Gaeilge Pronunciation Guide

Filed by Aine MacDermot

The pronunciation of Gaeilge (Irish) and the other Celtic languages is not always intuitive to non-native speakers. The info included here was at one time a part of my old website, and I am including it here for reference purposes. I do not actually speak Gaeilge, but I can read and write a little of it. - Aine

Irish-Gaelic Phonetic Pronunciation Guide

a . . . . . . pronounced like O, as in cot
á . . . . . . pronounced like AW, as in paw
bh . . . . . . pronounced like V or W
c . . . . . . always hard, as in cattle
ch . . . . . . pronounced like CH, as in Bach
dh . . . . . . pronounced like Y
e . . . . . . UNpronounced before A, unless accented
é . . . . . . pronounced like AY, as in play
fh . . . . . . UNpronounced
g . . . . . . always hard, as in tiger
gh . . . . . . pronounced like Y
i . . . . . . pronounced like EE, as in seek
mh . . . . . . pronounced like V or W
ó . . . . . . pronounced like O, as in go
s . . . . . . pronounced like SH before E or I
sh . . . . . . pronounced like H
th . . . . . . pronounced like H
ú . . . . . . pronounced like OO, as in zoo

Also see :

- Irish Orthography @ Wikipedia
- Irish Local Names Explained by P.W. Joyce, LL.D., M.R.I.A.
- Ainmneacha Fear - Men’s Names
- Ainmneacha Ban - Women’s Names

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 8th, 2005 at 10:58 PM. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 (XML) feed. Apologies. Comments and trackbacks are both currently closed.

Comments (8) to “Gaeilge Pronunciation Guide”

  1. Jaime wrote:

    This is awesome, thank you!

    Posted on 02-Nov-05 at 9:33 am | Permalink

  2. Lindsay wrote:

    Could you please tell me what air born school of irish dance would be if translated into Irish-Gaelic?

    Posted on 30-Nov-05 at 8:31 pm | Permalink

  3. Aine MacDermot wrote:

    I’m not a translator of Irish Gaelic. Suggest you find a good English-Irish dictionary, either online or at a book store. :)

    Posted on 01-Dec-05 at 4:21 am | Permalink

  4. Gila Boucher wrote:

    my daughter has just met a little girl called Aine (like you)! I want to get the pronunciation right when I meet her mother! Grace (my daughter) says the name something like: awn-yuh (with an english accent. Is that a fair approximation? cheers.

    Posted on 13-Dec-06 at 12:38 pm | Permalink

  5. Aine MacDermot wrote:

    yes, or like AHN-yeh

    Posted on 13-Dec-06 at 4:48 pm | Permalink

  6. Georgeann Deno wrote:

    Can you tell me the phonetic pronunciation of the following: nollaig shona duit

    I believe this means “Happy Christmas” in Gaelic.

    Thank you.

    Posted on 18-Dec-06 at 7:02 pm | Permalink

  7. Aine MacDermot wrote:

    NO-Lihg HO-nuh ghwich

    Posted on 18-Dec-06 at 7:14 pm | Permalink

  8. Marge wrote:

    I am of Irish and Scottish decent and have always wanted to learn the Gaelic language. Thank You for this wonderful site.

    Posted on 21-Feb-07 at 11:10 am | Permalink