The usual way to say I love you in Irish is Tá grá agam duit (taw GRAW AG-um ditch), literally “there is love at me for you”. To more than one person, say Tá grá agam daoibh (taw GRAW AG-um deev). Mo ghrá thú and Is tú mo ghrá mean “you are my love”, and Tá mé i ngrá leat means “I’m in love with you”. Is breá liom thú is good Irish but usually lighter. And if your nana called you alanna, acushla, asthore, mavourneen or machree, those are Irish words spelled the English way.
Three little words, and in Irish they don’t work the way you’d expect.
Irish does have a verb meaning “to love”, gráigh (GRAW, or GRAWG in Munster), but the everyday way to say it uses a noun instead: love is something that is “at” you, for another person. Once you see that, the rest falls into place.
Here are the main ways to say it, the old words your nana may have used, which phrase is stronger, 27 terms of endearment, the film that misspelled one, and what to write in a card. The Irish here was checked in Ó Dónaill’s dictionary (teanglann.ie) and focloir.ie, and the longer phrases follow their examples.
Jump to:
- How to say I love you in Irish
- Alanna, acushla, asthore, mavourneen and machree: Nana’s Irish words
- Tá grá agam duit or Is breá liom thú: which is stronger?
- Saying it to the whole family
- Mo ghrá thú, Is tú mo ghrá and Tá mé i ngrá leat
- 27 Irish terms of endearment
- Mo chuisle and Million Dollar Baby’s “Mo Cuishle”
- Grá, searc, cion and gean: the Irish words for love
- How to sign a card or text in Irish
- Common mistakes and the right forms
- I love you in Irish: FAQ
- More Irish love and language reading
How to say I love you in Irish
The respellings are rough guides; Kerry, Connemara and Donegal each say things a little differently.
| Irish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Tá grá agam duit | taw GRAW AG-um ditch | I love you. The standard phrase. |
| Tá grá agam ort | taw GRAW AG-um urt | I love you. Same meaning, different little word. |
| Is tú mo ghrá | iss TOO muh GHRAW | You are my love. |
| Mo ghrá thú! | muh GHRAW hoo | You’re my love! Ó Dónaill translates it I love you! |
| Mo chroí thú! | muh KHREE hoo | I love you dearly. Literally “my heart, you”. |
| Tá mé i ngrá leat | taw may ih NGRAW lyat | I’m in love with you. |
| Tá mo chroí istigh ionat | taw muh KHREE ish-TEE UN-ut | I’m mad about you. Literally “my heart is inside you”. |
| Tá grá mór agam duit | taw GRAW MORE AG-um ditch | I love you very much. |
| Beidh grá agam duit go deo | bay GRAW AG-um ditch guh JOH | I’ll love you forever. |
| Tá grá agamsa duit freisin | taw GRAW AG-um-suh ditch FRESH-in | I love you too. |
Why love is “at” you
Word by word:
- Tá (taw): is, or there is.
- grá (GRAW): love.
- agam (AG-um): at me. It’s ag (eg), at, and mé (may), me, joined into one word.
- duit (ditch): to you, or for you. It’s do (duh), to, and tú (too), you, joined.
So the sentence says “love is at me for you”. Irish has no verb “to have”, so feelings and belongings work like this all the time: you don’t “have” a car, a car is “at” you.
It’s the same phrase for a husband, wife, child or grandchild.
Duit or ort?
Both are right. Ó Dónaill’s dictionary pairs grá with both do (to) and ar (on) for “to love someone”, and the New English-Irish Dictionary lists both versions as “I love you”.
Hearing it said
Teanglann.ie has recordings of single words in Connacht, Munster and Ulster Irish.
- In Cork and Waterford, agam is stressed on the second syllable: uh-GUM.
- Munster speakers often say táim (TAWM) for tá mé, so Táim i ngrá leat.
- The gh in ghrá is a soft, throaty sound, but a plain “graw” is understood.
