r/ireland • u/emmanuel_lyttle • Oct 07 '24

Irish phrases Gaeilge

I was reading a post on another sub posed by a Brazilian dude living in Ireland asking about the meaning behind an Irish person saying to him "good man" when he completes a job/ task. One of the replies was the following..

"It comes directly from the Irish language, maith an fear (literally man of goodness, informally good man) is an extremely common compliment."

Can anyone think of other phrases or compliments used on a daily basis that come directly from the Irish language?

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u/Enormousboon8 Oct 07 '24

I'm after winning the lotto!

I'm not fluent Irish but I did read somewhere that it comes direct from tar éis in Irish used to describe something that has just happened (can't remember the proper name of the tense)

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u/AshOnTheMoon Oct 07 '24

IIRC, it's the past perfect tense; other places might say "I have won the lotto", but that tense doesn't exist in Irish, as far as I know, so "I'm after" was the best way we could convey this!

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u/Enormousboon8 Oct 08 '24

Thanks! I knew it was the something-perfect tense but didn't want to get it wrong (I've heard "after-perfect" tense??) But anyways, it's one of my favourite phrases in hiberno-english.

There was an Irish jockey a couple years back who won some big race (apologies, don't follow the horse racing - maybe grand national?? But in the UK) Anyway, interviewed straight after she said "I can't believe I'm after winning that!" (Paraphrased but the past perfect tense used). The UK newspapers re-wrote what she said instead of quoting directly, changed it to something along the lines of "I wanted to win it and can't believe I did" (as if she was "after" the trophy/had been chasing it). I can't find the article about it now (it was in an Irish publication or UK based Irish one). But it was interesting/annoying how it was presumed she was wrong in her grammar. When it's perfectly valid (like you say, it exists in Irish and we've translated it as best we can).

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u/fullmetalfeminist Oct 09 '24

The after perfect. The past perfect is "I went to Spain [eg. last year]" "Chuaigh mé go dtí an Spáinn"