Learn IRISH slang, vocabulary, and expressions

103,907 views ・ 2018-03-17

English Jade


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Hello, there. Welcome to the lesson. Today's lesson is an Irish lesson and we're going
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to learn to speak like Irish people. We're going to learn some expressions that they
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use over in Ireland and also some slang. And sometimes I'm going to speak like an Irish...
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Irish clover, not like a real Irish person, but how the clovers over speak there over
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in Ireland. Okay? So, when you want to begin a conversation, you could say: "What's the
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craic? What's the craic?" That means: "What's going on?" or "What's the gossip?" A similar
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phrase is: "What's the sto-...? What's the story? What's the story?" That means: "Hello."
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You can just... Instead of saying: "How are you?" you just go up to them and say: "What's
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the story?" it means, like that.
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Next, our exclamations. Irish is a very... Irish... The character of Irish people, there's
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so much humour in it that there are so many exclamations that sound very Irish that you
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can... That you can use. Some of them are cliches, and I don't think Irish people
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say them all the time. For example: "Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Oh, bejesus!" We
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can say that if we're surprised, or we want to emphasize something. But this is an Irish
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ism, it doesn't mean they say it all the time, and the same with: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
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Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" If we say that, this is like a stereotypical Irish phrase.
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And maybe the case... Maybe the whole section here is stereotypical phrases that really
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brings out the Irish character.
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"Away wit ya! Away with ya! Go away with ya!" That means go... It actually means: "Go away.
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Go away, you", but we would use that if you... It would be used if you don't believe something.
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If you don't... If you don't believe what the Irish clover is saying, you can say: "Away
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with ya! Away with ya!" And if you wanted... If you thought somebody had done something
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that was offensive or they acted a bit rude or something, you could say: "Oh, the cheek
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of it! The absolute cheek of it!" That's to show that you're mildly offended about something.
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Now, this is a Irish phrase that, unlike the other ones isn't stereotypical. This is one
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that's apparently used now. So it's newer... It's like how the language is evolving and
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it's a newer kind of expression. If you don't believe what somebody is saying, you think
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they're being, you know, they're sort of having a joke with you, you don't quite believe them
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100% and you may also use this expression if you want the other person to laugh, you
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can say: "Get out of that garden! Get outta that garden!" And it's just a way of saying...
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It's a very similar meaning to: "Away with ya!" but a different phrase.
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Now we've got more phrases, here. For example, if you say: "Fair play to ya. Fair play to
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ya. Fair play to ya", that means: "Well done." If you think somebody did some... Perhaps
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something good happened to someone in their life, maybe they got a new job, you could
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say: "Fair play to ya", it means: "Well done."
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Irish people are famous for saying: "That's grand. Oh, that's grand." And it means...
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Well, as an English person if you look at the phrase, you'd think "grand" means something
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really good, like, brilliant or fantastic, but actually in the Irish use it just means
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"fine". It's not, like, the most emphatic, enthusiastic. It just means fine. So, if you
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think something's find or good, you can say: "That's grand. Aye, that's grand."
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Here's a figure of speech. Whereas over in England people will often say at the end of
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a sentence: "Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?" in Ireland, they add "like"
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on the end, so they say: "Do you know what I mean, like? Do you know what I mean, like?"
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The Irish clover says something, and wants you to agree, will say: "Do you know what
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I mean, like?"
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The next, many Irish people are known for having the "gift of the gab". Oh, let's say
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in terms of the whole world's people, the Irish... The Irish people are known for having
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the gift of the gab, and that means that they're very good at speaking, very charming when
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they're speaking. And often when somebody has the gift of the gab then you always want
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to believe them as well. So, Irish clovers have the gift of the gab, you see? They do.
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Now, if an Irish person is not very happy with you and they want to swear, they might
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say: "Yer full of sihte! Yer full of shite, you are". "Shite", well, you can guess what
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that means. And you can say that when you think somebody's lying. "Oh, I don't believe
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you", but it's much... It's much stronger than saying: "Away with ya!" When you say:
