Swords, Ireland
The Swords Accent
Swords sits inside the East Irish dialect area, which covers Dublin and the east of Ireland. The nearest other area is Northern Irish, about 57km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Swords sound like
- Rhotic R, unlike neighbouring England.
- A dental T — “tea” made with the tongue against the teeth.
- TH-stopping in traditional speech: “this thing” as “dis ting”.
- “Runners” for trainers and “mineral” for a fizzy drink outside the city.
These are the markers of the East Irish accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Swords has all of them — the full East Irish profile sets out where the region varies.
Swords against North Wales
Swords is close enough to the North Wales area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Swords | North Wales |
|---|---|---|
| When you say “car” by itself, do you pronounce an R sound at the end? | the R at the end of “car” is pronounced | “car” ends in a vowel, with no R sound |
Dialect areas near Swords
Is your accent from Swords?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the East Irish English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.