Welsh Prepositions – Here are six to get you started!

Understanding how to use prepositions can be easily one of the trickiest parts of learning a new language. They just don’t map consistently from one language to another. There are several different words in Welsh that mean for, for example, depending on the circumstance. Similarly, the Welsh word am could be translated as various different English words.

But prepositions are crucial to sounding natural when speaking, and to sounding professional when writing – plus, making errors can slow down communication. Imagine being told someone was listening at the radio rather than listening to the radio; it would take a moment longer to understand.

There are also a couple of features of prepositions in Welsh that increase the challenge. Firstly, many Welsh prepositions cause a mutation to the next word.

Secondly, the majority of Welsh prepositions have to be ‘inflected’. Inflection is a bit like conjugation – it just means the end of the word changes depending on the grammar of the phrase. Luckily, unlike verb conjugations, preposition inflections don’t take into account the sentence’s tense. They only adapt based on who you’re talking about. So, the to in to her is different to the to in to me.

Some prepositions in Welsh are compound (made up of multiple words, like ar gyfer, which is one way of saying for) and some are simple. A really good starting point is to get familiar with twelve of the most common of the simple prepositions – am, ar, at, dros, gan, heb, hyd, i, o, tan, trwy, and wrth. They are short, basic, and very frequently used. They also all cause a soft mutation to the next word.

This article gives a brief introduction to how the first six of these twelve words are used. Leave a comment to let us know if there’s one that you’d like a more exhaustive treatment of!

1. Am

Am comes from the proto-Celtic *ambi, and is ultimately a cognate of the Latin prefix ambi- that we see in words like ambidextrous and ambivalent. As a preposition, it broadly has five meanings, which are for, about, at, on, and how.

Most cases where for is used in English should be translated as am in Welsh. Ask for is gofyn am, hope for is gobeithio am, look for is edrych am, go for is mynd am, exchange for is cyfnewid am,and so on and so forth. We also use it for for as in for such a length of time, like am wythnos (for a week). Many North Walians use amdan instead of am for for.

Another case in which am means for is when you are talking about being for something, as in in favour of it or willing to do it. This is a less formal construction than it would be in English. For example, dw i am ddod means I am for coming, but in English we would actually probably say I’m up for coming or I want to come instead.

Other prepositions sometimes used to mean for in Welsh include ar gyfer, i, dros, and at. The first is often over-used by learners, and should be only be used when you mean specifically for the benefit of / for purpose of. So, mae’r popty ar gyfer coginio (the oven is for cooking) or mae’r anrheg ar gyfer Mam (the present is for Mum). The latter three we’ll get to later!

The English about has a few meanings but one of the most common is on the subject of or concerning. In these cases, you can substitute it with am in Welsh. For example, you could say mae’r gân hon am gariad (this song is about love) or dw i’n meddwl amdano (I’m thinking about him / about it). In North Wales am in this sense may be replaced with amdan and in South Wales with ambiti. Both of these are very colloquial and only used in the spoken language.

Am also means at, but only in two contexts. The first is when talking about time. Mae’n digwydd am dri o’r gloch (it’s happening at three o’clock). The second is when talking about ability. Mae’n dda am sillafu (he / she is good at spelling).

It is very rare that am means on. It is only used this way when talking about clothing, and even here it is becoming less commonly used. An example would be mae ganddi het am ei ben (she has a hat on her head).

The last meaning of am as a preposition is how, but only in exclamations – as in am brydferth! (how beautiful!) or am wirion! (how silly!) In those examples it is paired with adjectives but you can also pair it with nouns for a similar effect. Am ferch brydferth! would mean what a beautiful girl! and am ferch wirion! would mean what a silly girl!

Am is not only a preposition but also a conjunction. As a conjunction, it means because. Like achos (also because), it triggers a content clause.

You can read more about the subtleties of am here.

2. Ar

Ar is most often translated as at or on, but unfortunately for the overwhelmed learner, its usage is much, much broader than that! Its ultimate root is the proto-Indo-European *uper (on, over, or above), but that doesn’t help us much when it comes to using it today, so let’s dive into what it means and when.

Firstly, ar means at a specific time.

• Dw i’n gweithio ar ddydd Llun. = I work on Mondays.
• Dewch yma ar unwaith! = Come here at once!
• Bydd hi’n gadael ar ddiwedd y ffilm. = She will leave at the end of the film.
• Dyn ni’n brysur ar hyn o bryd = We are busy at the moment.

It also means at in some other contexts like rhoi cynnig ar (to have a go at), gweiddi ar (shout at), or edrych ar (to look at).

Secondly, in a very basic sense, ar just means on. Mae’r gath ar y gadair (The cat is on the chair). Simple! But some non-literal uses of on translate to ar too, such as on time, which is ar amser.

