Let’s jump right into this Irish language lesson with audio.
You’ll learn the days of the week in Irish. The words are complicated, so bookmark this page, and come back again to try them again.
Days of the Week Irish lesson
Monday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-luain.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé Luain. Pronounce it like /Jay Loo-on/
Tuesday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-mairt.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé Máirt. The Irish pronunciation is like: /Jay Mawrch/
Wednesday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-ceadaoin.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé Céadaoin /Jay Cay-deen/
Thursday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/deardaoin.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Déardaoin /Jare-deen/
Friday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-haoine.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé hAoine /Jay hee-on-a/
Saturday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-sathain.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé Sathairn /Jay Sa-hern/
Sunday
[mp3t track=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/bitesize-blog/audio/de-domhnaigh.mp3″ vol=”100″]
Dé Domhnaigh /Jay Dow-nig/
What’s with Dé for each word?
Dé is a form of the Irish word Dia. You might have seen the Irish language phrase “Dia dhuit” before (“Hello”). This shows a religion again creeping into Irish daily life, this time in the days of the week. If anyone has a full explanation of why Dé appears here, please share with us below.
Irish learning tip
Each morning, test yourself on the name for that day. So if today is Wednesday, say “Dé Céadaoin” to yourself. Of course you won’t remember that instantly, but keep trying. Bookmark this page, and come page to it to practice with the audio some more.
If you’re a member of Bitesize Irish Gaelic, go to Lesson: Days of the week where you will learn different forms of the word, including how to say “Today is …”.
Hope you enjoyed this Irish language lesson with audio – please reply below with any questions.
7 thoughts on “Irish language lessons with audio: Learn the Days of the Week”
Gearo’id has it right. Just to expand a bit on that comment, the IndoEuropean word DEIW (sky, heavens, God or shining one)gave rise to many words, such as DEUS (GOD in Latin), Diana (moon goddess), DAY, divine, and even devil (Lucifer=bearer of light, shining one). So there is, of course, an older connection between the words for God and for day. By the way, the pronunciation of De’ as jay in the Irish words might be similar to what happened in the case of Jupiter (Deus Pater), the father god or god of the bright sky, with the initial DE BECOMING JU. Thus, De’ Luain isn’t so far from Monday (MOON DAY) as it might appear at first glance, particularly since one is tempted to recall that LUNA is MOON in Latin, which, like Irish, is an IndoEuropean language.
An interesting insight into Dé Luain!
Thank you for this lesson 🙂 It was so much fun! I feed in all the material into flash cards to learn a bit of Irish spelling too 🙂
This word “Dé” is from a now-archaic word in Irish, “dia,” meaning “day.” The “Dé” form meant “on the day of.” The curious part of all this, of course, is that this word for “day” is not at all related to the ordinary Irish word for day, “lá,” as in “Tá an lá go maith.” So Irish has two words for “day.” One, “lá” is uniquely Gaelic with parallels in Scottish Gaelic and Manx. The other, “dia” or “dé,” with very limited application in Irish, is in fact a neat tie in to the word for “day” in many other European languages (dies, día, dydd, deiz, Tag, etc.)
Sorry I didn’t reply earlier, a Ghearóid. Thanks for that detailed info – go raibh maith agat.
I love your free lessons as Im unable at this time to afford the whole program. It gives us “lesser advantaged” people the opportunity to learn an amazing language. My question for you is…Ive another free program for learning Irish and I find that each of you offer two different ways of pronounciation and even some different spelling…for instance…Monday here is De Luain and the other (free) program says an Luan…I find this a lot and have been unable to get a clear answer why that is. I appreciate your time! Go raibh maith agat!
Glad you liked it!
About pronunciations: if you’re looking at the phonetic spellings, people will try to represent the sounds with English letters differently. In the end, it’s not possible to do accurately.
About An Luan and Dé Luain – they are two ways of speaking about the day, and it depends on the context. Our full lesson (paid unfortunately) describes this.