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"Yer full of shite", you really mean it.
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And you can also use this expression: "Yer bang on! Yer bang on!" when you agree. When
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you really strongly agree, you can say: "Yer bang on!" So, we have more expressions and
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Irish words coming.
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Hello, guys. Did you know that flowers also have different Irish accents? They can speak
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in lower voices as well, so I'm going to try and... My other flower voice. Okay? So we're
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going to look at words for people that they use in Ireland. In Ireland they say: "oul
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fella", "oul fella", that's your father. You refer to him as your "oul fella". And your
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"oul wan", "oul wan", that's your mother. Oul wan. A "young fella" means young man.
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A "young wan" means young woman. A "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby",
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"babby" means baby.
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"Mot", "mot" means your girlfriend. "Yer man", "yer wan" means: your man, your woman. These
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are what you would call your husband or boyfriend. That... See, your husband... Your husband
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or your boyfriend would be "yer man", and "yer wan" would be your wife or your girlfriend.
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Girlfriend. So, yeah, these... You use those terms if you're in a relationship with someone.
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Then we've got: "me oul' segotia", me old flower, and that's an expression that you
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would use as a term of endearment to someone. If you met your Irish friend that was very
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dear to you and you like them a lot, you could say: "Me oul' segotia", "me oul' shay-go-shia,"
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"me oul' segotia". I've never actually heard an Irish person say it, so that's my... According
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to the internet. Let me know in the comments how my pronunciation was.
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Okay, so now we're going to look at the Irish insults, and I'm going to reveal them here.
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So, everybody knows that in Ireland they like the swearing a lot. And we've got some very...
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We've got some good insults. It's all slang here, so some of them are a bit rude. We'll
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start with: "eejit". "What an eejit you are. You're a complete and utter eejit". "Eejit"
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means idiot. It's not a very strong swear word. I think it's used a lot over in Ireland.
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If someone is a "gobshite"... "You are a gobshite, you. You are a gobshite", that means that
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they talk nonsense. "Gob" is mouth, "shite", you know what that means, you put it together,
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your mouth is talking - mm-hmm. It's rude. "Langer" means annoying, annoying person.
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But "langer" also means penis, so that's quite an offensive word, strong word.
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A "chancer" is someone who... They do... They do a lot of things, maybe they're not always
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100% legal and they take a lot of risks and chances, but they would always get away with
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it from the police or something like that. That person's a... That person's a chancer.
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"Oh, you chancer." And the last word here is: "wagon". "Wagon", "wagon" means ugly woman
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or a difficult kind of woman. So, if there's a woman that... Perhaps you would call the
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teacher at school you didn't like a lot, you'd call her a wagon. "Oh, she's a wagon. Never
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mind her, she's a wagon."
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Now, in Ireland... It's a cliche, but over in Ireland they like to have a pint of the
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"black stuff" now and then. You know, a good old pint of Guinness in the pub. Drinking
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is part of Irish culture, so let's learn some words for drinking in Ireland. First of all,
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instead of saying: "Cheers" and then drinking, they say: "Slainte! Slainte! Slainte. Slainte.
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Slainte. Slainte. Slainte."
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If you're very drunk, you say: "banjaxed. Absolutely banjaxed". And if you're "plastered",
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it means the same thing, you drank too much. If you're going out for an evening of drinking
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and you're probably going to get banjaxed or plastered, you would say: "Tonight... Oh,
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we're going out on the lash. We're going out on the lash tonight. You coming? You going
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to come for a few drinks? We're going out on the lash."
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If you're in the pub and you want to know where the toilets are, that's when you say:
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"Where's the Jacks?" Jacks. "Jacks" means toilets in slang. "Jacks" is slang for toilets
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in Ireland. "Black stuff", I already mentioned, it's Irish... It's Ireland's favourite and
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famous drink, Guinness, the black stuff. And when you've drank too much black stuff, that's
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when you're "two sheets to the wind. Two sheets to the wind. You're absolutely banjaxed."
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Very... You're very drunk when you get two sheets to the wind.
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So, thank you everyone for watching my Irish lesson from the Irish flower, the Irish clover,
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me oul' segotia. Thank you for watching. And now can you do the quiz? Do the quiz for us
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now and I'll see you again soon. Bye.
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