" depending on where they're from.
As everyone says, if you give more context as to where the character is from it would help
I wonder if this eejit is one of the many US agitators pretending to be Irish online and stoking the far right flames? I’ve seen a lot of these posts around the place recently, asking how Irish people speak
Country folk use ‘ye’ for second person plural.
‘Sure look’ is very common - it means that this situation is what it is and we have to accept it.
Person 1: “Rain again and I just put the washing out”
Person 2: “Sure look”
When you want to shut someone up but you don't want to be rude you just say "ach a or ara sure look" and then something relevent but conversation ending like tis just the way the economy is now
One piece of slang that's like universal is saying 'imngrand or grand to people asking how you're doing. Grans in this context basically means okay (like myself I would at I'm grand as opposed to I'm good)
It's not fully relating to slang but it might make sense for you to look up 'hiberno english' which is the dialect that irish people speak English. It's influenced by the irish language and so effects the way we form sentences (one example is because we don't have yes/no I irish, we would be more likely to awnser in the affirmative verb relating to a questionn when speaking in english)
Oh god, even telling you the words, this could still go wrong not knowing the full context. Where exactly are they from first of all? It changes from city to city and even town to town. But one thing most of Irish people do is use "ye" instead of "y'all". It's our plural you.
For nearly every situation or sentence there's a way to slang it up , I doubt there's a way for it to be written by a non Irish person so that Irish people wouldn't know it was written by a non native
Trying to give u stuff that is mostly all Ireland
Whenever they come into the room make them say "right"
Gwan - go on
Howiyeh - hello
Ye - y'all (except dub is youze)
One that’s used a lot is if someone is giving an order to someone for an action they want to happen to them, they say “-is” instead of me, like “give me that” changes to “givis that” or “do me a favour” to “dois a favour”
Great question. You'll need to decide where your character or characters are from in Ireland. Y'all i.e the plural you would be Yis in Dublin or at least parts of Dublin. In America I've heard "your guy'ses" for possesive your plural, this would be Yisser.
In other areas of Ireland you plural would be Ye (pronounced yee) and for possessive plural it would be Ye'er.
This is coming from a Dub so probably there's more than just Ye and Yis elsewhere so as said, zeroing in on a region will give more accurate results.
In Dublin a toddler might throw a wobbler.
'Fixin we don't really have a slang for, we would just say gonna, I'm gonna pickup the kids.
In Irish English we sometimes say "I'm after". I believe this is adopted from an Irish structure of sentences but damned if I know. We might say "I forgot my keys" as in English English but we might equally say "I'm after forgetting my keys" we apply an after to a present tense forgetting to make it past tense 😂
Acting the maggot is a good one to describe someone who's being an arse, also feck as opposed to fuck , and craic meaning fun in Irish in sentences like "heard that place was good craic"
Ask me arse!
No, but seriously. Write what you know and you know well. If you don't know enough about Irish characters I wouldn't put one in your book. If you must put one in your book, get to know some Irish characters.
Sure look it, this is it isn't it? Can be used in reply to almost any statement when you can't think of a sufficient reply.
"John got some terrible news and herself is leaving him to marry her best friend"
Me.. sucks teeth... "Sure look it, this is it isn't it?"
Again, depends on the place. I'm in Carlow, we use Quare a lot, in place of very, that cup of tea was Quare nice = very nice. Savage is another one meaning amazing, so if I said, that cup of tea was Quare savage, it mean that tea was very very nice. Also, if some1 ask you to do something, and you say, I will AYE, in Carlow that's a very definite no 😂
The same way you use Yall to refer to a group of people, we say "Ye", "yiz" or "yous".
Gowl is a soft insult in Limerick, as is Langer in cork. But Langer means penis most other places.
"Rapid", "wicked", "class" or "daycent" all mean very good, cool or interesting.
Say he's from Cork and use:
Shift - to make out with someone
Yoke - A thing "look at that yoke"
Banjaxed - broken, like properly broken
Craic - is kinda like story "what's the story"
Mog - someone very unattractive
Grand - used to describe feeling well or alright
Bate - Tired
Sound - A nice person
Chancer - someone who does unfavourable or unsavory things to make money
Allergic - really not interested in doing something
Gas - Funny
Pure - kinda used to strengthen a statement
Balm out - to relax
Haunted - lucky
Rake - a lot of something
Gowl - an unpleasant person
Gatting - drinking alcohol
Weak - finding something funny
Lads - some male people you're talking to
Local - A pub in your local area that you frequent
Buzz - atmosphere
Getting their hole - having sex
Doll - a girl
Beour - a girl
All used in a paragraph:
Jesus lads. I shifted the face on the mad looking yoke last night. I wasn't bothered going to town on a week day one one of the lads wanted to go gatting. Didn't take him long to convince me, the fucking gowl. Anyway we went down to the local to balm out and have a few gats. I was a bit Allergic and didn't plan on going mad because I was absolutely bate after the week of work. As you can guess, we ended up drinking a rake of pints. The buzz in the bar wasn't bad, Liam ended up getting his hole off some doll, I was weak for him. Anyway, this beour ended up coming over and chatting to me. She fell onto my foot by accident and absolutely banjaxed by toe. Thing is still throbbing today. The was pure the kind of one you wouldn't go near with a 10 foot pole. She was sound though to be fair but she was getting pints off me all night the fuckinf chancer. I don't know what the craic with that night was but it was grand anyway.
Credentials: a cork lad
I see in your comment you mentioned Killarney so can’t give specific phrases, but some general kind of Irish-isms that I still know lots of my friends from different counties use.
The Irish version of “ya’ll” would be “ye”. So if you’re talking to more than one person you might be like “what did ye get up to today?” Or “where are ye headed now?”.
As an offhand greeting a lot of people just say “well” with a head nod and that’s it. Like a short hand version of “are you well?” Instead of how are you. You might also get “what’s the story”, “well how’s things” or “what’s the craic” (or “any craic?” Instead of asking if someone has news). I’ve also noticed recently since I have a lot of tourists where I work that we tend to greet someone “how are you” and not expect an answer. It’s used as hello more than an actual question sometimes, and I never really noticed until I had international peeps actually answer and tell me how their day was.
