You’ll probably know over a thousand people in your lifetime but you’ll really know 3-5 people. Yeah, we’re talking about the number of “real” (if that’s a thing) friends you’ll have in your life. With the development of Social Media in the past decade, you’ll probably get to know over a thousand people (even more for others) but you’ll only have a few close friends.
Do you have Irish friends? We thought to help you showing them how much you value their friendship and also learn a little bit of Irish Gaelic while doing so. In the following Irish Gaelic pronunciation video you will learn how to say “Friend”, “My friend”, and other synonyms using the Irish language.
If you have close friends in Ireland, this is a great way to let them know you care about them and you consider them to be important people in your life.
How To Say – “Friend” in Irish Gaelic (VIDEO)
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How to say “Friend” in Irish Gaelic
cara
/kor-ah/
friend
a chara
/ah khor-ah/
My friend! / Friend! (form of address)
mo chara
/muh khor-ah/
my friend (never used as a form of address)
cairde
/kor-jeh/
friends
comrádaí
/kum-raw-dee/
friend, comrade, pal, mate
comrádaithe
/kum-raw-de-ha/
comrades (friends, pals, mates)
Hi Emma,
Your site is excellent and informative! Additional question for use of “my friend”. If you are going to add someone’s name to it for personalization (not for a letter but rather in conversation or identification), does the person’s name come before or after the “mo chara”? For example, “My friend Emma” or “our friend Emma”? I can’t seem to find a clear indication of personalization when referring to a friend. Thanks!
Michele, a chara
If you were to say ‘my friend Emma’ it would be ‘mo chara Emma’.
Our friend would then be ‘ár gcara Emma’.
mo and ár cause different mutations on the word ‘cara’ – friend.
But all in all, the name comes after the ‘mo chara’ in this case 🙂
I hope this helps!
Emma
Thank you Emma for the calcification!
Oops, clarification…darn autocorrect!
Hi! I was wondering how you would address multiple friends at once, like “maidin mhaith a chairde” or “maidin mhaith mo cairde”?
A chairde! 🙂
I often see friend without the “h” as in “cara,” and sometimes with as in “chara.” What is the difference, please?
A Diana, a chara
When you are addressing someone in Irish, you use ‘a’ before the name. ‘A chara’ means ‘friend’ when addressing them so I am saying ‘Diana, my friend’ when I say ‘A Diana, a chara’
The word ‘friend’ itself is just spelled ‘cara’ but certain things (such as the word ‘mo’ – ‘my’ or ‘do’ – ‘your’) cause the ‘h'(otherwise called lenition or a séimhiú) to be added to the word. If you’d like to find out some more about lenition, we have a blog post here.
Le beannacht
Emma