Lesson one: Tá

Today I am going to start with the very important verb Tá. It has almost the same form as the english "is."
To start I recommend getting a notebook and pen together as well as a recording device if you have one. Most laptops come with a microphone and recording software.
If you aren't like me and feel comfortable typing over and over in a word processing program then that should work for you.
The notebook or word program will help immensely with your memory. Just like in third grade when your teacher made you write each vocabulary word out ten times, you should write the Irish vocabulary. I find that writing something over and over by hand makes it stick much deeper in my memory. This helps with college and will hopefully help me remember Irish words. Also recording yourself saying Irish words will help with pronunciation. You can play it back over and over and improve yourself.

To the lesson.

Irish can be a fun language to learn when you have native speakers around. They tend to be very good about helping you along.
However, where I live here in America there are almost no native speakers of Irish to be found. And the ones who do speak it are crotchety and not very fun. So we will have the fun task of teaching ourselves. Hooray ...

Anyways lets start with how to pronounce Tá. Look at the accent mark over the a. This is called a fada (fah-dah) when you see this think of drawing the sound out.
Tá is pronounced like Taaaaaww. Take the tip of your tongue and put it at the edge of your top teeth, but not protruding out. Now say the word tot a few times with your tongue in that position. After a few tries drop the last t in tot. You should be making the Taaaaaww sound.
Like I said earlier, tá is like the word is.

Tá sé- he/it is (pronounced Taaaww shay)
Tá sí- she is (helpfully pronounced Taaaw shee)
tá mé - I am (pronounced Taaaw may)

This is of course not the full conjugation of the verb, but we're getting into this slowly. Too much at one time really overwhelms.

Write those verb forms down a couple of times, and say them to yourself. Once you feel comfortable to move on, then we have a small vocab bank to practice them with.

fuar - cold (foo - uhr not foo-er but the longer oohhrr sound)
mór - big (mohr)
te - hot (te)
óg - young (ohhg)
sean - old (shan)
lán - full (laww^un)

Lets try to make a few short sentences with what we have so far.
How do you say she is cold?
I am hot?
He is old?


Tá sí fuar - she is cold.
tá mé te. - I am hot.
Tá sé sean. - he is old.


(one of the recordings I made with a slight voice mask.)


Another good way to learn is to put Irish into your everyday routine. Add it into your favorite movies or songs. For example:


I think that's enough for one post. I'll be writing these over and over to try to get a feel for the accent marks. Also to remember this important verb.
Record yourself saying these sentences to see how you sound. Don't get discouraged, just keep on trying.

Again thanks to the Irish People Newspaper.