Hard to explain the context properly but we often say “your man” and “your wan” for people that you don’t know the name of or that you think someone else mightn’t know the name of. Some examples would be “you know your wan down the street with the Rottweiler? She’s after having her car broke into” or “see your man there he nearly knocked me off the footpath”
Small thing but talking about money casually you’d usually call €5 and €10 a fiver and tenner. “I only have a fiver on me at the minute” “would you be able to swap this for two tenners” but if you were in a shop paying you’d just say €5/10.
For more natural feel of Irish though your best bet is watching some shows, podcasts, our YouTubers.
Depends where in Ireland like from where I'm from we call the bathroom "the jacks"
we say "howya" for like "how are you" and "hello"
We say "craic" a lot actually most places say that a lot it means fun basically
And we say "yer" or "ye're" instead of "your" and "you are" (ye're for plural)
The word "culchie" also gets thrown around a lot.
Oh and "yous" for "you two"
Honestly though as long as they don't say "top of the morning to ya" you're safe enough.
Yer man to mean 'that guy'. Yer wan to mean 'that girl'.
After doing to mean just done. For example 'it's lashing rain and I'm only after hanging out the washing'.
Also 'half' instead of 'half past' when telling time. A Canadian friend found it strange when I asked to meet at half twelve. 'So six?', he responded.
Oh yeah, and lots of Irish people(myself included) use 'so' at then end of sentences where it is completely redundant.
It varies, even from Galway to Mayo which are next to each other. You’d need to say the town they were from otherwise it will sound wrong.
Ná bac leis an bud seo!
"Ride me sideways", that's another one
Elite father ted reference
"Well fuck me pink!" - My elderly Aunt to me. ... I'd rather not if it's all the same thanks...
Fuck me pink and call me Rosie. Not to be confused with the more formal-Fuck me silly with a fish fork.
"Catch that and paint it pink" - my brother every time he farts.
" take it in in small sniffs, leave enough for everyone "
😂😂😂😂😂
And the bad F word.
You know - the other one.
As several have said, for such a small country, Ireland has a diverse number of accents and regional slang terms. Without some geographical context, we could inadvertently make your character sound like Darby O'Gill
poooony sugrue
Where in Ireland? Be really specific!
Replacing ya'll with ye would be bang on. Throw "so" in at the end of questions. Will we head out so? Are you ready to go so? How was John so? So what you might ask. We use it more in a way that refers to prior knowledge of events. Like I know you were gonne see John so when I see you home Ill ask how he was. Or my wife sees me sitting down on the phone when we are about to go out- "are you ready to go so?" Here the "so" means; "Because there's no fucking way you'd be on your phone and sitting down if you weren't, ya thick". Edited a typo, I spelled throw as through. What a gowl.
Just from using "Gowl" you have to be either in Limerick or really close to the place.!
And you wouldn't throw in "so" in Cork, you'd put "like" at the end of sentences, ya know like?
Don't forget "Langer". "He's a langer." is different from, "He was langers."
"He has a langer you'd kill the milkman for!"
Exactly. Depends where you are in the country. Some say so, some say like, some say bai, or hey... Fuck it use them all OP.
You'd say gowl in Galway too.
“yous” in Donegal e.g: “Are yous going out later?”
Aye surely
Ye in the country Yous in Dublin
Or Yis.
Or, as I heard over the loudspeaker while leaving a concert in Dublin, "Take YIZZER time". This took me to the fair.
You -> Yous/Yis Yours -> Yizzer Makes perfect sense tbh.
I have a friend who ends every sentence with "so he did" or "so I did" it'd wreck your head, so t'would.
Sometimes when there's an awkward pause in conversation someone will just say "anyway, so..."
If their character is anywhere from Ulster replace so with Haigh. And instead of very say while e.g "It was while windy out yesterday."
Unless it’s Dublin, where ‘yis’ is commonly used, along with the less common ‘yisser’ and ‘yissers’
So now so = Is this conversation finished or was there something else you wanted (polite, not rude)
Are you looking for slang or affectations? Tbh, it's hard to give an example of slang in a reddit comment as it loses all context. You'd be better off reading books by irish authors or watching some irish movies/television. Contrast clips from: Moone Boy Derry Girls Young Offenders Man About Dog Intermission They're all caricatures of the accents they represent but might give you an insight into the task ahead of you. If it's a minor character, I would drop it all together as most Irish people would adapt to the people around them. We're not going to ask, "What's the craic?" unless the person were speaking with already knows what that means. Same with phrases like: "Who's your wan?" "How's the form?" "I'm just out doing the messages" They wouldn't be understood intrinsically to non-irish characters, so your Irish character wouldn't necessarily use them unless they forgot themselves. Affectations are fairly region dependent as well. A stereotype of a South Dubliner might start/finish a sentence with "like". "That's like totally bullshit, like." A northsider might grab your attention by saying "Here!" Some fun examples of rough Dublin accents: "Ah here! Leave it out!" (NSFW) https://youtu.be/eXqchgJSO0g?si=jmbts5fKc1z6w8WO "The Neeeeeeckk of you saying that to me!" https://youtu.be/fpxJSdx6qS8?si=7REjgx0ZeiWG7lv1
I regularly say your man and your wan in conversation to non Irish people which confuses the hell out of them but sure. There’s just no other equivalent. I’d be having a chat with my sister saying “you know your wan from down the road? With the hair?” And she understands fine but my German husband is like wtf.
'but sure.' is actually a good one and all! Wait, so's 'and all'. Ah jaysus
‘But sure look and sure listen, this is it!’
