Irish English

     "This is strong stuff, so it is."

     "We won the game, so we did."

     "She is a right lash, so she is."

     There are some language forms that stem from the fact that there is no verb 'to have' in Irish. Instead, possession is indicated in Irish by using the preposition 'at', (in Irish, ag.). To be more precise, Irish uses a prepositional pronoun that combines ag "at" and me "me" to create agam. In English, the verb "to have" is used, along with a "with me" or "on me" that derives from ‘‘Tá....agam.

     "Do you have the book? I have it with me. "

      "Have you change for the bus on you?"

     "He will not shut up if he has drink taken."

     Somebody who can speak a language 'has' a language, in which Hiberno-English has borrowed the grammatical form used in Irish.

     'She does not have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici. literally 'There is no Irish at her'.

     When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may use the term 'in it' where 'there' would usually be used. This is due to the Irish word ann (pronounced "oun") fulfilling both meanings.

     "Is it yourself that is in it? An tú  féin atá ann? "

     Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as 'this man here' or 'that man there', which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

     "This man here. An fear seo." (anseo = here)

     "That man there. An fear sin." (ansin = there)

     Conditionals have a greater presence in Irish English due to the tendency to replace the simple present tense with the conditional (would) and the simple past tense with the conditional perfect (would have).

     "John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread" ('John asked me to buy a loaf of bread')

     "How do you know him? We would have been in school together." ('We went to school together')

     Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of English, because it follows the Gaelic grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; person determines Irish usage. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". Nevertheless, in Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else – and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from).

     "Do not forget to bring your umbrella with you when you go."

     (To a child) "Hold my hand: I do not want someone to take you." 

     Turns of phrase

     Amn't is used as an abbreviation of "am not", by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't". This can be used as a tag question ("I'm making a mistake, amn't I?"), or as an alternative to "I'm not" ("I amn't joking"), and the double negative is also used ("I'm not late, amn't I not?"). This construction occurs also in Scottish English.

     Arra is used also. Arra tends to be used after something bad has happened, when someone is looking on the bright side ("Arra, we'll go next week", "Arra, 'tis not the end of the world"). Arra comes from the Irish word "dhera" (pronounced "yerra"). As a result, the words yerra and erra are also used in different parts of the country.

     Come here to me now, Come here and I'll tell ya something or (in Limerick) Come here I wan' cha is used to mean "Listen to this" or "I have something to tell you" and can be used as "Come here and tell me". The phrase "Tell me this", short for "Tell me this and tell me no more", is also common. These phrases tend to imply a secretiveness or revelatory importance to the upcoming piece of information.

      Reduplication is an alleged trait of Hiberno-English strongly associated with stage-Irish and Hollywood films (to be sure, to be sure). It is virtually never used in reality.

     "ar bith" corresponds to English "at all", so the stronger "ar chor ar bith" gives rise to the form "at all at all"

     "I've no money at all at all."

     English phrases are "to be sure" and "to be sure to be sure". In this context, these are not, as might be thought, disjuncts meaning "certainly"; they could better be translated in case and "just in case". 

      "I brought some cash in case I saw a bargain, and my credit card 'to be sure to be sure'."

     So is often used for emphasis ("I can speak Irish, so I can"), or it may be tacked on to the end of a sentence to indicate agreement, where "then" would often be used in Standard English ("Bye so", "Let's go so", "That's fine so", "We'll do that so"). The word is also used to contradict a negative statement ("You're not pushing hard enough" - "I am so!").

      To is often omitted from sentences where it would exist in British English. For example, "I'm not allowed go out tonight", instead of "I'm not allowed to go out tonight".