To go further, see my guide to learning Irish online.
Alanna, acushla, asthore, mavourneen and machree: Nana’s Irish words
If your nana ever called you alanna or acushla, she was speaking a little Irish to you, even if she never spoke a sentence of it.
Irish families kept their old pet names when they switched to English, spelled as English ears heard them. The words crossed the Atlantic too: Merriam-Webster, an American dictionary, still lists acushla, asthore, mavourneen and machree.
If you would rather watch than read, here are all five in under 30 seconds.
| Nana said | The Irish (say it) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| alanna | a leanbh (uh LAN-uv) | my child |
| acushla | a chuisle (uh KHISH-luh, or uh KHWISH-luh) | pulse, as in “pulse of my heart” |
| asthore | a stór (uh STORE) | my treasure |
| mavourneen | mo mhuirnín (muh VOOR-neen) | my darling |
| machree | mo chroí (muh KHREE) | my heart |
Why some start with “a” and some with “m”
The a in alanna, acushla and asthore (said “uh”) is the vocative particle, a little word Irish puts before a name or pet name when you speak to someone. Ó Dónaill’s example is A Dhia!, “O God!”, but in English it usually comes out as “my”.
Mavourneen and machree start with mo, which really does mean “my”. Both a and mo add an h after most first consonants, so muirnín becomes mhuirnín, said with a v or w sound. Words beginning with st, like stór, never take it.
The five words, one by one
- Alanna: in 1910 the scholar P. W. Joyce glossed it “my child” in English As We Speak It in Ireland, writing leanbh as “lannav”. Ó Dónaill gives A leanbh! as “My child! My darling!” In Ulster and parts of Mayo it ends closer to oo: uh LAN-oo.
- Acushla: cuisle is a pulse, or a vein. Joyce links acushla to cushlamochree, “pulse of my heart”, and Ó Dónaill translates A chuisle mo chroí! as “My heart’s beloved!” Ulster says uh KHUSH-luh, and a slight w-like glide after the ch can make it sound like uh KHWISH-luh. Macushla is mo chuisle.
- Asthore: Joyce’s “my treasure”. Stór is a store, and so a treasure; Ó Dónaill gives A stór! as “Darling!”
- Mavourneen: Merriam-Webster dates it in English to 1800, and Joyce says it was used all through Ireland. Connacht and Ulster usually say muh WOOR-neen, and Munster stresses the end: muh voor-NEEN. Avourneen is a mhuirnín.
- Machree: Joyce spells it mochree, as in cushlamochree, and gives it no entry of its own, but Merriam-Webster has it, as “my dear”. In 1910 came the song Mother Machree, by Chauncey Olcott, Ernest R. Ball and Rida Johnson Young, published in New York.
Cover of Ireland, I Love You, Acushla Machree!, a song by Raymond A. Browne, published by Sol Bloom, New York, as a music supplement to the Boston Sunday Herald, 21 August 1904. New York Public Library. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Nana itself is English: focloir.ie gives mamó (MAM-oh) for nana, as my guide to Irish names for grandma explains. Names were respelled the same way, which is how Máirín became Maureen (see anglicized Irish names), and so were English words from Irish like galore, from go leor.
More from Joyce’s 1910 list
Joyce has more: agra or agraw (a ghrá, “my love”) and aroon (a rún, “my love, my dear”), as in the old air Eileen Aroon (Eibhlín a Rún, EV-leen uh ROON, or eye-LEEN in Munster). He also noted gra on its own. When he asked a man back from America why he’d come home, the answer was: “I have great gra for the old country.”
Tá grá agam duit or Is breá liom thú: which is stronger?
You’ll find Is breá liom thú (iss BRAW lum hoo) on mugs, cards and plenty of websites as “I love you”. It’s good Irish, but not quite the same thing.
Breá means fine or lovely, and is breá liom is how Irish usually says “I love” about things, places and pastimes. Focloir.ie translates “she loves football” as is breá léi an pheil (iss BRAW lay un FEL).
