Nia is an aspiring writer from Powys, Wales. She attended Welsh-medium primary and secondary school, and is passionate about preserving the beautiful Welsh language and culture. She speaks some French, and is currently learning Arabic.
The Welsh verb meaning to drink or drinking is yfed. It’s pronounced like this: yfed to drink But some people in the South say this instead: Yfed comes from the Old Welsh iben, and much, much, further back, from the proto-Indo-European root *pibeti. There’s no evolution in meaning, with the word having always referred to …
Llestri is the plural form of llestr, which has a range of definitions relating to different kinds of vessels. But on a day-to-day basis, it more often than not refers to dishes, or crockery generally. llestri dishes / vessels llestr a dish / a vessel As a singular noun, llestr is masculine. It comes from …
I was mostly quite a good disgybl (pupil) in school. I got good grades in arholiadau (exams / assessments) and was polite to athrawon (teachers). However, I did have one serious weakness, which was my presenoldeb (attendance) record! The Welsh word to describe my frequent days away from yr ysgol (school) is absennol (absent). absennol …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is babi, which means a baby. It’s a masculine noun – most nouns describing kinds of people tend to default to the masculine in Welsh –which pluralises to babis (babies). babi baby Babi is really a variant on baban, an older and more formal version form of the word. …
Swimming is well known as one of the best forms of exercise for overall fitness, improving iechyd cardiofasgwlaidd (cardiovascular health) and strengthening cyhyrau (muscles) whilst also being relaxing and low impact. The Welsh word for this satisfying pastime is nofio. nofio to swim Nofio comes from the Middle Welsh noun nawf. It can function as …
It’s a well-known phenomenon for Welsh words or phrases that are only used as a jôc (joke) or slang to be misrepresented to the rest of the world as standard, everyday words. One infamous example is the pysgod wibli-wobli (jellyfish), usually called sglefren fôr, seren bigog, or cont y môr in Welsh. (The last, though …
If you asked ten people what they think the most important gair (word) to learn in a new iaith (language) is, there’s not a bad chance you’d get ten different answers! Personally, I’m in the diolch (thank you) camp. It’s one that you need to say in almost every single conversation, especially if you’re exploring …
Gwawr is the Welsh word for dawn, and also a fairly popular girl’s name. It may also be used to mean sunrise, although that is technically the literal translation codiad haul. The plural can be either gwawriau or gwawroedd. gwawr dawn gwawriau dawns Though they sound very different, gwawr is actually a cognate to some …
The word tyfu in Welsh means to grow. It’s just like the English in that it can refer to all kinds of twf (growth), from the biological, to the financial, to the spiritual. And it can also be used for causing something to grow or helping something to grow. tyfu to grow The origin of …
Did you know that chwerthin (laughing) actually originally evolved as a form of communication? That’s why we’re more likely to chwerthin at a jôc (joke) told by a ffrind (friend) than someone we don’t know. chwerthin to laugh This word can be tricky to pronounce because it starts with the unique letter ch, which is …
