The Irish language: a beginner's guide

You meet the language before you hear it. Every road sign in Ireland is bilingual, Irish first: Baile Átha Cliath for Dublin, Corcaigh for Cork, Gaillimh for Galway. In the Gaeltacht districts of the west the English drops away altogether. Irish (Gaeilge) is a Celtic language, a cousin of Scottish Gaelic and Manx, spoken on this island for more than two thousand years, the first official language of the State, and taught in every school in the country.

Where Irish is spoken every day

The Gaeltacht is a scatter of districts, most of them along the Atlantic coast, where Irish stayed the language of the house and the street. Road signs inside them are in Irish only. The districts: Conamara and the Aran Islands in County Galway (the largest); Gaoth Dobhair and Na Rosa in County Donegal (Ulster Irish); Corca Dhuibhne in County Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula west of Dingle town; around Lough Mask, the Erris coast and Acaill in County Mayo; Múscraí and Oileán Chléire (Cape Clear) in County Cork; An Rinn in County Waterford; and Ráth Cairn and Baile Ghib in County Meath, settled by Conamara families in the 1930s.

In Census 2022, 1,873,997 people aged three and over said they could speak Irish, 40% of everyone who answered the question. Of those, 71,968 spoke it daily, and around 473,000 said they never speak it at all. Inside the Gaeltacht itself, 65,156 people could speak it and 20,261 used it daily. (Figures: Census 2022, Central Statistics Office.)

Saying it: how the sounds work

Irish uses 18 letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u; j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z appear only in borrowed words. The accent on a vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú) is the síneadh fada, the long mark: sean means old (say "shan") while Seán is the name (say "shawn"). Consonants come broad (beside a, o, u) or slender (beside e, i), kept apart by the rule caol le caol, leathan le leathan: slender with slender, broad with broad. Words change their first letter: bean, a woman (say "ban"), becomes an bhean, the woman (say "un van"). Sentences open with the verb: Tá mé go maith starts with tá, "is".

Your first phrases

Dia duit (say "DEE-a gwitch"): hello, at any hour; it means "God to you". The reply is Dia is Muire duit (say "DEE-a iss MWIR-a gwitch"): "God and Mary to you". Conas atá tú? (say "KUN-as a-TAW too"): how are you? Tá mé go maith (say "TAW may guh MAH"): I am well. Go raibh maith agat (say "guh REV MAH UG-ut"): thank you, literally "may there be good at you". Le do thoil (say "leh duh HULL"): please. Fáilte (say "FAWL-cha"): welcome; céad míle fáilte is "a hundred thousand welcomes". Sláinte (say "SLAWN-cha"): the toast, "health". Slán (say "SLAWN"): goodbye, word for word "safe"; slán go fóill is "bye for now". Respellings are approximations in a southern sound; Teanglann.ie plays any word free in the three dialects.

Practise it: your first 35 words

The page carries two practice activities: flashcards you flip between the Irish word and its English meaning, and a matching game. The words are the ones Irish children start with. Numbers (counting forms): a haon (one), a dó (two), a trí (three), a ceathair (four), a cúig (five), a sé (six), a seacht (seven), a hocht (eight), a naoi (nine), a deich (ten). Colours: dearg (red), gorm (blue), glas (green), buí (yellow), dubh (black), bán (white), donn (brown), corcra (purple), bándearg (pink), oráiste (orange). Family: máthair (mother), athair (father), deartháir (brother), deirfiúr (sister). Everyday words: cara (friend), teach (house), madra (dog), cat (cat), uisce (water), arán (bread), grian (sun), báisteach (rain), farraige (sea), maidin (morning), oíche (night). Every word checked against the Ó Dónaill dictionary on Teanglann.ie.

How a beginner actually starts

Teanglann.ie: Foras na Gaeilge's free dictionary site, with grammar and recorded pronunciations. Duolingo's Irish course: the free app, ten minutes a day. Bitesize Irish: short structured lessons with native-speaker audio, built for adult learners and the diaspora by Eoin Ó Conchúir in Limerick. Dublin City University runs free Irish courses on FutureLearn, from absolute beginner upwards. TG4, the Irish-language television station, streams free worldwide with English subtitles on most programmes. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta is the Gaeltacht's own radio station: leave it on and the words start to surface.

The honest part: what surprises English speakers

Irish spelling is more regular than English: once the letter groups make sense, a sign can be read aloud and landed close. There are no words for yes and no: you answer with the verb, so "An dtuigeann tú?" (do you understand?) is answered "Tuigim" or "Ní thuigim". There is no verb to have: tá leabhar agam is "a book is at me". And school Irish and spoken Irish are cousins, not twins. None of it makes Irish unusually hard; it makes it different along a few clear lines. Three phrases are enough to start: Dia duit, go raibh maith agat, slán.

For the English half of the conversation, see Irish words & expressions: craic, grand, deadly, sound, and the place names that trip everyone up.

Sources: Census 2022 (Central Statistics Office, Profile 8); Gaeltacht districts per Údarás na Gaeltachta; pronunciations cross-checked against Teanglann.ie (Foras na Gaeilge).