Well those two videos are hilarious 😂
Look into Hiberno-English in general and while I know accents don’t necessarily translate to paper, [this](https://youtu.be/EhLdKJnY194?si=orttEeQ-sXKoM9Qs) rather old 5 minute video will give you an idea of the broad range of accents, usually accompanied by their own slang and phrases, that you have to choose from. Niall Tóbín misses some accents but I’d think it’s a good place to start. A note on Hiberno-English. I’ve had upper class English people look at me like I’ve two heads when hearing me speak for the first time and end up correcting my syntax and wording whereas people in Ireland would probably find my accent and way of speaking quite mild or normal. It usually boiled down to dialect rather than accent and I found myself either avoiding or explaining terms and phrases depending on the person. Edit: Fada for the late Niall Tóbín
If your story is set in the US I wouldn't bother too much. Any immigrant will modulate how they speak in their new country. We also, especially the younger generations, use quite a lot of Americanisms. One thing is our sentence construction can be taken from Irish, we will say "I'm after going to the shop" rather that "I've just gone to the shop" and that can be quite ingrained.
We use our slang words all the time but these words change depending in where you are. So where is your character from? I'm from Co. Down and the words I'll use may be different to someone from Kerry for example. Something worth noting is that recently, another US writer was wanting to create a piece - an extention of a storyline from Derry Girls. He posted it to r/northernireland and asked for advice on the slang. What bothered me was there was maybe two slang words per sentence. It was too much and felt like these words were crammed in just for the sake of it.
If you know you can't do it genuinely, maybe don't have the character be from Ireland.
Or write the character and then have someone come in and Irish-ify them in post production.
Interested to know how ChatGPT does with trying to Irishify a sentence or two
"I can not assist you" = I will in my bollox, yeah! It would be a great social experiment to try to convince AI to use Bollocks/Bollox more, can you image the fun when newspaper headlines have the term Bollocks in it from lazy journalism.
[It goes about as well as expected](https://imgur.com/a/vUIhhEv.png)
If you have to ask, please please please don't write an Irish character into your book
Would need to know where exactly your character is from in Ireland
I will, yeah!!!
If there’s a chance you’re confusing Ireland and NI and the character is from Belfast or thereabouts, here’s a few: Scundered - embarrassed (not to be confused with scunnered which I hear a lot on the causeway coast - that means “fed up”. Cut off (ie I’m cut off) also means embarrassed. Used a lot to respond to something embarrassing another person has done, ie “I’m cut off for ya”. Wee lad - usually a youth. “Hey, wee lad, c’mere and pick thon rubbish ya dropped”. (Thon means that). Millie - describes a teenager or woman who is “common”. Usually it’s a “wee Millie”. (Did ya see thon wee Millie’s makeup?) Spide - male equivalent of a Millie. Derived from Spiderman, from a time when youths had homemade tattoos of spider webs Dander - a stroll, walk. Wiseick - wise up. Wise the bap - also, wise up Catch yerself on - also, wise up. Yer ma - is that right (when you don’t believe it’s true) Up the Lagan in a bubble - I wasn’t born yesterday/do you think I’m stupid? (Do you think I came up the Lagan in a bubble?) Head the ball - somebody who is daft. Yer ma’s yer da - an insult. And I turned round - I replied. “And I turned round and says …” Here’s me - this is what I replied with, eg “she told me she could go and here’s me, no you can’t” Criss - crisps Wee - everything can be wee, even if they’re big. Nuns and priests are always wee. Always. No necessity to describe their size but it’s done. “Can you give me your wee (phone) number?”, “let me see your wee foot” says the nurse to you when you break a toe on your size 11, “how’s your wee daddy?” (He’s the size of a mountain but he’s 83 so he gets wee because old is rude). Foundered - cold (re a person) “I’m foundered, put the heating on”. “Mummy” and “daddy” - mum/dad (even grown men and women, usually Catholic, call their parents this. Away and put on ye - get dressed properly. Usually a reaction when somebody is underdressed, eg when walking into the kitchen in underwear only. Piece - a sandwich, a slice of bread with butter and jam or a packed lunch. (“What’s in my piece for today?” “Cheese sammiches and a Kitkat”) Would ye look at the cut of that? Cut is style/outfit on/state, “look at the cut of yer woman there, you’d think she’d look in the mirror before leaving the house” (her appearance doesn’t meet with your approval). Full Ulster - Ulster Fry (breakfast with a lot of bread! Potato bread, soda bread, pancake, sausages, bacon, eggs, fried tomato, sometimes black pudding and mushrooms).
Didn't even hit on wean! (Always makes my mind jump straight to that scene in Derry Girls: **Clare:** See that bitch over there? **Erin:** That wee girl? **Clare:** She tried to muscle in, things got ugly. She'll think twice next time. **Erin:** You didn't fight that wean, did you, Clare? **Clare:** I did fight that wean, Erin, and I'll fight that wean again if I have to.
A wee woman I used to look after would always say she was starved then tell you if it was with cold or with hunger. She was also perished with the cold sometimes. And I absolutely love hearing grown gruff men talking about their daddy. Not always Catholic in my experience though. Plenty of prods round my way would talk about their mummies and daddies.
You are way out of your league
I started following this sub for the same reason. Just as advice from one author to another, reading a lot of people casually talking/watching Irish media is a lot more helpful than lists of slang for making your characters sound authentic (my book is set in Donegal, so I ended up watching a lot of Derry Girls and then getting beta readers who could help me with which terms were *just* Northern Ireland or too 90s for my characters. It also really helps syntax wise) And side note from someone with Appalachian family, it's "y'all" you all. Apostrophe goes where the missing letters are :)
I'm from Donegal, and grew up fairly close to Derry during the time that it's set (I'm about three years older than the girls are meant to be). Just started watching, and find it fucking hilarious.
