Apps
DuoLingo
Links
Duolingo is a language-learning app that offers gamified lessons in various languages, including Irish. It uses bite-sized exercises to teach vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation through interactive activities like matching words, translating sentences, and speaking challenges.
Duolingo provides a structured course that covers beginner to intermediate levels. Absolute beginners start with basic phrases, simple sentence structures, and essential vocabulary. As learners progress, they unlock more complex grammar concepts like verb conjugations, noun mutations, and prepositional pronouns. The app reinforces learning through spaced repetition and offers practice sessions for weak areas.
!
Watch out
DuoLingo Irish has received criticism for poor quality and incorrect pronunciation. Using only this resource is not recommended.
Anki
Anki is a flashcard-based learning tool that uses spaced repetition to help users memorize and retain information efficiently. It allows learners to create or download pre-made decks with text, images, audio, and even video. Anki is highly customizable, letting users adjust study schedules based on their progress and memory retention.
Links
Google Translate
Google Translate
!
Watch out
Google Translate is a free multilingual translation tool that supports Irish and many other languages. It allows users to translate text, speech, and images containing written words. It is useful for quick translations of words, phrases, or entire sentences, but its accuracy varies depending on language complexity and context.
Google Translate can help with vocabulary building and understanding basic sentence structures. Beginners can use it to look up individual words or short phrases.
Learners should be cautious, as Google Translate sometimes produces unnatural or incorrect translations, particularly with complex grammar or conversational nuances.
Google Translate has low accuracy for Irish and can produce incorrect or unnatural translations. This also applies to translation of YouTube captions, see image.
Links
The Irish dialog in the top image translates to:
"I came back to be fair to you and to Fia."
Google Translate poorly translated the text in the lower image. The word "féaráilte" was incorrectly translated as "feed". The girls' name Fia was directly translated to "deer".
Translation date: February 2025.
