The Spelling Rule

Learn Irish at your own pace with in-depth courses and reference material, plus weekly community check-in.

Do you find spelling in Irish confusing? You are not alone!

In this lesson, I will walk you through a very simple rule that might make Irish spelling a little bit easier for you.

The main thing to remember here is that Irish vowels are divided into 2 groups: slender and broad / caol agus leathan

Leathan/broad: a, o, u

Caol/slender: i, e

These vowels determine what vowels will come after the consonant they precede.

If the vowels “a”, “o” or “u” are immediately followed by one or more consonants, then any vowel immediately following those consonants will also be “a”, “o”, or “u”.

If the vowels “i” or “e” are immediately followed by one or more consonants, then any vowel immediately following those consonants will also be “i” or “e”.


This is a lesson walk through of the Bitesize Cúrsaí lesson The Spelling Rule which is available to Bitesize Irish members in our course Meeting, Greeting and Introducing!

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