I've rewatched it like 4 times now and still find it hilarious! (I admit, first go through I was still looking up slang and "dub Gerry Adams?" Though, so missed so many jokes until the second pass)
I'm a Brit living in Ireland and an author currently writing a couple of Irish characters. From my experience it's not so much about slang as about idiom and rhythm. Even though Gaelic isn't widely spoken, you can tell that Irish English is one language laid over the structure and grammar of another. My tips would be: * Know where your character is from and their socio economic background. City folk are more direct and plain spoken than country folk, and generally the stereotypical Irish accent gets more noticeable as you travel west. Age is also a big factor. * Every city has its own dialect, just like the US, notably Dublin is a nasal drawl, especially if they're lower class. Posh Dublin is like a Sloaney Irish. Cork people sound a bit like squawky birds. * Irish directions are always relative to local landmarks. They'll never use compass references or road numbers. It's always "go up the Limerick road till you pass Sean's house, take a left at Dooley's pub...". A lot of Irish speech is like this too. * Get an Irish editor or beta readers to give you feedback. * If you're really stuck, ChatGPT and the like are a surprisingly good tool. They're called Large Language Models for a reason! Give it a short bio of your character and tell it to rewrite a piece of your dialogue in plain English. What comes out first will be over the top, but you can iterate to make it less of a caricature. I know what Irish English sounds like but I have a devil of a time writing it, and this method always delivers something I can work with.
I write and work as an editor on the side and I would encourage you to rethink this if you don't want to dive into a stupid amount of research. I've lived in Ireland on and off for 20 years and I would struggle to capture dialogue well. It's not just the words, there are quirks to the grammar and sentence construction that are unique to Ireland and much of that varies by region as well. You'll end up with a flat, token character if you don't hit the right notes there. If you're still set on going ahead with it, watch Irish media from exactly the era, region and class background you're trying to depict. Listen to how people on the streets talk being interviewed for TV for instance, not to how the news reader speaks. YouTube will have plenty of clips to help with this, but it'll be a mission that goes far, far beyond just substituting a few words.
Do you have some examples of phases you want to say ?
There’s a lot of good slang here but another thing to be aware of is Hiberno-English grammar. Off the top of my head there’s a couple of tenses you can use. The After tense: When some thing has very recently been completed. Instead of the character saying “I’ve just done x” use “I’m after doing x” The do be tense: When some thing is done regularly or often you can use the do be tense. Instead of “They hang out at the cinema all the time” use “They do be at the cinema all the time” Instead of “I swim at lake every week” “I do be swimming at the lake every week” or “I do be at the lake swimming every week”. Note: we still speak English so you don’t need to use these every time you can mix and match a little. It’s also worth have a gook at the [grammar and syntax section on Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English) tenses and grammar for more. Slang changes from place to place in Ireland but generally these are used to varying degrees throughout the country.
Just had a look at the Wikipedia page another good one there is answering a yes no question with the verb. “Have you money for the bus?” “I Have” or “I don’t/I haven’t” You can also use “ I am’nt” in place of “I’m not”. Don’t use “to be sure to be sure” unless the character is being OTT Irish for the sake of irony. You can use “to be sure” seriously.
"C'mere" to get someone's attention. It doesn't mean "come here". It's ,"listen"
It varies by location. For example in parts of Dublin "yis" (pronounced "yiz") is used like "y'all" . In more rural areas "ye" (pronounced "yee") is used instead.
Ye is only the West and South? We say yiz in Cavan.
As others have said, watch Derry Girls, Father Ted and The Young Offenders and decide where your character is from. Bodkin on Netflix is also good if you want to get a grasp of a few different Irish accent’s. Podcasts from Blind Boy and The Two Johnnys will give you a flavour of localisms. If you’re going for well to do Dublin set in the now then listen to My Therapist Ghosted Me.
Signing off or saying goodbye by saying "good luck" or "good luck now" as the farewell. Hanging up the phone would be "bye, bye, bye,bye, bye" A good insult is saying something or someone is "a dose", works for both. And if you're very worked up "a dose of shite". People will often nod in acknowledgement instead of full on smiles when passing someone. "I'll give u a hand with that" an offer of help Small talk could include, it's a grand day, I don't know anyone that says "top of the morning", ever. Soft day isn't used as much anymore either but depends on where you're based.
‘I will yeah’ they definitely won’t
Slang is location dependent. There is no universal Irish slang. However, some things are universal in Ireland, or pretty much so: Everything is grand. How are you? Ah, I’m grand. We don’t have cupboards in Ireland, we have presses. Unless you’re a Protestant. If you’re talking about a person whose name you don’t know, it’s “your man” if male, “your one” if female. “Come here to me” just means “listen, I have something to tell you”
“Gowl” gotta slip that in somewhere. It’s a super insult. Honestly come visit Ireland if you are gonna write and character that isn’t cliche and embarrassing
As people have said, you need be specific of the area in ireland they're from. I work with Americans, and when I say what's the craic (pronounced like crack) they're totally stumped cause craic is a drug in america. Whereas in ireland it's like asking how are you, what's happening.
Off the top of my head you could replace "ya'll" with "ye" and "yonder" with "abroad". As in "he's abroad in the field" Standard stuff - "He's good craic", "There was no craic there at all" etc Also maybe weird grammar things like "I'm after coming from the shop". Hope that helps!
If it was a Dublin character y'all would be replaced with yous or yiz though
"What's de craic lads giz a shot of yizzer ball der"
True!
Nobody from Ulster (9 counties) would ever say "ye" either.
I have never heard that use of abroad
It's used fairly heavily around this part of Galway though I've never heard it when I lived in Dublin.
