# Irish pronunciation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 22, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127 "2007-05-22T20:05:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127/1 "2007-05-22T20:05:53Z")

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Agus fágaimíd siúd mar atá sé (which means something to the effect of “Let’s leave it at that.” Right?)

From The Limerick Rake. AFAICT, Shane pronounces it

_Ah_-guss _fah_-gah-meed shood mar ah-_tah_ shah.

But, Shane MacGowan doesn’t strike me as an authority. Considering I can barely understand his slur when he’s speaking English, just wanted to double-check.

And another question- in a later verse, he leaves out the “siúd.” Does that change the meaning, or did he just screw up?

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**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127/2 "2007-05-22T21:49:15Z")

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[QUOTE=RedRosesForMe]  
Agus fágaimíd siúd mar atá sé (which means something to the effect of “Let’s leave it at that.” Right?)

From The Limerick Rake. AFAICT, Shane pronounces it

_Ah_-guss _fah_-gah-meed shood mar ah-_tah_ shah.

But, Shane MacGowan doesn’t strike me as an authority. Considering I can barely understand his slur when he’s speaking English, just wanted to double-check.

And another question- in a later verse, he leaves out the “siúd.” Does that change the meaning, or did he just screw up?  
[/QUOTE]

the pronounciation matches up pretty well with I remember from school. Cant help with the second part, its been 20 years since i read any irish

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**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127/3 "2007-05-23T01:28:55Z")

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The pronunciation is fine. I’d expect “shey” rather than “shah” for the last syllable, though. “Siúd” is just a demonstrative pronoun, and although I’m not familiar with the idiom (or, indeed, fluent in Irish), it sounds like you could leave it out. Word by word:

Agus fágaimíd siúd mar atá sé

And let-us-leave that as is it

“And let’s leave that as it is.” The _siúd_ is emphatic but I’m pretty sure you can use _fág_ without an object and still translate it to English as “leave [it].”

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**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-pronunciation/405127/4 "2007-05-23T03:28:31Z")

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Someone once taught me that a simple way to learn correct Irish pronunciation is to repeat the four words below over and over. For reasons of which I’m not at all clear, I was also told that, while saying them, it helps to have a surprised, befuddled look on your face:

Whale  
Oil  
Beef  
Hooked

😉