Hi Bob, I'm in no way a native speaker, but here are a couple of tips that I worked out myself: Vowels are often added in writing to modify the consonant - that is, you see them but you don't say them. Think of the "s" sounds in "Suí sios". If a consonant its in the middle of a word, it is sandwiched by either by two slender vowels (i, e) or two broad vowels (a, o , u). The other confusing thing is adding the "h" (it used to be a dot!). This always changes the pronunciation, but we can still recognise the original word in writing. Also, you'll see that "buffer consonants" are added for euphony. Compare "sráid" to "An tSráid Mór". Again, the spelling reminds us of the original word (much like the "odd" spellings in English) but the pronunciation changes. Your tip here is the "N" sound. Hope that helps!

Thanks Veronika! I took up your suggestion and have been using memorise.com heaps since then - great to get a feel for the spelling and also to get lots of vocal without much effort. Thanks for the tip!

Dia duit, a Rob! I'm also a beginner and I've struggled, like you, with Irish pronunciation and spelling (and I still am). Using Memrise.com to learn new words has helped me a lot, since you get both spelling, meaning and often pronunciation too. I've used a couple of the different "courses" they offer, but the two I like the most so far are "Vocabulary - Gaeilge gan Stró - Irish TEG A1" and "Beginner Irish: First step to spoken Irish 01-20 ". They both give the pronunciation for all words in them. After a few weeks of learning vocabulary, I've discovered I now more and more often know how to spell things automatically, even though the word is new to me. :) Memrise.com is a free (online) resource. Hope this helps! Slán go fóill! //Veronika