Learn IRISH slang, vocabulary, and expressions

103,658 views ・ 2018-03-17

English Jade


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hello, there. Welcome to the lesson. Today's lesson is an Irish lesson and we're going
0
399
4481
00:04
to learn to speak like Irish people. We're going to learn some expressions that they
1
4880
5321
00:10
use over in Ireland and also some slang. And sometimes I'm going to speak like an Irish...
2
10201
5659
00:15
Irish clover, not like a real Irish person, but how the clovers over speak there over
3
15860
6150
00:22
in Ireland. Okay? So, when you want to begin a conversation, you could say: "What's the
4
22010
7540
00:29
craic? What's the craic?" That means: "What's going on?" or "What's the gossip?" A similar
5
29550
6970
00:36
phrase is: "What's the sto-...? What's the story? What's the story?" That means: "Hello."
6
36520
7170
00:43
You can just... Instead of saying: "How are you?" you just go up to them and say: "What's
7
43690
5700
00:49
the story?" it means, like that.
8
49390
3190
00:52
Next, our exclamations. Irish is a very... Irish... The character of Irish people, there's
9
52580
9220
01:01
so much humour in it that there are so many exclamations that sound very Irish that you
10
61800
9100
01:10
can... That you can use. Some of them are cliches, and I don't think Irish people
11
70900
7240
01:18
say them all the time. For example: "Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Oh, bejesus!" We
12
78140
8810
01:26
can say that if we're surprised, or we want to emphasize something. But this is an Irish
13
86950
6240
01:33
ism, it doesn't mean they say it all the time, and the same with: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
14
93190
5890
01:39
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" If we say that, this is like a stereotypical Irish phrase.
15
99080
9060
01:48
And maybe the case... Maybe the whole section here is stereotypical phrases that really
16
108140
6440
01:54
brings out the Irish character.
17
114580
1310
01:55
"Away wit ya! Away with ya! Go away with ya!" That means go... It actually means: "Go away.
18
115890
8060
02:03
Go away, you", but we would use that if you... It would be used if you don't believe something.
19
123950
7429
02:11
If you don't... If you don't believe what the Irish clover is saying, you can say: "Away
20
131379
5310
02:16
with ya! Away with ya!" And if you wanted... If you thought somebody had done something
21
136689
7291
02:23
that was offensive or they acted a bit rude or something, you could say: "Oh, the cheek
22
143980
6399
02:30
of it! The absolute cheek of it!" That's to show that you're mildly offended about something.
23
150379
7901
02:38
Now, this is a Irish phrase that, unlike the other ones isn't stereotypical. This is one
24
158280
10929
02:49
that's apparently used now. So it's newer... It's like how the language is evolving and
25
169209
9750
02:58
it's a newer kind of expression. If you don't believe what somebody is saying, you think
26
178959
6401
03:05
they're being, you know, they're sort of having a joke with you, you don't quite believe them
27
185360
3249
03:08
100% and you may also use this expression if you want the other person to laugh, you
28
188609
9020
03:17
can say: "Get out of that garden! Get outta that garden!" And it's just a way of saying...
29
197629
7290
03:24
It's a very similar meaning to: "Away with ya!" but a different phrase.
30
204919
7020
03:31
Now we've got more phrases, here. For example, if you say: "Fair play to ya. Fair play to
31
211939
10630
03:42
ya. Fair play to ya", that means: "Well done." If you think somebody did some... Perhaps
32
222569
9040
03:51
something good happened to someone in their life, maybe they got a new job, you could
33
231609
6450
03:58
say: "Fair play to ya", it means: "Well done."
34
238059
3481
04:01
Irish people are famous for saying: "That's grand. Oh, that's grand." And it means...
35
241540
6959
04:08
Well, as an English person if you look at the phrase, you'd think "grand" means something
36
248499
5140
04:13
really good, like, brilliant or fantastic, but actually in the Irish use it just means
37
253639
8361
04:22
"fine". It's not, like, the most emphatic, enthusiastic. It just means fine. So, if you
38
262000
8259
04:30
think something's find or good, you can say: "That's grand. Aye, that's grand."
39
270259
3750
04:34
Here's a figure of speech. Whereas over in England people will often say at the end of
40
274009
9751
04:43
a sentence: "Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?" in Ireland, they add "like"
41
283760
5640
04:49
on the end, so they say: "Do you know what I mean, like? Do you know what I mean, like?"
42
289400
5799
04:55
The Irish clover says something, and wants you to agree, will say: "Do you know what
43
295199
5220
05:00
I mean, like?"
44
300419
3500
05:03
The next, many Irish people are known for having the "gift of the gab". Oh, let's say
45
303919
7340
05:11
in terms of the whole world's people, the Irish... The Irish people are known for having
46
311259
4291
05:15
the gift of the gab, and that means that they're very good at speaking, very charming when
47
315550
7310
05:22
they're speaking. And often when somebody has the gift of the gab then you always want
48
322860
5820
05:28
to believe them as well. So, Irish clovers have the gift of the gab, you see? They do.
49
328680
5709
05:34
Now, if an Irish person is not very happy with you and they want to swear, they might
50
334389
6481
05:40
say: "Yer full of sihte! Yer full of shite, you are". "Shite", well, you can guess what
51
340870
7260
05:48
that means. And you can say that when you think somebody's lying. "Oh, I don't believe
52
348130
6849
05:54
