What is your favorite Irish expression?

Hi Everyone!

I thought it was time to share some of the local lingo, and there is no better way to do so than sharing your favorite one in particular if it comes with a story!

Let me start with mine, and it comes with the story of one of my most embarrassing moment! 😳

At the time, I was in Belfast for only a couple of weeks, so my English was limited. I started at the place where I was to volunteer for a year and here is "my boss" very chatty, got introduced finally and all seems to go well until I got upset as they were using some of my Art for a poster which I thought was not good. 
At that moment she looked at me and said: "Wind yer Neckin! It's brilliant."
I was confused! I took what I heard very literally and started to pull my shoulders up and head down - my way of bringing my neck in.
No need to say that the full office started to laugh! 🤦

From that moment, I got the cute nickname of"Turtle" until the end of my year of volunteering! 🐢

So now, what is your favorite Irish expression?

Hi Elodie, 

Eine fantastische Idee!

Mein absoluter Favorit ist "yoke". Das irische Equivalent zum deutschen "Dings". Du möchtest etwas sagen, aber dir fehlt das Wort? Es ist ein "yoke". Egal welches Nomen dir fehlt, "yoke" ist immer für dich da. 😍  

Das erste mal gehört habe ich das Wort natürlich von einer irischen Kollegin. Genauso wie das deutsche "Dings", fallen selten mehr als fünf Sätze, bevor irgendetwas "einem auf der Zunge liegt"! 

Ich bin wirklich gespannt, was noch so kommt! ☘

Hello all,

What fun! 

I think my favourite Irish expression is "give out" to you.

At the time I first heard it, I was working as a tour manager for an Irish band, "Na Fianna," and thoroughly enjoying myself!  During our Boston stay, I manned the merchandise table.  I was selling T's and photos, while the lads were to my right, having photos and autographing what I was selling. 

One fan was a wee bit distraught that we didn't carry T-shirts in her size and expressed her disappointment at a high volume.  The banter was fine, just loud, and so the band members were keeping an eye on things.  Eventually, one of them asked if things were alright, or was she "giving out" to me. Once I figured his meaning, it lightened the whole situation! 😃

The customer laughed, and enjoyed chatting with the band, and got hugs and a special signed photo in the end. 

Irishmen are just grand, and their words and accent can turn a whole day around! 😊

Hiya,

When I moved over to Ireland some 15 years ago now, the most common phrase I heard was "blow in". 💨

It's an affectionate term given to anyone not born within a certain location no matter where the location is!

My neighbour, who is born and bred in the Inishowen Peninsula, is also regarded as a blow in as she is from another town 2 miles away, you see how it works.

Needless to say, I still get referred to by this term and I'm sure I always will. :)

We zaten op een avond in een hele leuke pub in Dingle, met een paar mensen die we daar in de buurt ontmoet hadden toen we aan de haven stonden. 

Je hebt er nooit gebrek aan gesprekspartners en toen we ze 's avonds weer tegenkwamen in de pub was het net alsof we al jaren bevriend waren.

Verhalen, muziek, drank, het was een geweldige avond. Ik zat naast een Ierse dame die nog niet zoveel tegen mij gezegd had, maar wel prachtige verhalen voor het luisterend publiek had.

Mijn verbazing was groot toen ze opzij leunde, haar schouder tegen de mijne, en zei: ""C'mere till I tell ya...".

Noch in het Nederlands, noch in het Engels kon ik begrijpen waar ik dan heen moest komen, want erg veel dichterbij elkaar konden we niet zitten! Maar het was gewoon een uitdrukking als je iets tegen de persoon naast je wilt zeggen en niet tegen de hele groep, een soort "leun wat deze kant op, ik wil je wat vertellen".

Mijn totaal verwarde blik, waarbij ik probeerde in te schatten hoeveel dichterbij ik dan zou moeten kunnen komen om aan het verzoek te voldoen, zorgde in elk geval voor genoeg hilariteit!

I love reading all of these! :) 

When I just moved to Belfast, I had an appointment at the bank to open up a new account. After all of the information was filled out, the kind and helpful lady gave me all of my papers and said 'that's you!'. Still a bit struggling with the Northern Irish accent, I just stood there looking confused, and she repeated 'that's you'. To which I replied 'uhhh, yep, I know it's me?'. She then started laughing and explained that that meant that we were all done and good to go, and I felt quite silly! 