When focloir.ie translates “I love you” to a partner, it gives tá mé i ngrá leat, tá grá agam duit, tá grá agam ort and grá mo chroí thú (GRAW muh KHREE hoo). Is breá liom thú isn’t on the list.
- Tá grá agam duit for the real thing: a partner, a spouse, your children.
- Is breá liom thú for warm affection, closer to “I’m very fond of you”. Some speakers use it romantically, but for a proposal, tá grá agam duit is safer.
- Is maith liom thú (iss MAH lum hoo) is simply “I like you”.
Saying it to the whole family: daoibh
Duit means “to you” for one person. For two or more, it becomes daoibh (deev):
- Tá grá agam daoibh (taw GRAW AG-um deev): I love you (to two or more).
- Tá grá agam daoibh go léir (taw GRAW AG-um deev guh LAYR): I love you all.
- Tá grá agam oraibh (taw GRAW AG-um OR-iv): the ort version.
Mo ghrá thú, Is tú mo ghrá and Tá mé i ngrá leat
In Mo ghrá thú, mo ghrá is “my love” and thú is “you”, so it’s “you’re my love”. Ó Dónaill translates it simply as I love you!
Is tú mo ghrá is the full sentence, “you are my love”. In Tá mé i ngrá leat, “I’m in love with you”, grá picks up an n after i (in): ih NGRAW. “I fell in love with you” is Thit mé i ngrá leat (hitch may ih NGRAW lyat).
27 Irish terms of endearment
Irish pet names do the work of love, dear and darling. Focloir.ie notes that a stór, a chroí and a thaisce are even used to strangers.
The rules from Nana’s words apply here too, so grá becomes a ghrá or mo ghrá. Many masculine names also change their ending when addressed, so Seán becomes a Sheáin (uh HYAWN). You’ll meet both a rún and a rúin, as in the song title Siúil a Rúin (SHOOL uh ROON).
Everyday pet names
| Irish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1. a ghrá | uh GHRAW | my love, dear |
| 2. a stór | uh STORE | darling. Stór is a store, or treasure. |
| 3. a chroí | uh KHREE | my heart, dear |
| 4. a stóirín | uh STOH-reen | little treasure, sweetheart |
| 5. a thaisce | uh HASH-kuh | my dear. Taisce is a hoard of treasure, and also a bank deposit. |
| 6. a rún | uh ROON | my dear. Rún also means a secret. |
| 7. a mhuirnín | uh VOOR-neen (Connacht and Ulster: uh WOOR-neen; Munster: uh voor-NEEN) | my darling, sweetheart |
| 8. a chuisle | uh KHISH-luh (Ulster: uh KHUSH-luh) | darling. Literally “pulse”. |
| 9. a leanbh | uh LAN-uv | my child, my darling |
| 10. a pheata | uh FAT-uh | my pet |
Heart-of-my-heart phrases
| Irish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 11. grá mo chroí | GRAW muh KHREE | love of my heart |
| 12. a chuisle mo chroí | uh KHISH-luh muh KHREE | pulse of my heart, my beloved |
| 13. a stór mo chroí | uh STORE muh KHREE | treasure of my heart |
| 14. a rún mo chroí | uh ROON muh KHREE | love of my heart |
| 15. mo mhíle stór | muh VEE-luh STORE | my dearest love. Literally “my thousand treasures”. |
| 16. mo mhuirnín dílis | muh VOOR-neen JEE-lish | my own true love |
| 17. mo ghrá geal | muh GHRAW GYAL | my sweetheart. Literally “my bright love”. |
| 18. m’anam ionat | MAN-um UN-ut | my dearest. Literally “my soul in you”. |
Mavourneen (1877), James Tissot’s etching and drypoint of his companion Kathleen Newton, titled after the song Kathleen Mavourneen. Honolulu Museum of Art. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Older and rarer ones
| Irish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 19. mo shearc | muh HARK | my love, my beloved |