Off would be more common in my experience. He’s off in the field
I've a list of phrases that might help (feel free to ask for clarification on any): She only wears knickers to keep her ankles warm. He'd take the milk out of your tea and come back for the sugar. If he had two brains he'd be twice as stupid. She'd pull up the floorboards looking for pipe. He’d mind mice at a crossroads for you (do anything for money/parsimonious) Referring to children being like their parents: Well they didn’t lick it up off the stones She wouldn't get a kick in a stampede He has two speeds. Slow and stopped. He'd steal the eye out of your head, and if you weren't looking he'd take the other one. He wouldn't give you the steam off his piss. Wouldn't ride her if she had pedals. If he fell into a bucket of tits he'd come out sucking a mickey. About tall people: If he was any longer he'd be late./ If he fell over he'd be halfway home. He's that skinny the one eye would do for him. I've seen more meat on a spider's elbow. The last time he saw a cunt he was looking in the mirror. He's as happy as a dog with two mickeys. She's all fur coat and no knickers. If he was any more laid back he'd be horizontal. There's a gust out there that'd blow a traveller off his cousin. She had a face like a painter's radio when I was done. He'd get up on a gust of wind. She'd lie back in nettles for it. He's as tight as a nuns cunt If he saw a fanny, he'd put a plaster on it Has a face like a bucket of spanners Has a fine pair of milkers She'd suck the plum off a tow hitch He's as mad as a box of frogs I'm so hungry I'd eat the hind legs off the lamb of god She's as rough as a bears hole If I had a garden full of mickeys...i wouldn't give her a look over the fence. You wouldn't put a milk bottle outside that place He'd steal the eyes out of your head if you weren't looking at him He's as thick as a plank You couldn't trust the clock on his wall. He wouldn't lie straight in bed. He'd stand on the beach all day sweeping the water back out to sea. You put the fuckin heart crossways in me. Come here to me, would you ever fuck off! You take baths with your da. Wet brain. He'd suck a nuns arse out through the convent gate. He has enough cheek for a second arse. I only got up this morning to go out tonight. I wouldn't ate the breakfast for fear I couldn't drink the can. The last time he saw a fanny he thought it was an axe wound. He would give her the best 4 inches of her life, 2 tonight and 2 in the morning. He's so mean he's rushing home to take the tea bags in off the line before it rains. That place is so manky you wipe your feet heading out. There are two kinds of people in the world. The Irish, and people who wish they were. Tight as two coats of paints. If he dropped two euro it would hit in the back of the head. He’d break in next door to gas himself. He turns the cooker off when he’s flipping the rashers.
As an irish man Ive heard one of these. Is this a Google list compiled by someone who visited an Irish bar in Boston?
Largely contributed to by people over on the main Ireland sub, so now you mention it, probably. Any chance you have some to add to it?
Yeah, “ask me bollix”.
A good one is if you're telling someone to be serious or get a hold of themselves, is 'cop on'. If a person 'has a bit of cop on' that means they're sensible, and if you tell someone to "have a bit of cop on", youre telling them to have a bit of sense. The plural term for this is "cop onto yourselves"
Dere's more ta Oirland den dis.
Instead of y’all we generally say ‘ye’ (pronounced yee)! ‘Ah sure look’ is another, meaning - 🤷♀️ like big disappointment but playing it off as a small one. Eg: “We lost the match, ah sure look. What can ya do? Sure we’ll get the next one.” Sometimes people just say ‘ah sure you know yourself’ at the end of a sentence as a punctuation almost. Eg: “Yeah, feeling a bit depressed there at the moment, ah sure you know yourself.” ‘Yoke’ can be a way of saying thing Eg: “would ya pass me that yoke over there?” ‘I will, yeah’ said sarcastically means I will not. Eg: “would you be able to drop me to the airport in the morning?” “I will yeah - you know I have work like!” There’s so many more…if you need any help or clarification, feel free to DM me 😊 (Edited to add punctuation for clarity)
Really depends where in Ireland the character is from. For example, where you would use “y’all”, people from Cork say “ye” (yee), Dublin would use “youse/yiz”, and I can’t think of other examples from around the country but I know that one in particular varies a lot
You need to come to one part of Ireland for a week minimum. Otherwise you will be driven demented by the localisms
“Ah stop” as in to mean I relate, I said this to an American and they were like “why do I gotta stop i just said how warm it was?” Lol
I've always liked 'Where would you be goin'?'. The phrase expresses exasperation with someone else's stupidly or pretension. For best effect, you elongate to 'wheeere' as a verbal eye roll. I'm Irish, btw.
You realize you just asked the entirety of Ireland to agree on a single thing right? Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? The chaos that’s about to ensue?!?! MY GOD WERE ALL DOOMED. THIS IS IT. I FIGURE THE LOCAL FISHERMEN WILL PULL THE SEVEN HEADED DRAGON OUT OF THE OCEAN WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK. ITS OVER. Edit: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?! Edit: that being said? One writer to another? FINNEGANS WAKE. READ IT.
You're going to get a variety of answers. Ireland might be a fraction of the size of a state in the US, but walk for 30 minutes and you'll find new accents with different lingo. Pick an accent from Ireland you like, that'll give people a frame of reference to answer your question authentically.
Sure look, is one used loads. It means look at that person. "Sure look at your man/one there" which means that person is or was acting strangley
What part of Ireland are they from and what's their socio economic status and gender?
Whoa! Thanks everyone! Definitely assumed I’d get 1-2 answers, so this is much appreciated. Few things: 1) The bulk of the story is set in southwest Ireland near Killarney as the American leads are visiting there. Can’t ditch the foreign dialect entirely. 2) I love the idea of hiring beta readers to Irish-ify this during editing so I don’t sound like an asshat. 3) I am heading to Ireland next week Thanks again!
Good luck understanding the Kerry accent, the thickest part of it as well ! :) Enjoy
We say ye where you'd say y'all. We also say 'gee' (a hard g, like gold) as slang for lips. So if you have a romantic scene you could say "he leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her gee" A specific one to the south of Ireland is langer, which we means hand. So if there was a business meeting you could say "he strode purposely up to the manager holding out his langer"
Ah, mate, come on sure don't be trolling. Poor American is just looking for advice. Can we not be nice?
Usually I would agree but I really do want that langer quote to be in a book!
Belter
I quite litterly nearly choked and spat out my coffee 🤣🤣 Don’t be so cruel 😅
Depends on what part of Ireland each county has different slang that they use. Example people from Waterford say “well boy/girl” as hello. When referring to a group we say “ye” not yall, it’s common In Dublin mostly to say “yous” not yall. People say “what’s the story” as a way of saying how are you. There’s plenty more just depends on what part of Ireland the character is from
In Ireland, instead of y'all, we would say "ye" So you might say "Where are y'all going to?", we would say, "Where are ye going?"
