Can anyone tell me how I can learn Irish?

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Only Sometimes

Letters with a fada (little line over it):
A pronounced aw (as in prawn)
E pronounced ai (as in rain)
i pronounced ee (as in seen)
O pronounced oh (as in Oh!)
U pronounced ew (as in ewe)

Dia dhuit is hello
Slan is goodbye (with fada on A)
Conas ata tu? is how are you? (with fada on second A in ata and on U)
You dont really need Irish to live in Ireland except if you move to a Gaeltacht area where they speak mainly Irish but sometimes English. Good luck in your quest to find out about about the best Country in the world!

absolved lemon

you would be best to go to a gaeltacht that runs intensive courses. a gaeltacht is a Gaelic speaking area in Ireland where only Gaelic is spoken generally. that includes shops cafes bars etc.. gweedore in county donegal is the first gaeltacht that springs to mind for me to suggest. as for the language itself, its easy enough to learn. you could learn more or less conversational Gaelic in a year.

Jane B

There are several colleges in the US ( University of Buffalo and Boston College to name two) that offer courses. You can also find Irish classes at most Comhaltas Celtori Erin chapters all over the world. Good Luck.

Garnet

It's not called Gaelic, we just refer to the language as being 'Irish'. I've been learning it for the past 14 years because it's compulsory in all schools in Ireland. Unfortunately-despite it being taught in all schools-it's true that many of us still can't speak Irish...I know the basics but I'm not really fluent. I find the grammer really hard-there are so many exceptions to every rule in Irish, it can be really frustrating. However if you're willing to work at it, you'll probably pick up the basics easily enough. If you don't have an Irish teacher, your best bet is to check out some of these sites and teach yourself. adh mor ort-good luck! :D

http://www.learn-irish-language-software.com/

http://www.languageresourceonline.com/languages/learn_irish.html

tigerlilly_kitty

Are you sure it's worth it?? I've been forced to learn this language for the past twelve years and I'm still not fluent at it, trust me its extremely difficult.

haggesitze

The best website to learn Irish for English speakers is:

http://www.erinsweb.com/gaelic1.html

It has an excellent pronunciation guide.

And you got multiple postings of the translation forum and dictionary already.

Once you got the basics the best thing, as for any language, is to visit the palce where it is spoken. I live in the Donegal Gaeltacht myself, and you certainly would be very welcome.

Ćdh mĆ³r ort!

ZĆ©phirin

you must go to an Irish consulate that will give you a good address. The Gaelic language is rather hard to learn. It is still used in France, Scotland and Whales. It came from the Celts (Germany) 500 years before J.C.
Witn best wishes.

the crying freeman of (cydonia )

the easist way is to befriend lotsa irish peolpe...oral learning is the best and fastest way....try it. just talk to them always...

birdwatcher

INA membership is required.

Irish Northern Aid Inc

this is a series of lessons

The Irish Northern Aid Homefront Library provides Irish Republican merchandise to help educate people about the fight for the freedom of the Irish people, and celebrates the long history of struggle.

No need I've been many times English works well

but if you want to learn a few phrases there u go
http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/verb

shall we elope to killarney ?

Freckles

irish for dummies or look for gaelic courses online.

tonyevans50

Only one piece of advice! Get plenty of Guinness down your neck and then pronouncing the words 'just won't matter'. Ireland, like you say is a fabulous country...........good luck.

southpaw 09

There is only one word you need to learn and thats "oh feck off".

Kevin K

hey don't listen to all these answers. You simply need to get a book entitled"peig sayers". trust me without it most of the Irish population couldn't speak irish, o wait.......

Truman

It's called Gaelic and I don't imagine it's in great demand seeing as even the Irish can't speak it (generally).

Correspondence course from Ireland is probably your best bet.

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