Back to Blog
learn irish with father ted

Learn Irish with Father Ted

easy grammar tips

Father Ted….surely one of the best comedies ever!

If you have never seen it then it’s time to get familiar with one of the main comedy shows of the 90s!

Father Ted is based around the lives of three priests living on an island off the west coast of Ireland. 

But what has that got to do with learning Irish?

Well, to be honest, not a whole lot…

but you can use it as a little trick to remember how to deal with masculine nouns in Irish.

 

Nouns in Irish are either masculine or feminine.

Does this matter?!

Yes, for a variety of reasons, but here’s just one-

It explains why we say:

‘Fear beag’ but ‘bean bheag’ for example.

or ‘Lá maith’ but ‘oíche mhaith’.

 

Putting the word ‘an’ (the) before a masculine noun:

Well, here’s another little matter concerning nouns…

when the word ‘an’ (the) is placed before a noun it may cause a change.

Whether a change happens or not, and what that change will be, will depend firstly on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and secondly on what the initial letter of the word is.

We need to know if the noun is masculine or feminine (you can check this in the dictionary), and then whether the noun begins with a consonant (apart from ‘s’); with the letter ‘s’; or with a vowel.

 

And, finally, here’s the Father Ted bit…

It just so happens that ‘bád’ (a boat); ‘sagart’ (a priest) and ‘oileán’ (an island) are all masculine nouns - and give us an example of a word beginning with a consonant; with the letter ‘s’; and with a vowel.

Watch what happens when ‘an’ comes before them:

Bád ………an bád (no change)

Sagart…..an sagart (no change)

Oileán….an t-oileán (t- is added)

 

Remember these three words above and then apply the same pattern to all masculine nouns…

The following sentences contain only masculine nouns. Can you translate them to Irish? The answers are below the picture.

  1. The man went home

  2. The girl ate the apple and the bread

  3. I went there last summer

  4. He swept the floor

  5. He spent the money

Here are the answers…

  1. Chuaigh an fear abhaile

  2. D’ith an cailín an t-úll agus an t-arán

  3. Chuaigh mé ansin an samhradh seo caite

  4. Scuab sé an t-urlár

  5. Chaith sé an t-airgead

Phrases in Irish you won't find in a textbook!

Enter your details to get my FREE guide (with audio) of useful phrases in Irish that you won't find in a textbook.

You will also receive the odd email from me with useful content and resources for learning Irish. My emails are rather sporadic and of course you can unsubscribe whenever you like.