The other thing that extremely confused me was the question 'what's the craic?'. Turns out he was just asking me what was happening! :D

These expressions have been a delight to read.  I've had quite the chuckle.

I have a few that I fondly remember from my childhood, that bring back some memories.  Most of which my granny would have said.

"Who's all there?" - particularly when I would be having a phone call with her, and if she heard anyone chirping away in the background, she's asked who's all there.

"The messages" - she still uses this expression a lot!  She'd pack up her shopping trolley and away she would go to get her messages.  In other words, her shopping or groceries.

"Acting the maggot" - this was quite a common one, mostly referred to at my siblings of course, I was a good child!  This expression would be used when someone was up to no good.

Ho sentito diverse espressioni in Irlanda, tutte divertenti e alcune un po' bizzarre. Vi dico alcune di quelle che mi hanno colpito:

"What's the craic?" - ho sentito questa espressione per la prima volta in un bar, pensavo fosse un modo per chiederti "Come ti chiami" e invece volevano soltanto salutarmi e sapere come va. In italiano, si può tradurre così: "Che si racconta? / Come va la vita?". :P

"That's grand / That's no bother" - mi trovavo al supermercato e la persona davanti a me, mentre imbustava la spesa, stava dialogando con la cassiera. Non capivo cosa queste espressioni avessero a che fare con la spesa, ma poi mi spiegarono che la cassiera stava porgendo le scuse per l'esaurimento delle scorte di alcuni prodotti. La cliente, in pratica, aveva usato queste due espressioni per dire "Va bene / Non c'è problema". :)

"I'm completely stuffed" - ero seduto al ristorante e, dopo una ricca cena con amici irlandesi, sento dire da uno di loro: "Food was great, I'm completely stuffed!. Beh, non è stato difficile da indovinare: a fine cena, se senti dire "I'm stuffed" significa che la cena è stata più che abbondante (e ovviamente buona!). :rolleyes:

"Alright mucker? / What about ye mucker?" - queste espressioni sono comuni tra amici e persone che si conoscono, si usano per dire "Come va amico? Tutto bene?". All'inizio pensavo mi stessero prendendo in giro, in realtà sono proprio un modo tutto Irish per accoglierti e farti sentire a casa. :D

Hello there!

I love all these expressions!! :D

I def have to agree with Francesco, on my recent trip to Dublin, we went to a local pub and I loved to hear the expression: “Where’s the craic?” I thought it meant “to have fun”, but it also means “what’s going on” apparently! :hehe:

I adored hearing “Grand” too as a response about how someone was feeling! :)

Another great one was “A pint of the black stuff please” which made me smile a lot! :D

Viele lustige Anekdoten mit irischen Sprüchen lese ich hier! Gerne teile ich auch meine! 

An kühleren Tagen in den Wintermonaten, wenn der Wind stark weht, kann man die Einheimischen oftmals hören: Jeez, it's baltic out there!" oder "Get yourself wrapped up, the wind would cut ye!" Was so viel bedeutet wie: "Meine Güte ist es kalt draußen!" und "Zieh dich warm an, der Wind ist eisig!" 

Eine andere Redensart der Iren ist: "It's just down the road" Was soviel bedeutet, dass es nicht weit weg ist. Allerdings nutzen die Iren es sehr unbestimmt. "Down the road" könnte sein, dass du nur schnell zum Shop läufst, um Brot zu kaufen oder aber, auch eine 20 minütige Autofahrt bedeuten. Wie dem auch sei, es ist nicht weit weg! :) 

Die letzte und wohl mit bekannteste Redensart auf der grünen Insel wäre: "Sure, it'll be grand" oder "Yeah, will see". 
Eine Antwort, die man auf alles geben kann, ohne sich dabei für ein "Ja" oder "Nein" entscheiden zu müssen. Eine Art und Weise, die dem pflichtbewussten und präzisen Deutschen einfach fremd ist, am Ende allerdings eine Erlösung sein kann. ;)
Unter "Sure, it'll be grand", kann man verstehen, sich einfach nicht so viele Gedanken zu machen oder, dass man schon irgendwie eine Lösung für das Problem finden wird. Mit "Yeah, will see" kann man dann antworten, um sich dann spontan entscheiden zu können, ob man noch abends ins Pub geht. 
Es ist schön, dass die Iren Redewendungen für die Gelassenheit erfunden haben, mit der sie sich dem Tempo der Insel anschließen. ☘️ <3