you", but it's much... It's much stronger than saying: "Away with ya!" When you say:
53
354979
5081
06:00
"Yer full of shite", you really mean it.
54
360060
4800
06:04
And you can also use this expression: "Yer bang on! Yer bang on!" when you agree. When
55
364860
7299
06:12
you really strongly agree, you can say: "Yer bang on!" So, we have more expressions and
56
372159
5021
06:17
Irish words coming.
57
377180
1269
06:18
Hello, guys. Did you know that flowers also have different Irish accents? They can speak
58
378449
5840
06:24
in lower voices as well, so I'm going to try and... My other flower voice. Okay? So we're
59
384289
6701
06:30
going to look at words for people that they use in Ireland. In Ireland they say: "oul
60
390990
7049
06:38
fella", "oul fella", that's your father. You refer to him as your "oul fella". And your
61
398039
7630
06:45
"oul wan", "oul wan", that's your mother. Oul wan. A "young fella" means young man.
62
405669
8641
06:54
A "young wan" means young woman. A "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby",
63
414310
9990
07:04
"babby" means baby.
64
424300
2010
07:06
"Mot", "mot" means your girlfriend. "Yer man", "yer wan" means: your man, your woman. These
65
426310
11800
07:18
are what you would call your husband or boyfriend. That... See, your husband... Your husband
66
438110
8079
07:26
or your boyfriend would be "yer man", and "yer wan" would be your wife or your girlfriend.
67
446189
9231
07:35
Girlfriend. So, yeah, these... You use those terms if you're in a relationship with someone.
68
455420
6989
07:42
Then we've got: "me oul' segotia", me old flower, and that's an expression that you
69
462409
9461
07:51
would use as a term of endearment to someone. If you met your Irish friend that was very
70
471870
6170
07:58
dear to you and you like them a lot, you could say: "Me oul' segotia", "me oul' shay-go-shia,"
71
478040
8369
08:06
"me oul' segotia". I've never actually heard an Irish person say it, so that's my... According
72
486409
6480
08:12
to the internet. Let me know in the comments how my pronunciation was.
73
492889
4210
08:17
Okay, so now we're going to look at the Irish insults, and I'm going to reveal them here.
74
497099
8411
08:25
So, everybody knows that in Ireland they like the swearing a lot. And we've got some very...
75
505510
7290
08:32
We've got some good insults. It's all slang here, so some of them are a bit rude. We'll
76
512800
7900
08:40
start with: "eejit". "What an eejit you are. You're a complete and utter eejit". "Eejit"
77
520700
8220
08:48
means idiot. It's not a very strong swear word. I think it's used a lot over in Ireland.
78
528920
8020
08:56
If someone is a "gobshite"... "You are a gobshite, you. You are a gobshite", that means that
79
536940
6300
09:03
they talk nonsense. "Gob" is mouth, "shite", you know what that means, you put it together,
80
543240
8650
09:11
your mouth is talking - mm-hmm. It's rude. "Langer" means annoying, annoying person.
81
551890
9050
09:20
But "langer" also means penis, so that's quite an offensive word, strong word.
82
560940
6380
09:27
A "chancer" is someone who... They do... They do a lot of things, maybe they're not always
83
567320
12180
09:39
100% legal and they take a lot of risks and chances, but they would always get away with
84
579500
7030
09:46
it from the police or something like that. That person's a... That person's a chancer.
85
586530
4580
09:51
"Oh, you chancer." And the last word here is: "wagon". "Wagon", "wagon" means ugly woman
86
591110
8130
09:59
or a difficult kind of woman. So, if there's a woman that... Perhaps you would call the
87
599240
10380
10:09
teacher at school you didn't like a lot, you'd call her a wagon. "Oh, she's a wagon. Never
88
609620
5980
10:15
mind her, she's a wagon."
89
615600
1110
10:16
Now, in Ireland... It's a cliche, but over in Ireland they like to have a pint of the
90
616710
8840
10:25
"black stuff" now and then. You know, a good old pint of Guinness in the pub. Drinking
91
625550
5561
10:31
is part of Irish culture, so let's learn some words for drinking in Ireland. First of all,
92
631111
7499
10:38
instead of saying: "Cheers" and then drinking, they say: "Slainte! Slainte! Slainte. Slainte.
93
638610
9010
10:47
Slainte. Slainte. Slainte."
94
647620
3860
10:51
If you're very drunk, you say: "banjaxed. Absolutely banjaxed". And if you're "plastered",
95
651480
7950
10:59
it means the same thing, you drank too much. If you're going out for an evening of drinking
96
659430
7830
11:07
and you're probably going to get banjaxed or plastered, you would say: "Tonight... Oh,
97
667260
8120
11:15
we're going out on the lash. We're going out on the lash tonight. You coming? You going
98
675380
3380
11:18
to come for a few drinks? We're going out on the lash."
99
678760
3860
11:22
If you're in the pub and you want to know where the toilets are, that's when you say:
100
682620
5890
11:28
"Where's the Jacks?" Jacks. "Jacks" means toilets in slang. "Jacks" is slang for toilets
101
688510
7650
11:36
in Ireland. "Black stuff", I already mentioned, it's Irish... It's Ireland's favourite and
102
696160
6370
11:42
famous drink, Guinness, the black stuff. And when you've drank too much black stuff, that's
103
702530
7731
11:50
when you're "two sheets to the wind. Two sheets to the wind. You're absolutely banjaxed."
104
710261
6309
11:56
Very... You're very drunk when you get two sheets to the wind.
105
716570
4080
12:00
So, thank you everyone for watching my Irish lesson from the Irish flower, the Irish clover,
106
720650
7350
12:08
me oul' segotia. Thank you for watching. And now can you do the quiz? Do the quiz for us
107
728000
4480
12:12
now and I'll see you again soon. Bye.
108
732480
2620
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7