Six more useful Welsh prepositions

We recently posted an article going into depth on six of Welsh’s most common prepositions. These six are part of a larger set of prepositions often grouped together because they are simple, frequently used, and all cause a soft mutation to the next word. In this post, we’ll explore the other six of that set.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to prepositions is that they don’t function as exact translations of prepositions in English – or indeed any other language! – and you shouldn’t expect them to. They’re completely different words and their meanings and use cases work in completely different ways.

The only way to get really familiar with them is to practise reading and listening to as much Welsh content as possible. However, it’s often useful to have a basic grasp in what sort of contexts you might see them in before doing so, so I’m hoping these posts can serve as a grounding introduction to these useful but tricksy Welsh words. Let’s get into it!

7. Hyd

Hyd is a very commonly used Welsh noun meaning length, from the proto-Celtic *siti. Unlike most of the other words on this list, it does not inflect in colloquial Welsh. In South Wales it is a homophone of hud (magic) but in North Wales hud is pronounced differently.

It also works as a preposition or conjunction. This, of course, is the use case we’re talking about here, in which it means until. It is broadly synonymous with tan, which we’ll discuss soon.

Often, hyd needs to be paired with at in order to work as an equivalent to tan. You would say tan yfory (until tomorrow) but hyd at yfory, tan y Nadolig (until Christmas) but hyd at y Nadolig, and so on.

Another difference is that you can say nid tan y Nadolig (not until Christmas) but you would not say nid hyd at y Nadolig. It just doesn’t sound right. A good way to understand this is to translate hyd or hyd at in your head as more like up until rather than just until, which in English we do often hear in negative phrases.

The word nes is also used in many cases where we’d say until in English. In particular, it is often used specifically to mean until someone does something, rather than until a specific date or occasion. You can usually use tan in these cases too, or the compound term hyd nes.

The excellent online dictionary Gweiadur gives a good explanation of the differences between hyd, nes, and tan, which you may find helpful.

And, similarly to just at, hyd at can be used to mean up to in distance and not just in time, but it then specifically means up to x place and no further.

There are a huge number of very important set phrases based on hyd. Here are just some of them:

• dod o hyd i = to find
• hyd yn oed = even
• hyd nes = until
• hyd yn hyn = so far
• o hyd = still / always

There is also ar hyd, meaning along or all along. Technically this is based on the noun form; you can think of it as meaning on the length.

The last of the phrases listed above famously appears in the wonderful Welsh song Yma o Hyd (Still Here), which tells the national history of Wales and the resilience of the Welsh people. Here it is sung by the wonderful Dafydd Iwan, with an English translation provided.

8. I

I is of course a letter of the Welsh alphabet, as well as a pronoun meaning me, but it’s also a preposition. Its meanings are pretty broad but can mostly be categorised as the equivalent of three English words – to, for, and that.

When we use i to mean to in terms of direction, it means to a place, as opposed to at, which, as we discussed earlier, means to a person. You would send a llythyr (letter), for example, i Ffrainc (to France) but at Ffion (to Ffion). It can also mean to as in in order to, as in glanhau i helpu mam (cleaning to help mum), or to as in intention, prominently in the phrase mynd i (going to).

In English, this pattern applies much more widely. We often insert to in between two verbs when the first verb applies to the second. For example, trying to swim or hoping to play. This construction is often ‘borrowed’ into Welsh and i is inserted in between two verbs as a translation of to. But actually in Welsh you usually don’t need any connecting preposition between the two verbs. You can just say ceisio nofio or gobeithio chwarae.

Another context where i means to is in talking about amser (time). For example, pum munud i dri is five minutes to three.

And we use it to express relative place and direction, also, as in phrases such as i’r chwith (to the left), i lawr (downwards), i mewn (into), or i ffwrdd (away).

Lastly for to, i can express relationship. Mae’n fam i Sioned (she is Sioned’s mother, literally she is a mother to Sioned) – this sounds less formal in Welsh than it does in English.

There are also many cases where i means for. You talk about what you’re having i frecwast (for breakfast), and when giving an anrheg (present), either i or ar gyfer is used to say who it’s for. It is also used as for introducing an infinitive clause. Mae’n anodd i mi ddweud. (It’s hard for me to say.) Mae’n rhy gynnar i ni gael cinio (It’s too early for us to have lunch.)

I is only used to mean that in the past preterite tense, to introduce a content clause. This is a pretty formal construction usually only used in written language. You can read more about content clauses in Welsh here.

There are some miscellaneous uses of i that don’t fit neatly into the patterns we expect in English. We use it, for example, in adverbial time clauses. We don’t say before he goes, we literally say before to he goes, so cyn iddo fo fynd.

