and a's, which are the chief variants for Irish speakers. But here's how to do the i's. The Irish will say "v-ih-tamin" not "v-eye-tamin" - with the "i" sound from "if" not "hike." Harden your consonants The converse rule applies to consonants - to sound more Irish, you'll want to harden yours, not soften them. Think about it, one of the first things that you'll notice about the speech pattern of Europeans - even if their accent has faded - is that they sound like they are enunciating much more clearly than Americans. The best way to improve your enunciation is to focus on your consonants. A classic theatrical exercise for improving the clarity of actors' voices, which need to be projected well into a crowded house, is to emphasize consonants. The human ear learns much more about a word from its consonants than from its vowels - this is why we abbreviate words by simply deleting most of the vowels. The American trait of slurring consonants is most obvious with compound expressions: coulda, woulda, shoulda, wanna, gonna. Although some versions of the Irish dialect certainly do slur things - particularly when lubricated with th'auld elixir - the easiest rule for you to learn is to clip your words into distinct entities. So focus on turning those expressions distinctly into: could have, should have, would have, want to, going to. A good way to practice this elocution is to read aloud, aspirating loudly on each consonant. Pretend as though you're