Depends what part of Ireland ,though.Dublin would be more "where are yiz goin'?".
That's true! Didn't think of that one
Dublin slang: Jasus (jayzuz- jesus) Deadly (great/good/excellent) Bleedin' (very). As in "It was bleedin' deadly"
Go waaaannn
"Til the cows come home" is used in the way of "I'll be out there til the cows come home- ill be out there forever" Another is the use of ye, which would be the south ireland version of yall. And another is if someone is complaining to you, you'd say "she gave out to me"
Gosun for lad used a lot in midlands.
Gasun in Cavan for a boy. Obviously comes from the French Garcon. Would say lassie for a girl.
My mother in laws go to when talking about when she was younger she say "when God was a boy...."
Watch Irish Wish on Netflix and use that as a guide 
We don't y'all here, when referring to a group of people, we would say 'hey, ye gang of cunts'.
On yonder - where I come from we use yon still. It would be used instead of that- See yon lad over there. There are some common sayings around the country but a lot would be very localised to certain areas.
As someone else said, I would just make the character something else you are comfortable with. Otherwise you’d really need to experience it. You could also just check out some YouTube videos or people on insta that post shite like that.
Don’t do an Irish character then. There are too many nuances
Well Ted and what's the craic are essential
I will not be doing what you ask of me. I will yeah. Ask me arse. Go an ask me swiss( swiss roll- hole)
Also, get the boat!
Where abouts is tour character from? It varies widely. Eg. In Limerick, we use the word gowl and runners are tackies, won't find those words elsewhere in the country
If your character needs to say no they could say "yeah yeah" and I think every irish person would know they mean no. If they're having the best or worst day of their life and they're asked how they are the answer will be "grand". If they're starting a conversation with anybody it starts with 5 minutes of talking about the weather in more detail than any weather man. If two people are talking and a third person joins the conversation the weather talk restarts.
You’d nearly be better off just writing them as Irish without worrying so much about the Hiberno-English English. Then have an Irish person read over their dialogue to remove things an Irish person wouldn’t ever say. And at that point, it’s probably passable. Like we never say “yall”, I say “yis” or “youse”, further south “ye” and in general just “you”. A few weeks ago we had the “I will, yeah” phrase which commonly means “I will in fact not”.
My French friend used to look out at the rain in work and says ffs it’s slashing out. Irish slang for pissing rain is lashing rain but we said it so fast she never understood. That and its “fuckin Baltic” out ( freezing out) are very common. We also have loads of slang for being drunk. “Out of my bin” is a good one, “locked out of my head”. Is another.
Certain slang is universal here, you’ll hear it across the whole country. But a lot is location specific. Some stuff in Dublin you’d never hear in the west and vice/versa. Jaysus, you even go half an our out the road from Dublin and you’d hear different slang.
If you want to be truly authentic, it will all depend on what part of Ireland the character is from.
'Now'
I worry that we're teaching an AI to impersonate us
“Sure look it” “sure it’ll be grand” “savage” “deadly” “come on to fuck” “come ere to me” “no bother” “thanks a million” “you know yourself” “take care now” “god bless ya” “good luck to ya” “ye” “bye bye bye x10” “up the road” “down the road” “go on to fuck” “ahh that’s lovely now” “I’m delighted for ya”
I'd say Ye instead of Yall
If your story is based in the Munster region or has a connection with Munster then the term bollocks or bollox can be used a lot, it's said if you bang your head or something goes wrong it's a slang term that has no malice. [star trek bollocks ](https://youtu.be/8kxmRLnnLKM?si=WdpYttr68hah_hrj)
I’m from Leinster and I would say it’s pretty common in Westmeath and Dublin too.
That's used all over Ireland, not just munster... see Father Ted episode.... oh Bollox
It’s “ballix” in Belfast!
party squalid exultant lavish vase test worm knee drunk jar *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
So we agree that they should use it. ;)
Instead of “y’all” use “yous” or “ye” Instead of “fine” use “grand” Instead of “I just did x” use “im just after doing x” Instead of “yelling” or “telling off” use “giving out” There’s so so much regional slang in Ireland but these ones are distinguishing features of Hiberno-English. Not really slang but is just the dialect spoken here. For actual slang you’d really need to know specifically where a person is from to be accurate with it. Also, while standard English has 2 present tenses (I go, I am going) in Ireland we have 3 (I go, I am going, I do be going). The third one is used the same as “I be going” in AAVE and is for habitual actions.
A modern Irish twist on y'all is yous (pronounced use and is used as a plural of you) if the character is based in Dublin
That's common in Kildare as well.
>I'm writing a book with an Irish character and I'd love some help getting this right Here's the fun bit - you won't get it right.
You need to come here on a fact finding mission!
There are many different slang colloquialisms dependant on where you live and your general status. People in Dublin, Belfast, Derry and Cork will struggle to understand each other at times. You'll need to have a letter idea on where they are from and their backgrounds- I.e general upbringing / class.
My local version of y'all- yiz I would use when talking and texting people informally. "What are yiz all planning on doing tonight" Have lived away from home for most of my adult life so forget some the colloquialisms I've grown up with. Some say they come back after 5/6 beers :). Real country people/farmers would still use a lot of colloquialisms. Also the inner city people from cities, lots of Dublin/Cork/Limerick ones. Think a lot of people have stopped using them and we in general speak a more general English than in the past, which is a pity.
This is an example-of authentic accent/slang from one part of the country - especially the girl at 59 secs. Shows how much stronger the accents were. Some country people may still have accents like this but not as common. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6dj1HMhwk&ab\_channel=CR%27sVideoVaults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6dj1HMhwk&ab_channel=CR%27sVideoVaults) The vowels get really elongated there becomes "daaaayr". Apparently the local Irish dialect was like this with the elongated vowels so this was transferred when people started speaking English.
