Irish/Lesson One

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Lesson 1 — Cad is ainm duit?

Contents 1 Dialogue 2 Hello! 3 What's your name? 4 How are you? 5 How do you spell that? 6 Summary

[edit] Dialogue

Seán: Dia dhuit! Is mise Seán. Cad is ainm duit?

Siobhán: Dia's Muire dhuit. Is mise Siobhán. Conas a litrítear Seán?

Seán: Litrítear S-e-a-fada-n. Conas atá tú?

Siobhán: Go maith, agus tusa?

Seán: Iontach, go raibh maith agat.

Siobhán: Go maith! Slán leat, a Sheáin

Seán: Go dtí amárach.

[edit] Hello!

Béarla	Gaeilge
Hello	Dia dhuit*
Good morning!	Lá breá duit!
Good night!	Oíche mhaith!
See you tomorrow!	Go dtí amárach!
Goodbye	Slán

Notes

• Dia dhuit means literally God be with you, the correct response is Dia's Muire Dhuit (God and Mary be with you). The plural is Dia dhaoibh and Dia's Muire dhaoibh.

Examples

• Dia dhaoibh, a raing.

  Good morning, class!

• Conas atá tú inniu?

  How are you today?

• Slán go fóill!

  Bye, see you soon!

[edit] What's your name?

Asking someone's name in Irish is different from English, the direct translation would be something like 'What name is on you?' 'Cad is ainm duit?' The reply would be (Person's name) is ainm dom, e.g. Seán is ainm dom

'Duit' is the compound form of 'do' (to) and 'tú' (you). The full table is below. You'll notice these are the same forms used in the greeting Dia dhuit/dhaoibh.

Béarla	Gaeilge
to me	dom
to you	duit
to him	dó
to her	di
to us	dúinn
to you (plural)	daoibh
to them	dóibh

Examples

• Cad is ainm duit?

  What's your name

• Peadar is Robárd is ainm dóibh.

  Their names are Peter and Robert.

• Cad is ainm dó

  What's his name?

• Cad is ainm daoibh?

  What's their name?

[edit] How are you?

Béarla	Gaeilge
How are you?	Conas atá tú?
	An bhfuil tú go maith?
Great!	Iontach
Very well	An-mhaith
Well	Go maith
Bad	Go dona
Really bad	Uafásach
And you?	Agus tú féin?
Thank you	Go raibh maith agat

Note

Go raibh maith agat literally translates as May good be upon you.

Examples

• Robárd: Dia dhuit, a Róisín. Conas atá tú?

  Hello, Roisín. How are you?

• Roisín: Go hiontach, go raibh maith agat. Agus tusa, a Robáird?

  Very well, thanks. And you, Robert?

• Robárd: Go maith freisin. Slán leat!

  I'm good too. See you later!

Notes

• When talking to someone directly, an 'a' is put before the name and the name is changed to the vocative case. This will be dealt with in a later lesson.
• When two vowels come together, a 'h' is usually put before the second vowel. In this example, a 'h' was put between 'go' and 'iontach'

[edit] How do you spell that?

Béarla	Gaeilge
How is it spelled?	Conas a litrítear é?
It is spelled...	Litrítear...
B as in Baile Átha Cliath (Dublin)	B mar Baile Átha Cliath

Examples

• Robárd: Dia dhuit. Robárd is ainm dom. Cad is ainm duit?

  Good day. My name is Robert. What's your name?

• Brian: Dia's Muire dhuit. Brian is ainm dom. Conas a litrítear Robárd?

  Hello. My name is Brian. How do you spell Robert?

• Robárd: Litrítear é mar seo, R (mar Rothar); O (mar Oráiste); B (mar Baile Átha Cliath); A fada (mar Árainn); R (mar Rothar); D (mar Duine).

  It's spelt R (as in Rothar(Bike)); O (as in Oráiste(Orange)); B (as in Baile Átha Cliath(Dublin)); A fada (as in Árainn(Aran, islands off the west coast of Ireland)); R (as in Rothar); D (as in Duine(person)).

• Brian: go raibh míle maith agat. Slán, a Robáird!

  Thanks alot. Goodbye, Robert.

Irish only has one accent mark, the acute accent, called a síneadh fada(long mark) or fada for short.

[edit] Summary

In this lesson, you have learned

• How to greet people (Dia dhuit; Conas atá tú; Slán).
• How to introduce yourself (Roisín is ainm dom).
• How to introduce others (Robárd is ainm dó).
• How to say how you are (Go hiontach; go dona; go maith).
• How to spell your name (Litrítear P-E-T-E-R).
• How to ask others about any of the above (Cad is ainm duit?; An bhfuil tú go maith; Conas a litrítear é?).

Irish has one accent, the fada, and - only in the obsolete type - the buailte or séímhiú, which is a dot on top of consonants. For example, a dot on top of the letter b converts the b sound to a v sound. Current writers of the language are too lazy or ignorant to use a keyboard format that has the real characters with the dots. So the b with the dot on top is written bh, etc. It has been over 50 years since I used this language and I hope to get back in touch with it soon --- and with the correct keyboard format :-) The buailte was pronounced bool-che.