“Friend” in Irish

The word for “friend” in Irish is “cara”. To say “my friend”, we say “mo chara”. You may recognise the phrase ‘mo chara’ as it is the name of one of the members of Irish rap trio Kneecap!

When addressing someone as “my friend”, we use the vocative case, so the phrase becomes “a chara”. If you’re meeting your friend, and you want to ask them how they’re doing, you would say “Conas atá tú, a chara?”, which means “How are you, my friend?”

If you want to talk about your friends, rather than the singular, you can say “mo chairde”. When addressing your friends, this takes on the vocative case described above, becoming “a chairde”. So, “Conas atá sibh, a chairde?” would be “How are you, my friends?”

Watch the video to practice your pronunciation of the words “cara”, “mo chara”, and “mo chairde”, and be sure to check out our other videos. If you would like to practice saying these phrases with others, come along to our next Free Workshop or join a 7-week Introductory course – beidh fáilte romhat, a chara!