Lesson Highlight: The Days of the Week in Irish Gaelic

If you’ve ever studied another language, chances are one of the first things you learned was   the days of the week. Here’s your chance to learn the days of the week in a language that may be new to you: Irish Gaelic!

It’s time for another Bitesize Irish Gaelic lesson highlight!

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.

(I guess you could call that “a nibble”!)

In this highlight, we’ll look at one of our vocabulary lessons: The Days of the Week.

Types of lessons available 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 pronuciation by listening to and emulating the speaker.

In addition, the conversation lessons offer both a “slow” and “normal” speed: The first to help you get the correct pronunciation of the words, and the second to help you learn to hear and use them in a more natural situation.

These lesson highlights will 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 always access the complete lesson, with full audio.

How to say the days of the week in Irish

Dé Luain

Monday

Dé Máirt

Tuesday

Dé Céadaoin

Wednesday

Déardaoin

Thursday*

Dé hAoine

Friday

Dé Sathairn

Saturday

Dé Domhnaigh

Sunday

Where did these names come from, and what do they mean?

These names for the days of the week likely came from the early Christian monks, who were also the first to write Irish extensively (previously the only known written Irish was in a form of writing called ogham, which was used primarily for writing names on grave markers).

They show both monks’ Latin background, as well as the influence of their religion on how they spent their days.

In all of the above, the word Dé (pronounced “jay”) is an old word for “day.” The word that follows tells you what the day is “of”:

Dé Luain: The day of the Moon

Dé Máirt: The day of Mars

Dé Céadaoin: The day of the first fast

Déardaoin*: The day between the fasts

Dé hAoine: The day of the [main] fast

Dé Sathairn: The day of Saturn

Dé Domhnaigh: The day of the Lord

Christian practice and ancient Roman theology joined together to describe the week in a Celtic language!

* This isn’t a typo. For some reason, the word dé has become an integral part of this word, which was probably originally something like Dé idir na haoine).

In context

Here are a couple of ways in which you might use the days of the week in Irish:

Feicfidh mé thú Dé Luain

I’ll see you on Monday.

ar maidin Déardaoin

on Thursday morning.

See how easy it is?

Bitesize Irish Gaelic gives you the tools you need to begin learning to speak Irish at your own pace, in small, easily assimilated, increments.

If this lesson highlight has whetted your appetite to learn more, how about signing up for our no-obligation free trial? It’s a fun and risk-free way to get started learning the language of your ancestors!