Thank you Franc for all that information, that is so helpful!!

I will definitely have a look into all of those resources - i love learning with the kids, they seem to be really enjoying it too which is great.

We picked up a great kids learning book when we were in Ireland in 2014 called 'Hide and Speak Irish' and that is quite useful for memorising basic words.

Also, another question...i know the topic of dialect is highly debated; but, in terms of finding learning tools, which dialect would have the most resources available? Or would it just be school taught standard Irish?

Ah well that's an interesting question - I'll leave it to the others, such as Saoirse who would know more about that than I would. Gaschaint is available in different dialects as is BunGhaeilge do Thuismitheoirí agus Feighlithe Leanaí/Basic Irish for Parents and Childminders (Forbairt Naíonraí Teoranta). The online dictionary at Teanglann also has pronunciation available in the three main dialects. An Gúm have quite a few children's books with CDs - with musical accompaniment by Máire Breatnach. I like the booklet and CD 'Codail, a Mhuirnín' and the CD 'Suantraí '. I don't know if you can still get Spraoi le Chéile and Spreag an Ghaeilge le Spraoi but you could always try - perhaps someone at Cumann Gaeilge na hAstráile might have copies of them. I see that on the Isos.Dias online manuscript site there's a manuscript copy of the Fate of the Children of Lir in the Victoria State Library.

A lot of books are in standard Irish. Others on here will know more than I do about resources for different dialects, but I recommend starting a new thread asking about it so that you can get replied that don't get most in this one. Saoirse.

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Dia duit!

Is mise Kelly.

I'm a rank beginner but enjoying learning Irish. I live in North Carolina, USA so, not a lot of folks around here to practice with but, my kids might learn a bit themselves with how often I force them to listen to my practicing.

I'm primarily using Rosetta Stone and online resources to learn with and will start adding basic books in Irish once I get to the level where I can work through them with the help of a dictionary. I've used that approach in the past for another language and it worked fairly well for me (and was fun besides).

For me, the biggest challenge is getting a handle on the rules for how words change based on when they're used. This is especially difficult for me in Rosetta Stone as there is no discussion or explanation, just images and text in Irish. For example, it appears that many nouns add and 'i' when they are the object of a sentence [An gluaistea'n. Ta' se' ag tioma'int gluaistea'in).

Sorry for the odd ' as I'm not sure how to enter the accent otherwise.

I'm approaching it as a big puzzle and I'm slowly trying to put the pieces together. I'm hoping I'll be able to use this forum as a resource to ask about the various rules and conventions within the language and, in return, help out others as I progress and learn.

Sla'n,
Kelly

Welcome to the forum!

On the particular point raised above, what's happening is that the word gluaisteán is being placed into the genitive case as gluaisteáin, with the literal meaning being "at driving of the car". That's a very common structure in Irish. If you have other specific questions, it's best to post them in the main part of the forum below, so that more people will see them (not everyone reads the introductions up here).

Also, if you're having trouble typing accents on your computer, note that you can insert accented vowels on this site by using the buttons up above (which appear only when you are in posting mode), right under the codes for various things.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Thanks very much for the info and advice. Off to work this a.m. But will read up on genitive case this afternoon while practicing!

Try this - An Tuiseal Ginideach - Amhrán an Ghaeilgeora Mhóir by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dOFOcKK0Lo

I forgot to add that this is none of my doing, which it isn't.

Hi friends,

This is my first post here in the forum. My name is Monica, and I love studying languages. As my mother tongue is Portuguese, I am more famliar with latin languages (Spanish, French, Italian), and apart from this English and German. However, since I visited Ireland for the first time in 2013 and started studying Irish culture, I started to find the original Irish language very interesting.

I´ve read some posts of this forum so far and realised there are many people here who are very knowledgeable about the Irish language - I barely know anything. I got na áudio of what (maybe?) is a poem in Irish, but can barely understand anything, so I wonder if anyone here can help me to translate it? It´s a very short audio (20 seconds). Would be great if anyone could!

Best regards to all

Dia dhuit (Hello there) You might like to know that Coiscéim has published the 'Diccionario Irlandès-Español-Foclóir Gaeilge-Spáinnse' compiled by David Barnwell, Pádraig Ó Domhnalláin and Carmen Rodríguez Alonso. - Coiscéim 2009 - ISBN 978 1 901176 48 7.

Welcome to the forum.

Start a new topic for your question. And post a link to the audio. Somebody will be able to help I'm sure.