Hello, there. Welcome to the lesson. Today's lesson is an Irish lesson and we're going
to learn to speak like Irish people. We're going to learn some expressions that they
use over in Ireland and also some slang. And sometimes I'm going to speak like an Irish...
Irish clover, not like a real Irish person, but how the clovers over speak there over
in Ireland. Okay? So, when you want to begin a conversation, you could say: "What's the
craic? What's the craic?" That means: "What's going on?" or "What's the gossip?" A similar
phrase is: "What's the sto-...? What's the story? What's the story?" That means: "Hello."
You can just... Instead of saying: "How are you?" you just go up to them and say: "What's
the story?" it means, like that.
Next, our exclamations. Irish is a very... Irish... The character of Irish people, there's
so much humour in it that there are so many exclamations that sound very Irish that you
can... That you can use. Some of them are cliches, and I don't think Irish people
say them all the time. For example: "Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Oh, bejesus!" We
can say that if we're surprised, or we want to emphasize something. But this is an Irish
ism, it doesn't mean they say it all the time, and the same with: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" If we say that, this is like a stereotypical Irish phrase.
And maybe the case... Maybe the whole section here is stereotypical phrases that really
brings out the Irish character.
"Away wit ya! Away with ya! Go away with ya!" That means go... It actually means: "Go away.
Go away, you", but we would use that if you... It would be used if you don't believe something.
If you don't... If you don't believe what the Irish clover is saying, you can say: "Away
with ya! Away with ya!" And if you wanted... If you thought somebody had done something
that was offensive or they acted a bit rude or something, you could say: "Oh, the cheek
of it! The absolute cheek of it!" That's to show that you're mildly offended about something.
Now, this is a Irish phrase that, unlike the other ones isn't stereotypical. This is one
that's apparently used now. So it's newer... It's like how the language is evolving and
it's a newer kind of expression. If you don't believe what somebody is saying, you think
they're being, you know, they're sort of having a joke with you, you don't quite believe them
100% and you may also use this expression if you want the other person to laugh, you
can say: "Get out of that garden! Get outta that garden!" And it's just a way of saying...
It's a very similar meaning to: "Away with ya!" but a different phrase.
Now we've got more phrases, here. For example, if you say: "Fair play to ya. Fair play to
ya. Fair play to ya", that means: "Well done." If you think somebody did some... Perhaps
something good happened to someone in their life, maybe they got a new job, you could
say: "Fair play to ya", it means: "Well done."
Irish people are famous for saying: "That's grand. Oh, that's grand." And it means...
Well, as an English person if you look at the phrase, you'd think "grand" means something
really good, like, brilliant or fantastic, but actually in the Irish use it just means
"fine". It's not, like, the most emphatic, enthusiastic. It just means fine. So, if you
think something's find or good, you can say: "That's grand. Aye, that's grand."
Here's a figure of speech. Whereas over in England people will often say at the end of
a sentence: "Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?" in Ireland, they add "like"
on the end, so they say: "Do you know what I mean, like? Do you know what I mean, like?"
The Irish clover says something, and wants you to agree, will say: "Do you know what
The next, many Irish people are known for having the "gift of the gab". Oh, let's say
in terms of the whole world's people, the Irish... The Irish people are known for having
the gift of the gab, and that means that they're very good at speaking, very charming when
they're speaking. And often when somebody has the gift of the gab then you always want
to believe them as well. So, Irish clovers have the gift of the gab, you see? They do.
Now, if an Irish person is not very happy with you and they want to swear, they might
say: "Yer full of sihte! Yer full of shite, you are". "Shite", well, you can guess what
that means. And you can say that when you think somebody's lying. "Oh, I don't believe
you", but it's much... It's much stronger than saying: "Away with ya!" When you say:
"Yer full of shite", you really mean it.
And you can also use this expression: "Yer bang on! Yer bang on!" when you agree. When
you really strongly agree, you can say: "Yer bang on!" So, we have more expressions and
Hello, guys. Did you know that flowers also have different Irish accents? They can speak
in lower voices as well, so I'm going to try and... My other flower voice. Okay? So we're
going to look at words for people that they use in Ireland. In Ireland they say: "oul
fella", "oul fella", that's your father. You refer to him as your "oul fella". And your
"oul wan", "oul wan", that's your mother. Oul wan. A "young fella" means young man.
A "young wan" means young woman. A "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby", "babby",
"Mot", "mot" means your girlfriend. "Yer man", "yer wan" means: your man, your woman. These
are what you would call your husband or boyfriend. That... See, your husband... Your husband
or your boyfriend would be "yer man", and "yer wan" would be your wife or your girlfriend.
Girlfriend. So, yeah, these... You use those terms if you're in a relationship with someone.
Then we've got: "me oul' segotia", me old flower, and that's an expression that you
would use as a term of endearment to someone. If you met your Irish friend that was very
dear to you and you like them a lot, you could say: "Me oul' segotia", "me oul' shay-go-shia,"
"me oul' segotia". I've never actually heard an Irish person say it, so that's my... According
to the internet. Let me know in the comments how my pronunciation was.
Okay, so now we're going to look at the Irish insults, and I'm going to reveal them here.
So, everybody knows that in Ireland they like the swearing a lot. And we've got some very...
We've got some good insults. It's all slang here, so some of them are a bit rude. We'll
start with: "eejit". "What an eejit you are. You're a complete and utter eejit". "Eejit"
means idiot. It's not a very strong swear word. I think it's used a lot over in Ireland.
If someone is a "gobshite"... "You are a gobshite, you. You are a gobshite", that means that
they talk nonsense. "Gob" is mouth, "shite", you know what that means, you put it together,
your mouth is talking - mm-hmm. It's rude. "Langer" means annoying, annoying person.
But "langer" also means penis, so that's quite an offensive word, strong word.
A "chancer" is someone who... They do... They do a lot of things, maybe they're not always
100% legal and they take a lot of risks and chances, but they would always get away with
it from the police or something like that. That person's a... That person's a chancer.
"Oh, you chancer." And the last word here is: "wagon". "Wagon", "wagon" means ugly woman
or a difficult kind of woman. So, if there's a woman that... Perhaps you would call the
teacher at school you didn't like a lot, you'd call her a wagon. "Oh, she's a wagon. Never
Now, in Ireland... It's a cliche, but over in Ireland they like to have a pint of the
"black stuff" now and then. You know, a good old pint of Guinness in the pub. Drinking
is part of Irish culture, so let's learn some words for drinking in Ireland. First of all,
instead of saying: "Cheers" and then drinking, they say: "Slainte! Slainte! Slainte. Slainte.
If you're very drunk, you say: "banjaxed. Absolutely banjaxed". And if you're "plastered",
it means the same thing, you drank too much. If you're going out for an evening of drinking
and you're probably going to get banjaxed or plastered, you would say: "Tonight... Oh,
we're going out on the lash. We're going out on the lash tonight. You coming? You going
to come for a few drinks? We're going out on the lash."
If you're in the pub and you want to know where the toilets are, that's when you say:
"Where's the Jacks?" Jacks. "Jacks" means toilets in slang. "Jacks" is slang for toilets
in Ireland. "Black stuff", I already mentioned, it's Irish... It's Ireland's favourite and
famous drink, Guinness, the black stuff. And when you've drank too much black stuff, that's
when you're "two sheets to the wind. Two sheets to the wind. You're absolutely banjaxed."
Very... You're very drunk when you get two sheets to the wind.
So, thank you everyone for watching my Irish lesson from the Irish flower, the Irish clover,
me oul' segotia. Thank you for watching. And now can you do the quiz? Do the quiz for us