Irish in the UK - what are the things that it took you ages to realise people don't say here.

[ConflictedCheetah]

Inspired by the thread about Pancake Tuesday.

That thread has cracked me up because SO many posters are insisting no one EVER calls pancake Tuesday - it's Pancake Day - and sayu it's weird and wanky to call it that. And then all the Irish people on the thread are like ' wait, we've always called it that and never noticed that no one else did.

So what else you got?

For me, and I'm here 20 years, I only found out about a year ago that no one here calls a birth certificate a 'birth cert'. My English husband thought it was proper weird that I kept saying that. I had never picked up that it wasn't a thing! I think Irish people are so used to talking about the Leaving Cert or Junior Cert etc. that the Cert but feels natural. DH says no.

What other ways have I been unknowingly embarrassing myself for 20 years?

Amn't is the hill I will die on. It's just logical (even though I'm always telling my DC that English just isn't logical). I am, I am not, am not I ➡️ amn't I.

On another note, I associate happy oooout with the oeuvre of the D'Unbelievables in the late nineties (I think it was), pretty sure we didn't use it up my end of the country before that.

I'm Irish (in ROI) but DH is English and we have been cracking up at this thread. We had forgotten so many of these that he had to learn when he first moved here. I only realised from this thread that he would say deposit instead of lodge in a bank 😮. But he knew what I meant anyway...

I think all of our 'gotcha's' have been mentioned except 'mitching' for bunking off school. He had never heard it before - is it an Irish thing?

Amn't is the hill I will die on. It's just logical (even though I'm always telling my DC that English just isn't logical). I am, I am not, am not I ➡️ amn't I.

That's interesting it made me think of aren't which is are not.

So eg they are there aren't they?

I've have also heard though "I'm right aren't I" which should surely be am not I? or a contraction of it?

Not are not I?

Ending sentences with ‘so’.

Definitely a thing BUT interested if anyone else has noticed this – it's a thing that British people sometimes get "wrong" when trying to depict Irish idiom.

Not sure if I can find an example now but think I've maybe seen it from an Irish character in a novel or something and thought "na, she wouldn't have said it like that".

But I certainly do use it myself in sentences like "That's all right , so" meaning "...in that case". Not just a sort of filler syllable.

Exactly 😃

I am not
You are not
She (the cat's mother) is not

Why would you suddenly change the verb form for the first person, AM, to that of the second person, ARE, just because you've added an apostrophe to shorten the negative phrase? WHY? 😃

Anymore used in a positive sense.

Eg I'll do that anymore. Ie from now on. Friend from West Clare. Same friend is 'mad for road' ie dying to go out.

I love 'amn't'. I think I fell in love with DH when I first heard him say it, I thought it was adorable

I've picked up 'ye', it's so useful as the plural of 'you'.

It took me a while to get my head around the Irish use of 'lads' as a plural for both sexes, while 'lad' singular means a boy or young man same as in the UK. I was puzzled at first when a friend with three daughters referred to them as 'lads'.

My dad was Irish and when we were kids a friend of his sometimes visited our house. He’d sometimes refer to my little sister as a ‘ A little dote’ which just meant a sweet little girl. It was only a few years ago she told me that she thought he was calling her ‘a little dope ‘ 😂😂

“Side of what?” made me laugh - that confused me no end when I arrived in the UK too. As did “get down from the table” instead of being excused from the table. I had this mental image of little English kids all sitting on top of the table to eat their dinner. I was puzzled by the distinct lack of chairs in English dining rooms 😄

posh English people do imitate other accents, I’m from the north east and they do it to me. Then again, my Irish husband thinks my accent is hilarious, and he insists it sounds like the people on ‘Coronation Street’ and can’t accept it is totally different. My entire in-laws say the same. 🤣🤣🤣

An Irish girl I was at college with said Yer man/ yer wan a lot. Also, instead of "asking about you" she would say "asking for you", which means something quite different in England!

@TrixieMixie I came to the North East of England long ago for University and stayed. All the local people think (or at least used to think) that I am posh, because I speak with a very "common" Sarf London accent

I'm as Irish as they come but I find this really tiresome tbh - and when it's about alcohol specifically it can make things very awkward for people who have issues around drink. If somebody refuses a cup of tea or a glass of wine in my house they'll get one "You sure?" but after that I leave them alone.

I've definitely noticed the floor/ground thing in books, but only in the last few years - I stumble over it every time.

I work for an Irish company and with American colleagues. The Irish find it funny when the Americans say they need a “ride”.

The "No thanks", "Are you sure" explains Mrs Doyle in Father Ted a lot

I've never heard of amn't so all I can think of is "aren't" is the nearest to it!

Long before Mrs Doyle there was a woman who went down in family legend for wrong-footing visiting children by being the opposite – her catchphrase being "there'll be no pressing in this house!" (which maybe wasn't a catchphrase but might have been uttered on a single occasion and the story went round).

So the visitors were faced with the choice of going down as having had the absolute brazen cheek to say "Yes please" to the first offer of a slice of apple tart or cake, or adhering to protocol, saying "Ah no, thanks Mrs Whatever, sure we're grand" and unthinkably being taken at their word!

Clearly there's a reason their dilemma has resonated with. subsequent generations of the family 😬 but at least you're not alone with your irritation, @AppropriateAdult

I’d say for most British people ‘the floor’ is also only inside. Outside, it’s the ground.

So the visitors were faced with the choice of going down as having had the absolute brazen cheek to say "Yes please" to the first offer of a slice of apple tart or cake, or adhering to protocol, saying "Ah no, thanks Mrs Whatever, sure we're grand" and unthinkably being taken at their word!

So the "no pressing" was a lie?

Why would you suddenly change the verb form for the first person, AM, to that of the second person, ARE, just because you've added an apostrophe to shorten the negative phrase? WHY?

I've just read on Quora that am'nt was used, but it was easier to drop the m so it became more like ahn't & hence aren't.

Irish born and dragged up here and while I hear other people saying 'amnt'. I have never uttered it myself and would slap the wrists of my kids if they did.

Loads of funny stuff on here but no time to read all 20 pages. Usually I can only tell an Irish person from an English one is by where their toaster lives ;)

A day trip in our house was "going for a spin". Don't know if it's a common Irish saying (we're from Cork) but my dad always took us for a spin after dinner on a Sunday.

I thought it meant 'am I not'.

Er I think I misquoted soz.

Put it in the glory hole.