You speak English. You’ve heard most of Ireland does as well. You may have heard the Irish speak the best english in the world. In any case, the last thing you may be expecting is communication difficulties on your visit to the emerald isle.
Most of the potentential pitfalls in your conversations may come from the slang used here. This is the ninteenth in a series I’ve been publishing of some common Irish slang that used to confuse us when we first arrived.
Feck - Exactly what you’re thinking.
That’s right, just change the vowel.
This is a VERY commonly used word in Ireland. Perhaps shockingly to the foreign ear, feck is used freely on the radio, television and in print.
“Ah. feck it, the fecking feckers!” would not be a strange thing to hear in Ireland. Some enterprising individual has even created a satirical line of clothing on FCUK (French Connection United Kingdom)’s clothing range that reads (in green, of course): FCEK - The Irish Connection
Contrary to what you might think, the frequency which which this alternative word is used does not diminish the amount of profanity in the average Irish sentence. It would seem that Irish folk just prefer this word over its alternative, slinging it alongside other profanities with great relish.
Ah feck it, anyway. Fair fecks to them!
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It’s really all Father Ted’s fault, we didn’t use it half as much before that
As devotees of Father Ted we encountered the word that sounds like “gobshank.” We are unclear to its specific form and meaning. Can you enlighten us, you fecken wankers?
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