Plus, in Welsh, we also say sometimes that emotions, states of being, or desires are on people, for example mae ofn arni hi (she is scared, literally fear is on her), or mae dyled arni hi (she is in debt, literally debt is on her). And it can describe particular qualities of an item, particularly sensory characteristics. You could say mae blas drwg ar y gwin ‘ma (this wine tastes bad, literally there is a bad taste on this wine).

Lots of verbs should be paired with ar, including many that an English speaker might not expect, such as dwli ar (to be obsessed with, to love), ymosod ar, (to attack), sylwi ar (to notice), dylanwadu ar (to influence),and, very importantly, gwrando ar (to listen to).

Finally, ar appears in many, many compound terms. Here’s just a few examples:

• ar draws = all across
• ar hyd = all along
• ar gyfer = for, as in for the benefit of or for the purpose of
• ar ôl = after
• ar y cyfan = on the whole
• ar agor = open
• ar gau = closed
• ar fin = about to

Like the other words in this list, ar causes a soft mutation. Interestingly, it also causes h-prosthesis (this is when a h is added to the start of a word beginning with a vowel) but only in one very specific case. Ar appears in some numbers, like un ar ddeg (eleven, literally one on ten) or saith ar hugain (twenty-seven, literally seven on twenty). As you can see, ar has transformed ugain (twenty) into hugain.

3. At

At is actually a variant of the original form ad / add, which is now obsolete. It mostly means to or towards, but usually specifically indicates going to a person, rather than to an object or place. We have this distinction in Welsh for from, too, and we’ll talk about that more when we get to o (from or of).

We also don’t use at before a verb. We use i instead. So I’m going to go is dw i’n mynd i fynd, and I’m going to the mayor’s office is dw i’n mynd i swyddfa’r maer, but I’m going to the mayor is dw i’n mynd at y maer.

Sometimes you can use at to refer to going to an object or place rather than a person, but in this case it specifically means up to, not just to generally. If you say dw i’n mynd at y lle it’s like saying I’m going up to the place but no further. So most of the time dw i’n mynd i’r lle will be the simpler and more appropriate choice. You can also use hyd at for this meaning.

At can also refer to a non-person in the case of set phrases that refer to direction, like nesáu at (nearing / getting closer to), tuag at (towards), and anelu at (aiming at). Some of these refer to direction in a figurative sense, such as cyfeirio at (referring to) and dwyn sylw at (drawing attention to).

The above is by far the most frequent and important meaning of at but there are some miscellaneous usages.

It is used to mean for in very specific cases. One is in preparation for, you might say you were cadw arian at y ‘Dolig (saving money for Christmas). Another is for making better, as in the phrase moddion at annwyd (medicine for a cold). It also appears as for in some set phrases like addas at (suitable for) and at achos (for a cause).

Another important miscellaneous usage is as the English at! We saw this in the phrase anelu at earlier, but it also works like this with the verbs rhyfeddu at (to marvel at), synnu at (to be surprised at), and cael at (to get at).

4. Dros

Dros, meaning over or for, is actually technically a soft mutation of tros, a form of traws (across). In modern Welsh it universally appears in this mutated form, which is why I’ve listed it under dros – in the second part of this article we’ll see a couple of prepositions that can appear either in unmutated or mutated form.

You can use dros in the vast majority of contexts where you would use over in English. It can mean:

• over as in movement over the top of: dros y mynydd (over the mountain)
• over as in more than: dros gant o bunnoedd (over a hundred pounds)
• over as in finished: mae’r cwbl drosodd (it’s all over)
• over as in located across from: mae’n byw dros y ffordd (he lives over the road)
• over as in over a period of time: dros y mis (over the month)
• over as in left over: chwech o fisgedi ac un dros ben (six biscuits and one left over)
• over as in all over: mae’n fudr drosto (it’s dirty all over)

As always, there are a few exceptions. One that comes up fairly often is that in some places where you’d say over in English, you’d say uwch (higher) or uwchben (literally higher-head) in Welsh. This is usually when something is suspended or travelling far over the top of something. You can think of it as a bit like a cross between over and above.

When dros means for, it most often means for as in on behalf of or for the cause of. A common context in which we see this usage is when talking about political representatives. For example, the Member of the Senedd for Ceredigion is yr Aelod o’r Senedd dros Geredigion.

Importantly we also see it when expressing the rheswm (reason) for something – y rheswm dros is the reason for. Or, if you feel bad for someone, in Welsh you say that you teimlo dros (feel for) that person.

As you can see, for is definitely one of the most tricky prepositions to translate into Welsh, since there are so many options. The best way to master them is to get a broad sense of the words you may hear in this context, and then to consume as much Welsh language content as possible to begin being able to use the different versions of for correctly and naturally.

Some terms are derived from dros, such as dros nos (overnight), dros dro (temporary), and the adverb drosodd which also means over.

5. Gan

Like dros, gan is technically a mutation of an older form (can) only heard in literary Welsh. Its root is the proto-Celtic *kanta, meaning together with. The words gant in Breton and gans in Cornish, also both meaning with, are derived from the same word.

