Anyways, seeing as my lovely Twisty is a Dub, I’ve been trying to learn the language so I can understand what he’s ranting on about.
I don’t understand the rules regarding the use of the word ‘so’ at the end of sentances. Apparently I keep getting it wrong, so that implies there is a correct way to use it, hence the posting in GQ.
So what about this crazy mad idea making a question out of something that really doesn’t need to be asked, like “Will I get the beers in so?” or “Can I make the tea so?”
Aye Declan, I got that nice and sorted, can even watch the telly in the background too, but I just feel I’m not satisfying his emotional needs, ya know.
Tir, sounds like you have the hang of it. As you said it can be often used with rhetorical questions. It can also replace “in that case” for example “Are you hungry? Come on so.”
Never noticed this before, but the mrs reassures me that I do it all the time. So that’s grand so
ahhhhh, cheers Iteki, I didn’t realise it meant “in that case”, I was using it in any case where I might have used “so” at the beginning of the sentence.
Cunning.
Actually all the Irish people I know that I’ve asked say that they never use it, and then 2 mintues later they will, but when you point it out they don’t even realise!
heh!
Reminds me of Robert Heinlein’s weird use of “So?” where anyone else would use “Oh?” or “Oh yeah?” Always through me for a loop as a lad. Is this a Navy thing, or what?
Very true. What I find ironic is that those very same people will leave “so” off the end of a sentence when it should be there. For example:
“Did Aiofe go to the pub?”
“She must have done.”
My wife is Irish. I didn’t have to try to learn how she speaks – I just picked it up. Now when asked the time I say “It’s half three” instead of “It’s three thirty” (assuming that’s what time it is, of course). And I do it in an Irish accent. A bad Irish accent. I can also insult our baby daughter in Irish (real Irish, not Irish English). She’s a right cailín cráighte beag, she is. [I’m not sure I spelled that middle word correctly. I can never spell the ones with h’s correctly. What kind of a language puts h’s after m’s, d’s, and b’s?]
The kind that then pronounces the bh as ‘v’ and the mh as ‘w’ etc
mrsIteki also speaks with an Irish accent now, much to the confusion of others. People tend to do a double-take when an asian swede lets out a roar of “ah would you ever go fuck off!”
Happily I have managed to train her away from saying “jayzis, I look like a knacker!” :eek: She picked that up when we lived in Dublin, but had no idea what it meant.
I suppose it isn’t. Guess I’m just used to the Latin-based languages. I do like many of the names with h’s in them, like Niamh and Aoibheann (not sure I spelled that right either). Tough to name a kid something unpronounceable by 99% of Americans, though.