| 20. mo chéadsearc | muh HYAYD-shark | my first love |
| 21. a chumann | uh KHUM-un | my darling. Cumann also means a club or society. |
| 22. a mhaoineach | uh WEE-nyukh | my dear one. Literally “treasured possession”. |
| 23. a lao | uh LEE (Munster: uh LAY) | my dear. Literally “calf”. Mo lao thú (muh LEE hoo) means “you are my darling”. |
| 24. a chiallaigh | uh HEE-uh-lee | my dear |
| 25. plúr na mban | PLOOR nuh MAN | flower of women, a compliment |
For friends
| Irish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 26. a chara | uh KHAR-uh | my friend. Also the “Dear…” at the top of a letter. |
| 27. m’anamchara | MAN-um-khar-uh | my soul friend, my soulmate |
A word on anam cara: the dictionaries spell it as one word, anamchara. Ó Dónaill (1977) gives only “spiritual adviser”, while focloir.ie now offers it for “soulmate”, a sense that owes a great deal to John O’Donohue’s 1997 book Anam Cara. Mo shortens to m’ before a vowel, hence m’anamchara. More in my guide to anam cara.
Mo chuisle and Million Dollar Baby’s “Mo Cuishle”
In Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning boxing film Million Dollar Baby (2004), trainer Frankie Dunn gives his fighter, Maggie Fitzgerald, a nickname stitched on her emerald-green robe: Mo Cuishle.
Crowds cheer her into the ring with it, and only near the end does Frankie say what it means: “my darling, my blood”, in the words of the American Film Institute catalog.
The spelling isn’t Irish, though. The standard form is mo chuisle (muh KHISH-luh), “my pulse, my darling”, or a chuisle when you’re speaking to the person.
The film’s version drops the h that mo puts after the c, and adds an h after the s that Irish doesn’t need: with an i just before it, that s already sounds like “sh”.
And “my blood”? Ó Dónaill gives cuisle as a vein, a pulse or the wrist, and lists the endearment under pulse, but Merriam-Webster says macushla literally means “my vein, my blood”, so the film’s line is a fair poetic reading.
Grá, searc, cion and gean: the Irish words for love
Grá (GRAW) is the everyday word, and the widest. Ó Dónaill uses it for love of a person, of God (grá Dé, graw JAY), of country and language, even of sweets.
Love of country is tírghrá (TEER-ghraw), a love song is an amhrán grá (OW-rawn GRAW), and a love letter is a litir ghrá (LITCH-ir GHRAW).
Searc (SHARK) also means love, and a beloved. It sounds more poetic, and turns up in set phrases: mo shearc (my love), mo chéadsearc (my first love) and searc mo chléibh (SHARK muh KHLAYV), love of my bosom. A true-love knot is a snaidhm seirce (SNIME SHER-kuh), a nice detail if you’re choosing a Celtic love knot. For longer lines, see the best Irish love poems.
For fondness rather than romance, Irish has cion (KYUN) and gean (GYAN). Tá cion agam ort (taw KYUN AG-um urt) and tá gean agam ort (taw GYAN AG-um urt) both mean “I’m fond of you”. You can also say Tá mé an-cheanúil ort (taw may AN-hyan-ool urt), “I’m very fond of you”.
How to sign a card or text in Irish
Sign-offs
- Le grá (leh GRAW): with love.
- Le grá ó (leh GRAW oh): love from.
- Le grá mór ó Mham (leh GRAW MORE oh VAM): “with all my love, Mam”, focloir.ie’s own example.
- Grá mór (GRAW MORE): lots of love.
- Le gean ó (leh GYAN oh): with affection from.
- Póg (POHG): a kiss. Póga (POH-guh): kisses. Barróga (BAR-oh-guh): hugs. For the kiss at the bottom of a letter, focloir.ie uses póigín (POH-geen).
