What's the difference between istigh and laistigh, and between amuigh and lasmuigh? This is one of those things that was explained to me a few times, but I still can't make sense of it.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Looks like laistigh, lasmuigh and all these words with las- are followed by the preposition "de" to say "inside something", "outside something" etc, while amuigh, ist(o)igh are only adverbs that aren't followed by a noun: (to be) outside, (to be) inside, etc.
Btw, the words with las- are Munster Irish, I think. In Ulster we say "taobh+(amuigh, istoigh...)+do+noun".

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Thanks Lughaidh. Actually seems simple enough when you explain it like that.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Wait for opinions from Munster Irish specialists... I'm not familiar with these lasmuigh laistigh etc words.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Taobh amuigh de (+ noun) and taobh istigh de (+ noun) in Connacht too.

De is pronounced like go /gə/.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Can any Munster speakers confirm/correct/expand on Lugaidh's explanation?


Thanks Breandán. Nice to know how other dialects say these things too.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Here's what I was taught:
istigh – inside
laistigh de – inside of (something)

amuigh – outside
lasmuigh de – outside of (something)

Here's another use of lasmuigh from Teach Yourself Irish:
lasmuigh díom-sa – except myself

And from the dictionary on the Cork Irish web-site:
laistigh de sheachtain – within a week, in less than a week
lasmuigh ar fad de – quite apart from

Sin a bhfuil.

That makes good sense. I was taught to think of istigh as meaning inside", and laistigh as meaning "within", and the opposites as "outside" and "without", in the now old-fashioned sense of "without" in English, as in "He is without the house" (= "He is somewhere other than within the house"), and that works well with the examples above like "within the house" or "within a/the week".

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Inside/within and outside/without was how I was taught too. But I didn't really get what the difference was in English, so it wasn't much help to me. It's all much clearer now with WeeFaolorieMan's examples.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

It helps me whenever I can "match" the Irish that I am learning, with any intelligible way of saying it in English.

For example:
lasmuigh de – outside of
lasmuigh den tigh – outside of the house

If you think of saying it like that in English, which by the way is exactly the same, word for word, as in Irish, you'll always remember and understand how it works in Irish. It helps me anyway.