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.
Do you know why the grawnfwyd (cereal) Kelloggs advertises itself with a picture of a ceiliog (cockerel / rooster)? The easy answer is that these adar (birds) are known for waking people in the morning with their canu (usually singing, here crowing), signalling the start of the day and time for brecwast (breakfast). But it …
Today let’s talk about the word cefnogi, which means to support. A great way to remember this word is to look at the first part of it, cefn. You may know that this is the word for back in Welsh, so you can think of it as being like backing someone, just as is often …
Our Welsh word of the day today is mieri, which means brambles or briars. It refers to the whole planhigyn (plant) rather than just to the mwyar (berries). Like in English, it is sometimes used in a general sense to refer to llwyni (bushes) with lots of drain (prickles or thorns). Mieri is a collective …
Gwasgu is a verb that, in most cases, means to squeeze or to press, although the range of situations it can be used in extends much further! gwasgu to squeeze / to press It comes from the proto-Celtic *wedsk, which is also the root of words in other Celtic languages like fáisc in Irish and …
Though having a gyrfa (career) that you love is a dream and a blessing, for many people unfortunately it’s not reality. If your swydd (job) isn’t your passion, you may rely on dreams of a more exciting ymddeoliad (retirement) to get you through the day! Ymddeol is the Welsh word for retiring or to retire. …
Wolves have a unique relationship with humans. On the one hand, they haunt the llên gwerin (folklore) of cultures throughout Europe, Asia and North America, the cunning villains of chwedlau (fables) like Hugan Fach Goch (Little Red Riding Hood) or the legend of the bleidd-ddyn (werewolf). But on the other, in many diwylliannau (cultures), they’re …
Not all words translate easily from one language to another, and mynnu is one of those in Cymraeg (Welsh). It usually means to insist on doing something or to persist in doing something, but can also seem more like to want or to wish. mynnu to insist Mynnu comes from the proto-Celtic *menneti, meaning to …
Chwedl is a great Welsh word meaning a legend or a fable. Since Welsh folklore is so rich in amazing chwedlau (legends, fables), I thought it would make a great word of the day for us today. Chwedl is a feminine noun, and it is pronounced like this: chwedl a legend But there are some …
Sometimes I feel as if I spend half my life chwilio for things – the other half of a pair of sanau (socks), an important dogfen (document) on my computer I somehow forgot to save, my allweddi (keys) when I’m already late leaving the house… the list goes on. If you hadn’t guessed, chwilio, our …
Plenty of sounds in Cymraeg (Welsh) can be hard to make if you didn’t grow up speaking the iaith (language). The dreaded ch and ll get a lot of attention, but actually some of the trickiest are sound combinations that we do have in English, but not at the start of the word. One of …