Texts and messages
- Oíche mhaith, a stóirín (EE-huh WAH, uh STOH-reen): goodnight, love.
- Tá grá agam duit, a chroí (taw GRAW AG-um ditch, uh KHREE): I love you, my heart.
- Braithim uaim thú (BRAH-him OO-um hoo) or Cronaím thú (KRUN-eem hoo): I miss you.
Emigrants Leave Ireland, an engraving by Henry Doyle for Mary Frances Cusack’s An Illustrated History of Ireland (1868). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Valentine’s Day is Lá Fhéile Vailintín (law AY-luh VAL-in-teen), and a valentine card is a cárta vailintín (KAWR-tuh VAL-in-teen). See my Valentine’s Day wishes with an Irish touch, and for wedding lines and blessings, my Irish sayings about love.
Engraving a ring or choosing a tattoo
Short is safest: mo chroí, a chuisle, grá mo chroí or m’anamchara. Check every fada before you pay. The fada always slants up to the right, like the accent in café.
My guide to the Claddagh ring meaning explains which hand it goes on and which way the heart should point.
Common mistakes and the right forms
- Mo Cuishle: write mo chuisle.
- mo grá: write mo ghrá. And a grá without the h means “her love”; to speak to your love, write a ghrá.
- Tá grá agam tú: write Tá grá agam duit. You need duit (to you), not tú.
- i grá leat: write i ngrá leat.
- mo anam cara: write m’anamchara.
- Missing fadas: a fada can change the word. Sean (SHAN) means old; Seán (SHAWN) is the name.
- asthore, mavourneen, machree: fine in English, but in Irish write a stór, mo mhuirnín and mo chroí.
I love you in Irish: FAQ
How do you say I love you in Irish?
Tá grá agam duit (taw GRAW AG-um ditch). To more than one person, say Tá grá agam daoibh (taw GRAW AG-um deev).
What’s the difference between tá grá agam duit and is breá liom thú?
Tá grá agam duit is the dictionary’s romantic “I love you”. Is breá liom is mostly used for loving things, so Is breá liom thú usually sounds lighter.
What does mo chuisle mean?
“My pulse” (cuisle also means a vein). It’s a term of endearment meaning “my darling”, spelled “Mo Cuishle” in Million Dollar Baby.
What does mavourneen mean?
“My darling”, from the Irish mo mhuirnín (muh VOOR-neen).
How do you say “my love” in Irish?
Mo ghrá (muh GHRAW). When you’re speaking to the person, say a ghrá (uh GHRAW).
How do you say soulmate in Irish?
Focloir.ie gives anamchara (AN-um-khar-uh) and cara cléibh (KAR-uh KLAYV), a bosom friend. “My soulmate” is m’anamchara.
How do you say “I miss you” in Irish?
Braithim uaim thú (BRAH-him OO-um hoo), roughly “I feel you gone from me”, or Cronaím thú (KRUN-eem hoo).
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Pin image: Lough Ouler, the heart-shaped lake below Tonelagee in the Wicklow Mountains. Photo: Rob Hurson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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More Irish love and language reading
- Anam Cara Meaning: How Ireland’s Soul Friend Went From Confessor to Soulmate
- Irish Names for Grandma and Grandpa: Mamó, Móraí, Daideo and More (With Pronunciation)
- English Words From Irish: 27 You Use Every Day (and the Famous Fakes)
- Irish Sayings About Love: Phrases, Blessings and Quotes in Irish
- 12 Most Beautiful Irish Love Poems For Weddings, Valentine’s Day And More
- Claddagh Ring Meaning: Which Hand, Heart In or Out, and the Galway Legend Behind It
- Celtic Love Knot Meaning: The Real History Behind the Lovers’ Knot
- Valentine’s Day Wishes With an Irish Touch (for Your Wife, Husband or Partner)
Featured image: Lough Ouler, the heart-shaped lake below Tonelagee in the Wicklow Mountains. Photo: Rob Hurson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.