This Irish expression gets more than it’s fair share of use and isn’t specific to any particular county. For example, ‘Don’t be worrying about it, it’s grand’. It’s worth noting that when someone says that they’re ‘grand’, they may not necessarily be so. You’ll hear it most commonly used as a response to, ‘How’s it going’/’How are you feeling?’/’How are you today?’. However, it can also be an indication that the person you’re speaking to is either 1, uninterested in what you’re saying, or 2, has no idea how to respond to what you’ve just said.įor example, ‘Sure look, what can ye do?!’ 2.

If you’re chatting to someone and they reply with ‘Sure look’ it tends to mean ‘it is what it is’. Here are some Irish phrases that I find my self using CONSTANTLY. In Ireland, many of us use slang words so often that we forget they’re actually slang, for example, ‘Thanks a million’ makes absolutely zero sense to non-Irish people (or so my non-Irish friends tell me!) Mainly when I’m speaking to a non-Irish person and I forget that the words I’m using actually are slang. And it tends to cause a bit of confusion, at times.

Photo by Arthur Ward via Tourism Ireland 1- 11: My Favourite Irish slang words and phrases

Another word for running late