You may be used to hearing gan in the phrase mae gen i (I have, literally it is with me). Here it’s inflected to gen – an example of the uninflected form would be mae gan Rhos (Rhos has, literally it is with Rhos). Gan is used in both North and South Wales but is more common in the North, where it’s sometimes pronounced gin.

This possession construction is used also in figurative senses, such as mae’n ddrwg gen i (I’m sorry, literally there is bad with me).

Because gan is often used to talk about possession, we hear the personal, inflected forms of it very often, and there are many different colloquial variations of it. I’ve listed as many as I’ve personally encountered in the inflection table, but there are quite a few! Listen out for the g and n sounds above anything else, because the vowels in between change a lot based on accent and region.

The phrases mae gen i, mae gan Rhos, mae ganddo fo (he has, literally it is with him) etcetera cause a soft mutation to whatever comes next. You can think of it as if the soft mutation that should be caused by all of the prepositions in this list has bypassed the i / Rhos / fo / whatever it is, and affected the next word along in the sentence.

To say that someone does not have something, we use the words does and dim. Our above examples would become does gen i ddim (I don’t have), does gan Rhos ddim (Rhos doesn’t have), and does ganddo fo ddim (he doesn’t have). You can see that dim has mutated to ddim – it’s ‘caught’ the mutation that we were speaking about above.

These does gan forms are often shortened to ‘sgan etcetera, especially in North Wales. ‘Sgen i ddim, ‘sgan Rhos ddim, ‘sganddo fo ddim.

Gan can mean with more broadly, but not often. You’d be more likely to hear efo in the North and gyda in the South. But this usage does appear in some set phrases, such as gan ofal (with care).

Plus, it is paired with verb-nouns to show that two actions are happening at the same time, much like while in English. Wrth is often used in this way too – we’ll discuss wrth more in the next part of this article. But you can say gwenodd wrth godi or gwenodd gan godi to mean he / she smiled while getting up. We can understand this by thinking that both actions are happening alongside each other, with each other.

Gan also often means by. For example, you might say prynwyd y paentiad gan Mari (the painting was bought by Mari), or use it to show authorship, as in y llyfr gan Ieuan (the book by Ieuan).

In a similar sense it can sometimes mean from. Y llyfr ges i gan Ieuan is the book I got from Ieuan. In this construction, you can think of it like Ieuan is the author of the action of giving.

Lastly, sometimes it is used to introduce the reason for something. This is in a slightly different way to achos. I’d say it’s better translated as since than because. Mae’n mynd adref gan ei fod o wedi blino means he’s going home since he’s tired.

6. Heb

Heb, ultimately from the proto-Celtic root *sekw- (to follow), means without. You can translate any English phrase using without very simply with the Welsh heb, whether what you’re without is a literal object, or whether you’re without doing something. Think coffi heb laeth (coffee without milk) or gadael heb dalu (to leave without paying).

You can also pair it with nid (not) to mean not without. For example, nid heb drafferth is not without trouble.

Some of the uses of heb aren’t how we’d use without in English, but you can still understand them pretty well by translating them as without; they make sense intuitively.

One of these is when you want to say you haven’t done something, say I haven’t slept. You can say what in English would literally be I am without sleeping, dw i heb gysgu. This is quite like the verbal meaning we were talking about earlier – gadael heb dalu – so you can see it makes sense.

Another is to alter verbs in the same way that the prefix un- and suffix –ed / –en do together in English. Just as eat becomes uneaten, bwyta can become heb ei fwyta / heb ei bwyta depending on the gender of the noun you’re talking about, literally without its eating. Or agor (to open) could become heb ei agor / heb ei hagor (unopened, literally without its opening).

Some other words are derived from heb, like heblaw (except), and, interestingly, the adverb heibio (past, as in to go past). Heblaw is a combination of heb with llaw (a hand). It’s often paired with am, meaning except for. Technically it’s okay to use it on its own without the am, though that does sound pretty formal.

There are a couple of small grammatical notes to make about heb before we finish up. Firstly, and without is a heb, not ac heb. This is a pretty common mistake made even by some native speakers. Secondly, even though double negatives are usually used in Welsh, they aren’t for heb. You would say roedd o heb fynd (he hadn’t gone, literally he was without going), rather than doedd o heb fynd (he wasn’t without going).

Phew, that was a lot of information! Hopefully, you learnt something new about Welsh prepositions today. Remember it’s always best to try and learn prepositions for what they are in the language that you’re learning, without always needing to make reference to translations in your first language. A lot of the time, one language simply doesn’t make much sense when viewed through the lense of another one. You have to approach each tongue on its own terms.

We’ll soon be releasing another article discussing hyd, i, o, tan, trwy, and wrth – so stay tuned for that, and let us know in the comments if you have any particular questions or concerns you’d like to address in that article.