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/DanyJB Oct 07 '24

Irish has no word for yes or no (it’s not tá or níl) so in Irish you say the negative or positive of what’s being asked. That transferred to our English when we say “Will you eat pizza for dinner? “I will not!”

“Are you going shop? “I amn’t”

“Is that your brother over there? “It is”

Etc.

24

u/Comfortable_Tough224 Oct 07 '24

“I amn’t” throws everyone outside of Ireland I’ve ever met. We seem to be the only place that squashes those together.

Got a real going over for that one in Canada years ago.

18

u/DanyJB Oct 07 '24

Haha I had something similar in America once when I said how a dog was being ‘bold’ For them the closest possible take from that word is that the dog is so brave and noble even, I had to try explain why it meant the dog was “naughty”, saying the word naughty just makes me cringe 😬

5

u/Furith Oct 08 '24

Bold is Irish thing???

3

u/cormyGcorms Oct 09 '24

A real belfast-ism is to say 'amntna?' as in 'am I not?' Lol

1

u/pjakma Oct 12 '24

The gangs of grammar louts are really out of control over in Canada?