April 2, 2019 | 0 comments

I had the pleasure of living in Dublin for about two years: it’s a beautiful, friendly city. Ireland as a whole is a fantastic country, full of breathtaking landscapes and lovely small towns waiting to be discovered. While travelling to Ireland certainly doesn’t require learning the Irish language (in fact, Irish Gaelic is spoken by very few people nowadays), there is plenty of words and idioms that are peculiar to Irish English.

If you are planning a trip to Ireland, and even more so if you are going to move there, it might be helpful to get a primer about some expressions that, albeit commonly used in Irish English, would likely be unfamiliar to even non-Irish English native speakers.

Most Irish people would agree that the pub would be a good starting point for our linguistic journey, so let’s start from there 🙂

Irish English in Baile Áth Cliath: Temple Bar

A pint of the “black stuff”

Enter any pub worth of its name, ask for “a pint of the black stuff” and you’ll get a pint of Guinness, arguably Ireland’s most famous export.

What’s the “craic”?

Firs time I heard that, I had absolutely no clue what to answer, so I just tentatively smiled. Akin to “what’s up?”, this expression is a fairly common way to say hi, and/or asking how things are.

I have to go to “the jacks”

While people will understand if you ask where the restroom is, in common slang it’s referred to as “the jacks”.

“A whale of a time”

An idiomatic way of saying “a great time”. Very appropriate after a fun night out.

Always ask for a lift, never a ride

While anywhere else it would be totally fine to ask  someone to give you a ride back home, the Irish English way to ask that is “Can you give me a lift?”. In fact, a “ride” in common slang has a totally different meaning (sexual intercourse), so asking that will most likely get you an embarrassed look, or a knowing snigger 🙂

Put everything in the boot

As you can imagine, that’s not an exhortation to stuff all the shopping in your footwear… Boot is just the way the trunk of the car is commonly called in Irish English.

Ossified

Had a bit too much of the “black stuff”? If you are feeling drunk, then you are ossified.

“I’m grand”

Grand in Irish English can be used as the equivalent of fine. So it’s fairly common to answer “I’m grand” if someone asks how you have been. This is quite different from common usage in British English, where the adjective is mostly used to describe imposing architectural features, and grand as a noun denotes a thousand pounds.

We hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to Irish English most common expressions. If you are now itching to visit Ireland, but you think your English could use some improvement before the trip, why not get a little help from our our qualified teachers? At ESO we offer tailored classes to help you improve your conversational and writing skills, as well as exam preparation courses. So book your trial lesson now, you won’t be disappointed.

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