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 word for month is mis and the plural is misoedd. mis month In South Wales, you may sometimes hear mis pronounced with a sh sound at the end, like this: In general, it’s quite common in South Welsh pronunciation for s sounds at the end of words to shift to sh sounds. Mis …
Today’s topic is another one that you’re more likely to have encountered in its mutated than its original form. It sounds quite cool before you remember you’re talking about linguistics, doesn’t it? 😉 buan fast / prompt Our Welsh word of the day is buan, usually rendered yn fuan. Technically, buan is an adjective which …
Have you ever been asked why you’re learning Welsh? Whether your go-to answer is because you love Welsh history and culture, because you live in Wales and want to use it professionally and personally, or simply because learning languages is good for the brain, you need to know how to say because in Welsh! Luckily, …
No matter how talented someone may be, we all have our weaknesses and moments when things don’t go as planned. A particularly useful Welsh word to describe these situations is methu, which means to fail or to be unable. methu to fail / to be unable Sometimes Southerners pronounce it a bit more like this: …
There’s nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a nice hot paned (cuppa) and a good llyfr (book). In fact, llyfr (plural: llyfrau) is today’s Welsh word of the day. llyfr book Llyfr originated as the proto-Brythonic *llɨβr, also meaning book. This is a borrowing from the Latin root liber, which we see …
When I was a child, I couldn’t understand the difference between edrych (looking) and gweld (seeing), in either Welsh or English. Though I’d say I have a handle on it now, I still wonder if there are any languages where the same word is used for both. Let me know if you know of any! …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is llygad, which means eye. Of course, you’ll just as often hear and use the plural form, llygaid (eyes). llygad eye Other plurals are llygadau and llygadon, or the very literary word for eyes, golygon. All three are much less standard and it’s honestly very unlikely that you’ll ever …
One of my worst habits is that at any minor inconvenience, I always make my friends say druan o Nia (poor Nia). Truan – mutated to druan in that example – is a Welsh adjective and noun, meaning poor as in miserable or pitiable, or poor thing. The plural form of truan as a noun …
Today’s word of the day is the adjective gwyllt. And in my opinion, gwyllt is one of those Welsh words that truly sounds like what it means – which is wild. gwyllt wild There are nuances to this meaning though. Gwyllt can mean a wild landscape, plant, or animal (in the latter case, often as …
When learning body parts in Welsh, you’ll be taught the word gwallt for hair. This is how we talk about hair on our head. However, hair on other parts of the body, or fur on animals, is blew. This is a collective noun, and the singular is blewyn (a hair). You also use blewyn for …