We also use it in phrases like rhaid iddych chi (you must) or achosi i Mair (causing Mary to), plus in the expressions i fod (supposed to be) and dal i (still, followed by a verb). It’s best to learn i within these set phrases as a whole chunk when you come across them.

And many verbs – including gofyn (to ask), ymchwilio (to research), addo (to promise), gorchymyn (to command), and cynnig (to offer) – are properly followed by i before their object. Again, with verbs in Welsh, it’s usually best to try to learn which prepositions generally follow them along with the verb itself, rather than trying to internalise around the unspoken ‘rules’ which decide this, as they’re often very different to what’s intuitive for an English speaker.

9. O

Like many words on this list, o has multiple meanings. It is a pronoun meaning he or him (used mainly in the North, since e is preferred in the South), a conjunction in the literary register meaning if or whether,and of course a letter of the alphabet.

As a preposition it means from or of, or works as a linking word.

Earlier in this article I talked through the difference between i and at when talking about direction. O is like the version of i for from – it means from a place. For example, teithiais o’r Almaen (I travelled from Germany). The version of at would be oddi wrth, as in the phrase cafodd hi arian oddi wrth Pedr (she got money from Pedr).

In relation to this directional meaning we have phrases like o gwmpas (around about), o flaen (in front of), and o amgylch (surrounding).

We use o to mean of in terms of the number or amount of something: saith ohonyn nhw (seven of them), llawer o bethau (lots of things), mil o bobl (a thousand people, literally a thousand of people), rhai o’r dynion (some of the men).

It is also of when an object is made of or full of a substance. You could have a cwpan o sudd (cup of juice), for example.

And in Welsh we often say that people are doing something of a particular emotion, like neidio o lawenydd (jumping for joy, literally jumping of joy). If you translate it as out of, it may seem a little more intuitive. A similar kind of pattern is happening in the phrase o ran (for the purpose of). This use of o is the ancestor of the word oherwydd (because) – this was originally two words, o herwydd (out of the cause of).

O is not normally necessary to translate phrases such as the father of the child. Here, we would say the same thing we say for the child’s father, aka tad y plentyn, which in English literally translates to father the child. You can read more about these kinds of expressions in our article on the genitive.

O is also often used as a linking word. The most common way in which we see this is in order to connect an adjective to emphasise or to modify another adjective, in expressions such as arbennig o dda (especially good), ofnadwy o bert (awfully pretty), or hynod o bwysig (remarkably important).

Another way in which we see o as a linking word is when expressing someone’s reaction to or opinion of something. For example, you might say falch o glywed! (good to hear!, literally glad of hearing!) when getting good news, or insist that you are benderfynol o fynd (determined to go, literally determined of going) somewhere despite being warned against it.

It also appears as a linking word in some miscellaneous idiomatic phrases like siwr o fod (surely, literally sure of being) and dod o hyd i (to find).

10. Tan / dan

Tan and dan are listed together here because they are technically two different versions of the same word, although today they are generally used to mean different things. Tan is the original form, from proto-Celtic *tanai, which originally meant both until and under. Now dan, the soft mutated form, has the meaning under and tan means until, except in literary Welsh or in particular set phrases.

Tan does not inflect in the colloquial language.

We discussed its use a bit earlier, but here are some example sentences:

• Fydd hi ddim yn mynd adref tan bump o’r gloch. = She won’t go home until five o’clock.
• Dw i’n mynd i aros tan fy mhenblwydd. = I’m going to wait until my birthday.
• Nac ydw, nid tan ddiwedd y sioe. = No, I’m not, not until the end of the show.
• Gad i ni aros tan iddyn nhw fynd. = Let’s wait until they go.

Another thing to remember about this word is that should not be confused with tân (fire), which has a longer vowel sound because of the accent.

Dan simply means under – sometimes in the form o dan, but they are usually interchangeable. You can use dan to describe something literally being under something else, as in mae’r gath o dan y gadair (the cat is under the chair), or in more figurative senses, such as i blant o dan ddeng mlwydd oed (for children under ten years old).

It appears in quite a few set phrases, most of which make sense when translated literally into English using the word under as a translation. Some examples include dan bwysau (under pressure), dan glo (under lock and key), dan ystyriaeth (under consideration), and dan ddylanwad (under influence). The English adjective disadvantaged is usually rendered dan anfantais (literally under disadvantage) in Welsh.

Sometimes dan is used to indicate that two things are happening at the same time, like while. In my experience, this is less common than using wrth or gan.

