The top ten words used by the Irish that never fail to confuse Americans

seamushan | Jan 21, 2013, 04:11 PM EST I TOTALY DISAGREE WITH YOU IM FROM CORK AND MOST OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE SPEAK VERY WELL ... IM TAKING IT YOUR FROM THE OLDER GENERATION ... MOST IRISH SPEAK VERY WELL AND MOST OF OUR WORDS ARE SIMILAR TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE ... ALSO MOST PEOPLE IN SOUTHERN IRELAND WATCH MOST BRITISH TV LIKE BBC AND ITV AND READ BRITISH NEWSPAPERS AND SHOP IN BRITISH STORE LIKE ARGOS AND DEBENHAMS ETC I JUST THINK YOUR EITHER AMERICAN LIVING IN AMERICA OR YOUR ONE OF THEM NATIONALIST IRA TYPES LIVING HERE IN IRELAND ... BUT IM IRISH AND HAVING WORKED IN LONDON FOR 10 YEARS IM HAPPY THAT IRISH AND BRITISH RELATIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER..

@Gumboil. To say that the Irish speak like the English is utterly ridiculous. Go down to Cork or Kerry and try and tell me that it is similar English. You probably wouldn’t understand many words at all. Irish people are distinct from British people because we have our own ancient traditional music, our own ancient Irishdancing, our own national sporting games hurling and gaelic football, our own culture. Hurling in particular being the oldest and fastest field game in the world. Of course the British quest to dominate and subjugate her little neighbor would undoubtedly have immersed some of the culture but to say that there is no difference is ludicrous. Now forgive me whilst I go outside with my sliotar and try and puc it across the Irish sea at your ignorance.

Gumboil, hate to pee on your chips... How it all began: In 1902 the Lyons family started their little tea business at High Street in Dublin, near Christchurch Cathedral. In 1932, Lyons moved to Marlborough Street, behind the Gresham hotel. 1963 saw Lyons move up in the world, to a state-of-the-art factory in Goldenbridge, Dublin 8. The very first on-pack promotion by Lyons Tea was in 1963. When people bought a pack of Lyons Tea, they could hope to find a voucher for between 10 shillings and £10 inside. Iconic campaigns, such as the Minstrels and the very popular car giveaway would become a vital part of the Lyons Tea brand over the next 25 years. In the late 1970s, Lyons reinvented the wheel by going round. The change to round tea bags was so successful that Lyons managed to capture over 65% of the Irish tea market. The famous "Lyons Tea jingle" played an important role in the Lyons success story, and is still one of the first things people remember today. Lyons Tea became a part of the Unilever family in 1996

Ummmm, American's use stuffed too. @Portia - American's use youse as well, or if they don't depending on region, they understand it.

Also left off the list are, "gots" and "youse" as in, "I gots to run to the pub, are youse coming with me?"

You missed rubber. (an eraser)

Im Irish i dont use half the words up there in this article.. i love this newspaper and ill say it again again and again its so FAR REMOVED FROM IRELAND AND US IRISH ITS HILLARIOUS .... Its so HOLLYWOOD IT MAKES ME LAUGH !!!

The difference between slang and colloquialism is that slang is usually in widespread use within a large area whilst colloquialisms do not travel very far. Most slang in Ireland is picked up from British or American TV so would be more or less understood either side of the Atlantic. More difficult are some of the regional accents of Britain and Ireland which can be very hard on the ear. Many Londoners for instance say “Gi me a bi a bu’ a” for “give me a bit of butter”. They do not pronounce “t”, “v” “f” or “r” in this context . Urban Irish English sounds much more American in comparison, as all letters are pronounced. In rural Ireland however many words are strangled with local pronounciations making them unintelligible to most outsiders - except maybe Appalachians.

pilib: I'm not thrilled with the above aricle, but it does contain some impoetant info. The average Irish person also says: "I saw", not "I seen", "have gone", not "have went", "Where it it?", not "Where is it at", and a few other such phrases which differ from their U.S equivalents.

How many times does the Irish Central have to recycle articles?

I rather enjoy reading your paper but,sorry to be serious,it does offer some insight into how the Irish-British thing is so distorted.. Apart from Ride and Hotpress (and press is an old English word for cupboard) all these words are normal British words.Why do you call them Irish words? Surely its obvious that the English the Irish speak would be British English.Secondly ,to my surprise (having stupidly assumed the Irsish are drinking beer etc all the time I see an article about how the Irish all love a cuppa (thats a British expression of TEA! .And to make it more fascinating ,apparently of the two these they mainly drink, one is called LYONS!! Now for me ,as a fairly old man everyone grew up in Britain drinking LYONS tea,it was certainly one of Britains greatest brand names particularly because it was part of the huge chain of tea shops all over Britain that spread after the first world war .They were more universal than MacDonalds and served up all kinds of meals and snacks They were the first attemps to give the common man cheap food in very atractive surroundings ..ask and ex GI about them if they are still alive Joe Lyons company closed down its tea shops years ago in the fifties and Ive never seen Lyons tea on sale in Britain but apparently its still going strong in Ireland! All this shows that at heart Ireland and Britain are still really the same country for all those people who fight to keep them apart..

yeh its intresting

Believe me when I tell you that nobody in the US cares.

Sorry if my post is confusing.it didnt come out the way i wanted.

This is a really bad article.alot of these terms are used in England aswell.Hot press and yoke the only ones. banjaxed = broken scoops = alcoholic beverage acting the maggot = acting like a fool jacks = toilet coddin = joking bogger = someone from the country savage/deadly/animal = really good Before you write an article at least know what you talking about or do some research well = how are you whist = be quiet