Our Welsh word of the day today is rheoli, which has a whole range of different meanings. To rule, to manage, to govern, to direct, to control, to regulate – they can all be expressed in some way or another through the one simple word rheoli.
rheoli
to rule / to manage
Rheoli is the verbal form of rheol, a feminine noun which means a rule. It’s a borrowing from the Latin word regula which was also lent into English; that’s why rheol and rule sound so similar.
Only one mutation affects rheoli – the limited soft mutation.
Soft mutation
reoli
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
The first and most obvious translation of rheoli is to rule. For example, a brenin (king) is responsible for rheoli ei deyrnas (ruling his kingdom).
econdly, it means to manage in the sense of managing gweithwyr (workers). There isn’t really any other word in common usage for this. It can feel a bit weird to new speakers having the same word for rule as for manage – especially when you come across derived terms like the word rheolwr, which means both manager and ruler in Welsh. I promise you’ll get used to it!
Or take rheolaeth, meaning both management in a specific career, and referring to the abstract concept of control. And there are even more related terms, like rheolaidd (regular) and rheolydd (regulator).
Note that it doesn’t mean manage in terms of to manage to do something. In this case, we would normally instead go for the word llwyddo (to succeed).
So we have to rule and we have to manage. Generally, the other meanings all derive from or relate to these first two meanings in some way. The bottom line is that rheoli is a much more generic word than rule is in English.
It comes up in some particularly specific contexts, too. For example, to direct traffic is rheoli traffig, and you can tell someone to rheolwch eich hun (control yourself / restrain yourself).
O wel, allet ti’m rheoli’r tywydd.
Oh well, you can’t control the weather.
So what kind of things can a person be in charge of rheoli? We’ve talked teyrnasoedd, gweithwyr and traffig, but there’s also:
- cwmni = a company
- busnes = a business
- siop = a shop
- tŷ = a house
- ystâd= an estate
- tir = land
- taith = a journey / an expedition
- llong = a ship
Before we finish today, let’s take a look at the most useful everyday conjugations of rheoli.
| Future | Conditional | Past | |
| First person singular | Rheola (i) I will rule / manage | Rheolwn (i) I would rule / manage | Rheolais (i) I ruled / managed |
| First person plural | Rheolwn (ni) We will rule / manage | Rheolen (ni) We would rule / manage | Rheolon (ni) We ruled / managed |
| Second person singular / informal | Rheoli (di) You will rule / manage | Rheolet (ti) You would rule / manage | Rheolaist (ti) You ruled / managed |
| Second person plural / formal | Rheolwch (chi) You will rule / manage | Rheolech (chi) You would rule / manage | Rheoloch (chi) You ruled / managed |
| Third person singular | Rheoliff / Rheolith (ef/hi) He/she will rule / manage | Rheolai (ef/hi) He/she would rule / manage | Rheolodd (ef/hi) He/she ruled / managed |
| Third person plural | Rheolan (nhw) They will rule / manage | Rheolen (nhw) They would rule / manage | Rheolon (nhw) They ruled / managed |
Remember, though, that it’s acceptable to just leave it unconjugated and change the tense or person of auxiliary verbs in the sentence to convey what’s happening. This is called periphrastic conjugation and it’s really common in Welsh.
An example would be ‘nes i reoli, which literally translates to I did rule / I did manage but actually just means I ruled / I managed in most contexts. It’s the same as saying rheolais i (I ruled / I managed). It’s a good option if you can’t always remember conjugations, which can be super tricky!