11. Trwy / drwy

Here we have another word very commonly encountered in two separate forms – although in this case it’s not actually because of mutation, even though it looks like it with the t and d version. Trwy and drwy are just two alternative forms of a Welsh word meaning through or by means of, which is actually an etymological cognate, albeit distantly, of the English through.

Throughout the rest of this section, you’ll mostly see me use drwy rather than trwy, simply to keep things consistent. However, it is okay to use trwy wherever you see drwy, and vice versa. They are completely interchangeable.

For the most part, wherever you would use through in English, drwy will usually be okay in Welsh. This applies to physical, literal contexts, such as drwy’r goedwig (through the forest), and to figurative contexts, such as mynd drwy (going through) something.

On a similar note you can use it to talk about time, as in the phrase drwy’r dydd (throughout the day). A good phrase to know here is drwy gydol which means throughout.

Drwy sometimes means by as in by means of. We actually do use through like this in English too – think of the sentence I diluted the juice by adding water. This does still make sense if you say I diluted the juice through adding water, it just sounds a bit more clunky. In Welsh, this sentence is Glastwreiddias y sudd drwy ychwanegu dŵr.

Like many Welsh prepositions, it can also technically be used to mean because or since, as in the phrase dw i’n ei nabod hi drwy ei bod hi’n gweithio ger fy ysgol (I know her through her working nearby my school). This is not so common outside of elegant written language because it is normally simpler and easier to just use achos (because) or one of the other alternatives.

Lastly, it appears in a couple of idiomatic phrases to mean with, such as tatws drwy’u crwyn (jacket potatoes, literally potatoes through their skin).

12. Wrth

It’s time for our very last word! Wrth is perhaps best translated as by. It comes from the Old Welsh gurt and ultimately from the proto-Indo-European root *wert (turn), making it a distant relation of the Latin versus.

It may look like it has no vowels, but as you can hear in the clip above, the w is of course pronounced as a vowel in Welsh. Sometimes in colloquial speech the r sound is smoothed over in this word.

Wrth means by in a simple directional sense, and it also means by in phrases such as wnaeth hi dorri’r gwpan wrth ei gostwng (she broke the cup by dropping it). It can also be used simply to suggest that two actions are happening simultaneously. It’s a bit like gan in this sense, although it’s not used at all to express possession, as gan is.

Some contexts where wrth is used we would probably translate as to, not by, in English. A good example of this is boch wrth foch (cheek to cheek). These kinds of phrases in Welsh also sometimes use yn instead of wrth. So, standing shoulder to shoulder / standing side by side usually appears as either ysgwydd wrth ysgwydd (literally shoulder by shoulder) or ochr yn ochr (literally side is side).

We also use it to mean to in the sense of towards, when we are talking about speaking to someone or expressing something to someone. Dylet ti ddweud wrthyn nhw am y ddamwain. (You should tell them about the accident.)

Here are some useful set phrases and idiomatic expressions in which wrth appears:

• wrth ymyl = by the edge of
• wrth gwrs = of course
• wrth ei fodd / wrth ei bodd = delighted
• wrth ben ei ddigon / wrth ben ei digon = delighted / very satisfied
• wrth lwc = luckily
• wrth law = at hand / by hand
• wrth rheswm = naturally / reasonably
• wrth edrych yn ôl = in retrospect
• wrth y drws = close by, literally by the door
• bod wrthi = to be at it

A last little note that the Welsh prefix gwrth– means against. This is not the same word as wrth but it sometimes appears in its soft-mutated form, in which case it does look the same as wrth, so it’s worth bearing in mind the similarity. As it happens, the two words are in fact cognates, despite their almost opposite meanings.

So, we’ve come to the end of this two-part series. I hope it was useful to you, if only as a starting point for exploring each word more on your own, and ultimately, getting to know it through getting to know the language. I can’t stress enough that prepositions for the most part need to be learnt in context – you won’t truly understand them if you only think of them in terms of their English translations, which don’t really do them justice.

How should you proceed if you want to dive deeper into the word of Welsh prepositions?  There are some other wonderful resources out there, and it’s always best to be learning in multiple ways at once.

If you prefer to learn with grammar books, Welsh tutors often recommend looking at Yr Arddodiad by D. Geraint Lewis. Another great source of information is dictionaries, and if you don’t have your own, there are plenty of decent online ones. Gweiadur is particularly good for explaining the different meanings of particular prepositions. And of course, you can always contact us with questions or for more information.

Another resource I can’t help but recommend is very fun video I remember my high-school teacher showing us to help us remember to use the treiglad meddal (soft mutation) after these twelve prepositions. It’s a bit of an earworm!

Are there any other Welsh prepositions you’ve been struggling with? Let us know which words you’d like to see included in a post like this in future, or even in a dedicated deep dive blog of their own.