Cúpla Focal: A couple of Irish Gaelic words
At Birmingham Irish, we feel that the beautiful language of Gaelic is an extraordinary gift that should be passed down from generation to generation with immense pride. This very reason is behind our language column, Cúpla Focal, meaning, a couple of Irish Gaelic words.
In our May column, we will be deepening our knowledge on how to tell the time.
To find out more about our Birmingham Irish Online Language classes, please email terri@birish.org.uk
Lesson 4 – Ceacht 4
Dia Daoibh – Hello everyone!
Last time we learnt numbers to twelve, how to ask someone the time and how to say what time it is on the hour.
Let’s take it a little further:
Go dtí: to
Tar éis: after
Ceathrú tar éis: quarter past
Ceathrú go dtí: quarter to
Leathuair tar éis: half past
Fiche nóiméad tar éis: twenty past
Fiche nóiméad go dtí: twenty to
So now you can say:
Tá sé ceathrú tar éis a dó: It’s quarter past two
Tá sé ceathrú go dtí a trí: It’s quarter to three
Tá sé leathuair tar éis a seacht: It’s half past seven
Here are a few more words connected with time:
Amárach: tomorrow
Inné: yesterday
Aréir: last night
Anuraidh: last year
inniu: today
tráthnóna: afternoon/evening
oíche: night
Lá: day
Meán oíche: midnight
Meánlae: midday
Next time we’ll look at the remainder of the times and introduce the days of the week.
Top tip:
To check your pronunciation just go to Focal.ie and type in the word you want to pronounce. You can then choose the dialect you prefer and listen to the pronunciation!
Slan go fóill! Bye for now!
