Cad as duit?
Where are you from?
Road sign in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare.
2008, by Audrey Nickel
It’s time for another nibble of Bitesize Irish Gaelic!
From time to time, we’d like to offer you a little taste of what the Bitesize Irish Gaelic on-line learning program has to offer by highlighting one of our lessons.
In this highlight, we’ll look at one of our conversation lessons: Where are you from?
Where are you from?
The sentence above, cad as duit? is one way of asking someone where he or she is from in Irish. Another form you will hear is:
Cá as duit?
which is simply a variation of cad as duit?
There are other ways of asking this, but these are both very common, and would be widely understood.
I am from…
To build up your conversational fluency in Irish, it’s good to be prepared if someone asks you where you are from. Here’s how to reply.
For now, let’s assume you are from America. You will say:
Is as Meiriceá dom
I am from America.
A shorter answer
As with English, you don’t have to answer this question with a full sentence in Irish. You could simply say:
As Meiriceá
From America.
Of course, you may not be from America! The formula is the same for other locations:
As Éirinn
From Ireland.
As Sasana
From England.
Important note
It’s important to note that, in Irish, when you’re asked where you’re from, you’re meant to reply with where you’re from originally, not necessarily with where you currently live. That’s a topic for another lesson!
Types of lessons at Bitesize
As of this writing, Bitesize currently offers three types of lessons:
- Vocabulary: These lessons help you learn new words and terms in the language, and show you how to apply them by putting them into useful, everyday, sentences.
- Grammar: These lessons give you the basic building blocks of the language in easy, “bitesized”steps, so it doesn’t get overwhelming.
- Conversation: These lessons give you a chance to use what you’re learning in real-world situations, such as meeting and introducing people, ordering in a restaurant, giving directions, etc.
All of the lessons are audio-rich, so you can learn the correct pronunciation by listening to and emulating the speaker.
These lesson highlights, or “nibbles,” which we’ll offer from time to time, will always include some of the audio from the lesson being featured, so you can get a feel for how the program works. Bitesize members, of course, can access the complete lesson, with full audio.
Happy learning!
2 thoughts on “Bitesize Lesson Highlight: Where are you from?”
love the above post!! le meas, lottie
Who are you, Where do you come from?
Oh how do i answer dat true?
I am Irish, but now i live foreign,
So to call me a Scot ,dat will do.
A century since i was back dair.
But the thirty or so before dat,
Shade the Gods of dis land from my seein,
So aye i die i must go back.
While i wait i read books to remember,
and i listen to songs for to feel,
The feast of vibrations engendered.
A most satisfactory meal.
*****
Dair`s a man at da airport will tell me ,
I’m not Irish by any state rule.
But da passport`s a recent invention,
Is it him ,or just me that`s a fool?
Would he drive a bulldozer through Tarra,
for dem Euro`s a million ,or less?
Can i tell by da stamps in his passport,
da measure of his Irishness?
Will he know when he`s died what has happened?
Will a Roman Priest keen at his rest?
Or like other gate keepers before him,
seek his postmortem life in the west?
*Note* “Scot” Historically meant; “an Irishman living foreign”
*a century since i was back dair* ; in fact i have been in Australia 4 generations now so i is possibly closer to 2 century’s since i spoke Irish fluently.