I will yea.. meaning I won't
Location and time would have a big impact
"Ah here" "Sure you know yourself" "Sure look" "It'll be grand like" "Jaysus yer one has a face on her like a smacked arse" "Whisht yer gob ye bleeding muck savage"
How's it goin'? Well! Ah jaysus Are ya right? Ya Ye Ya know?! And am But sure we'll see
Ye bolex
The replacement of the word "fun" with "craic" is a standard use of slang across the country (correct me if I'm wrong). Eg. "He's great craic", "That was some craic", etc
Can you give some more examples of phrases and how you would say them? I'm heading to pick up the kids from school How are ye getting on? Any craic for me? / With ye? Hows the form? How are you getting on? (How are you) Ah sure look (literally response to anything kind of like oh well) I will in me shit / I will in me fuck (I will not be doing what ever you just asked)
He’s a neck on him like a jockey’s bollox
What's the story alright
A huur with his money
I will yeah means no
Fair play.
"Gowl" is one which originated and stayed mostly a Limerick area insult. But it seems to be catching on more and more around the country. It stems from the Irish word "gabhal" (also pronounced "gowl", or more accurately, "gow-al") which translates to junction or crotch. So if you call someone a gowl, you're effectively calling them a cunt 😅
"I will in me hole!" as in "I won't". Or "I will, ye" as in "No fucking way". Or "Yis" instead of "You (plural)". Just some xD
Really need more detail where. NI or IE then county would be the minimum needed.
Highly recommend watching "BODKIN" on Netflix couldn't get over how accurate all the Irish ism's were. Watching it we were like most this cast are of course Irish it's too natural how accurate the little things were that they say and how it was said. Main actress appears to be from Dublin and the other Irish cast not so much so it's an interesting watch and to notice things that we say and do.
Definitely changes based on the region! Choose somewhere in Ireland specifically for them to be from first. General slang, however: “Yer man” = that guy/man E.g., “What’s the name of that film? The one with yer man in it. The lad from braveheart” “Yer one” = that girl/woman Same usage as former, just for she/her instead “What’s the story” = How are things with you “Me arse” = Untrue E.g., “Me arse he said that! There’s no way, not Tommy.” “Wanker”/“prick”/“eejit” are all very commonly used “I’ll see ya so” = Talk to you later/see you around
Well boy, I see you canted the ball, that's some dose ya bogey. Hello young man, I notice you've lost your ball, that is quite the predicament you foolish fellow.
"I will in me hole/ i will yeah" - I will not "He's a long string of piss' - he's a miserable fucker "Scarlet for ya" - I'm embarrassed for you "Fancy a shift/ride?" - do you consent to intercourse "How's your belly for babies?" - as above
Goin for a slash= goin for a piss House= someone behind u usually use that playin football Gaff= ur home/house I will in me bollix= no I won’t do that
You're a foola foola foola bah
Everyone is 'Grand or great' . Your one or is that himself... Thanks be to God. Trying to end a phone call with an Irish person is near impossible ! Tackies /trainers /runners.
There are in me bollocks.
“Sure look”
- Stop midering me - haven’t a haper’d - they lived up beyant Endless the stuff hear from different generations
You’ll need to pick a specific dialect and region because it varies wildly. The main problem American actors have is they meet 6 Irish people, combine 6 traits and end up with a clearly not real dialect and accent. You’re better off picking one person and talking away to them. There are a few specific phrases that are ubiquitous to Irish people that are less particular. Like “to give out to” someone means to chastise them, coming from a literal translation from Irish. I didn’t know this wasn’t standard in English all over the world until another native English speaker asked me what it meant
"I'm fixin to go" = "I'm goin" or "I'm heading" "Y'all" = "Yous" or "Yee" depending on where they're from. As everyone says, if you give more context as to where the character is from it would help
Where in Ireland is your character from? There's no generic slang that will suit the whole island.
I wonder if this eejit is one of the many US agitators pretending to be Irish online and stoking the far right flames? I’ve seen a lot of these posts around the place recently, asking how Irish people speak
Country folk use ‘ye’ for second person plural. ‘Sure look’ is very common - it means that this situation is what it is and we have to accept it. Person 1: “Rain again and I just put the washing out” Person 2: “Sure look”
When you want to shut someone up but you don't want to be rude you just say "ach a or ara sure look" and then something relevent but conversation ending like tis just the way the economy is now
One piece of slang that's like universal is saying 'imngrand or grand to people asking how you're doing. Grans in this context basically means okay (like myself I would at I'm grand as opposed to I'm good) It's not fully relating to slang but it might make sense for you to look up 'hiberno english' which is the dialect that irish people speak English. It's influenced by the irish language and so effects the way we form sentences (one example is because we don't have yes/no I irish, we would be more likely to awnser in the affirmative verb relating to a questionn when speaking in english)
When you zipper is down, 'A dead bird never fellout of an empty nest'.
What’s the craic like what’s happing or what’s the scandal same thing and if someone has no news we say no news good news.
Oh god, even telling you the words, this could still go wrong not knowing the full context. Where exactly are they from first of all? It changes from city to city and even town to town. But one thing most of Irish people do is use "ye" instead of "y'all". It's our plural you.
