ok so in an effort to speak more Irish in my day-to-day life despite having nobody to speak it with, I've made a list of phrases that I say often that I could very easily sub for the Irish version.
some of these wouldn't be as possible to do in direct interpersonal conversations, but in just general public I feel like it wouldn't be that hard because it's not like people are caught up in the details of phrases like this anyway (ex. if I'm walking through a crowd nobody is going to realize I'm saying "gabh mo leithscéal" instead of "excuse me")
also most of these are also just things that I say to myself under my breath, so it's largely just a goal of rewiring my brain in parts
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"What time is it?" -> "Cén t-am é?" (just when saying it to myself, I say it to myself whenever I look at my watch so it's easy)
"Where is it?" -> "Cá bhfuil sí?" (I don't know enough vocab to be able to on-the-fly translate if something in feminine or masculine, so we're just gonna go with sí whenever I'm wandering around my house looking for something)
"Where is my phone?" -> "Cá bhfuil sé mo ghuthán?"
"Excuse me" -> "Gabh mo leithscéal"
"Thank you" -> "Go raibh maith agat"
"Hello" -> "Dia duit" (might be harder because you're usually saying this to get someone's attention, but in a crowd could be fine)
"Alas" OR "But alas" -> "Faraor" OR "Ach faraor" (literally named my blog this because I tag this on the end of statements all. the. time. might as well start doing so in Irish)
"Whatever" -> "Cibé rud" (I also say this a lot as a way to end sentences)
"Jesus Christ!" -> "Íosa Críost!" (this is specifically as an informal interjection, not in an actual religious way)
"Shit/Fuck/Damn" -> "Damnú" (Irish doesn't have many actual swear words that aren't Béarlachas from what I could find, this seems to be used as kind of a catch-all? Please let me know if I'm wrong though because I swear PLENTY in English)
"Bless you" -> "Dia leat"
“Excellent” -> “Go hiontach”
I'll update if I find any more that I can slip into daily dialogue! and please feel free to let me know if you know of any other ones that would fit into this category, because I'm really trying to use more Irish in my daily life.
Are you actually learning Italian now? How is that going? :) Hope you are well, would love an update as to how you are doing and how the tutoring is going!
Thanks for your message, anon! I started learning Italian with Mirko @langsandlit during the quarantine. I feel like I've already learnt a lot in regards to basic sentence structure, tenses and pronunciation, but I've got to put in more time between lessons to review the material (i.e. I need to actually start studying and doing the homework). Luckily Mirko's a patient teacher who can spot and explain my mistakes in a way that's clear and helps me progress.
Apart from learning Italian, I've also been working on levelling up my Irish skills to the B1 level since last spring. I'm enrolled in an A2+ course at the moment and will hopefully have finished my quarantine project before long. (:
dia duit! I've decided I'm going to start trying to journal in Irish when I have the time, because I studied it all through college but I'm post-grad now and have no involvement with the Irish language where I am anymore. So I figured I'd just post them here for fun! If anything is wrong PLEASE let me know, like I said I'm a student so I don't really know what I'm doing right now (but please be nice <3).
I'm using Teanglann and Focloir, as well as my physical Irish dictionary, but occasionally I did have to resort to Google Translate because respectfully I cannot stand the UI of either of the Irish dictionary websites.
Most of this entry is just me bitching, tbh. Oops. I love this language and I think it's beautiful and also so so important but GOD is it frustratingly complex to try and learn with English as my first language.
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Tá cúpla focal agam, níl mé an-mhaith sa naGaeilge. Cé acu ar mire, mar tá má ag staidéar le trí bliana nó mar sin, anois. Tá frustrachas mór ag saint leis. Nó, is crá croí ceart é, cé acu (atá?) fíor freisin. Ba bhreá liom da íoslódáil gach teanga riamh m'inchinn. Faror. Leanimuid ar aghaidh. Go leor ag gearán.
(Fuair mé díreach an frása "ní beo í sin ach ag clamhsán," cé acu Focloir deir ciallaíonn "she specializes in complaining," ach an litriúil aistriúchán a "that's not alive, but screaming" cé acu rinne mé gáire).
Tá cúig nóiméad agam, ansin stopfaimid don lón. Beidh ceapaire agam, nó macarón cáise. Is brá liom macarón cáise.
Níl son cheann de seo infheidhme i nGaeilge, ach cibé rud. Tá sé in am lóin.