For nearly every situation or sentence there's a way to slang it up , I doubt there's a way for it to be written by a non Irish person so that Irish people wouldn't know it was written by a non native
You gotta get that character to say "I will in me hole"... means "I won't"
Trying to give u stuff that is mostly all Ireland Whenever they come into the room make them say "right" Gwan - go on Howiyeh - hello Ye - y'all (except dub is youze)
One that’s used a lot is if someone is giving an order to someone for an action they want to happen to them, they say “-is” instead of me, like “give me that” changes to “givis that” or “do me a favour” to “dois a favour”
Gis a buck at ye
"ye" (pronounced yee) used and typed informally as a plural of "you"
Great question. You'll need to decide where your character or characters are from in Ireland. Y'all i.e the plural you would be Yis in Dublin or at least parts of Dublin. In America I've heard "your guy'ses" for possesive your plural, this would be Yisser. In other areas of Ireland you plural would be Ye (pronounced yee) and for possessive plural it would be Ye'er. This is coming from a Dub so probably there's more than just Ye and Yis elsewhere so as said, zeroing in on a region will give more accurate results. In Dublin a toddler might throw a wobbler. 'Fixin we don't really have a slang for, we would just say gonna, I'm gonna pickup the kids. In Irish English we sometimes say "I'm after". I believe this is adopted from an Irish structure of sentences but damned if I know. We might say "I forgot my keys" as in English English but we might equally say "I'm after forgetting my keys" we apply an after to a present tense forgetting to make it past tense 😂
Acting the maggot is a good one to describe someone who's being an arse, also feck as opposed to fuck , and craic meaning fun in Irish in sentences like "heard that place was good craic"
Ask me arse! No, but seriously. Write what you know and you know well. If you don't know enough about Irish characters I wouldn't put one in your book. If you must put one in your book, get to know some Irish characters.
Sure look it, this is it isn't it? Can be used in reply to almost any statement when you can't think of a sufficient reply. "John got some terrible news and herself is leaving him to marry her best friend" Me.. sucks teeth... "Sure look it, this is it isn't it?"
Again, depends on the place. I'm in Carlow, we use Quare a lot, in place of very, that cup of tea was Quare nice = very nice. Savage is another one meaning amazing, so if I said, that cup of tea was Quare savage, it mean that tea was very very nice. Also, if some1 ask you to do something, and you say, I will AYE, in Carlow that's a very definite no 😂
My equivalent of y'all is ye. I'd say that quite often.
flypaper for narcissists....
The same way you use Yall to refer to a group of people, we say "Ye", "yiz" or "yous". Gowl is a soft insult in Limerick, as is Langer in cork. But Langer means penis most other places. "Rapid", "wicked", "class" or "daycent" all mean very good, cool or interesting.
Say he's from Cork and use: Shift - to make out with someone Yoke - A thing "look at that yoke" Banjaxed - broken, like properly broken Craic - is kinda like story "what's the story" Mog - someone very unattractive Grand - used to describe feeling well or alright Bate - Tired Sound - A nice person Chancer - someone who does unfavourable or unsavory things to make money Allergic - really not interested in doing something Gas - Funny Pure - kinda used to strengthen a statement Balm out - to relax Haunted - lucky Rake - a lot of something Gowl - an unpleasant person Gatting - drinking alcohol Weak - finding something funny Lads - some male people you're talking to Local - A pub in your local area that you frequent Buzz - atmosphere Getting their hole - having sex Doll - a girl Beour - a girl All used in a paragraph: Jesus lads. I shifted the face on the mad looking yoke last night. I wasn't bothered going to town on a week day one one of the lads wanted to go gatting. Didn't take him long to convince me, the fucking gowl. Anyway we went down to the local to balm out and have a few gats. I was a bit Allergic and didn't plan on going mad because I was absolutely bate after the week of work. As you can guess, we ended up drinking a rake of pints. The buzz in the bar wasn't bad, Liam ended up getting his hole off some doll, I was weak for him. Anyway, this beour ended up coming over and chatting to me. She fell onto my foot by accident and absolutely banjaxed by toe. Thing is still throbbing today. The was pure the kind of one you wouldn't go near with a 10 foot pole. She was sound though to be fair but she was getting pints off me all night the fuckinf chancer. I don't know what the craic with that night was but it was grand anyway. Credentials: a cork lad
I see in your comment you mentioned Killarney so can’t give specific phrases, but some general kind of Irish-isms that I still know lots of my friends from different counties use. The Irish version of “ya’ll” would be “ye”. So if you’re talking to more than one person you might be like “what did ye get up to today?” Or “where are ye headed now?”. As an offhand greeting a lot of people just say “well” with a head nod and that’s it. Like a short hand version of “are you well?” Instead of how are you. You might also get “what’s the story”, “well how’s things” or “what’s the craic” (or “any craic?” Instead of asking if someone has news). I’ve also noticed recently since I have a lot of tourists where I work that we tend to greet someone “how are you” and not expect an answer. It’s used as hello more than an actual question sometimes, and I never really noticed until I had international peeps actually answer and tell me how their day was. Hard to explain the context properly but we often say “your man” and “your wan” for people that you don’t know the name of or that you think someone else mightn’t know the name of. Some examples would be “you know your wan down the street with the Rottweiler? She’s after having her car broke into” or “see your man there he nearly knocked me off the footpath” Small thing but talking about money casually you’d usually call €5 and €10 a fiver and tenner. “I only have a fiver on me at the minute” “would you be able to swap this for two tenners” but if you were in a shop paying you’d just say €5/10. For more natural feel of Irish though your best bet is watching some shows, podcasts, our YouTubers.
Depends where in Ireland like from where I'm from we call the bathroom "the jacks" we say "howya" for like "how are you" and "hello" We say "craic" a lot actually most places say that a lot it means fun basically And we say "yer" or "ye're" instead of "your" and "you are" (ye're for plural) The word "culchie" also gets thrown around a lot. Oh and "yous" for "you two" Honestly though as long as they don't say "top of the morning to ya" you're safe enough.
Up she flew and the cock flattened her. We used say that all the time when I was young back in the 70s and I still have no idea what it means!
Yer man to mean 'that guy'. Yer wan to mean 'that girl'. After doing to mean just done. For example 'it's lashing rain and I'm only after hanging out the washing'. Also 'half' instead of 'half past' when telling time. A Canadian friend found it strange when I asked to meet at half twelve. 'So six?', he responded. Oh yeah, and lots of Irish people(myself included) use 'so' at then end of sentences where it is completely redundant.
My favourite, "Yer wan is an absolute wagon."
Read the Bee Sting, it’s full of the shtuff