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 hudol can be used in a variety of ways. Most simply, it means magical, a synonym of dewinol. But it’s also very often used to mean enchanting / bewitching, either in a literal way or to describe attractiveness. As an extension of this, people historically might have also translated it along the …
A few months ago, we published an article about the Welsh word hawdd (easy). I’m sure many of you read that article and thought the word anodd (difficult) would be much more relevant to your everyday life! anodd difficult Most likely, it originally comes from the word hawdd itself, with a negative prefix added to …
If there’s one thing that’s enwog (famous) about Cymru (Wales), it’s got to be y tywydd gwael (the bad weather)! As you can see from that phrase, the Welsh word for weather is tywydd. The concept of weather is generally considered uncountable, so it’s not normal to need to use a plural for it. However, …
The word ffrind in Welsh, clearly borrowed from English, may seem a bit redundant. Especially since Welsh does actually have its own native Celtic word for friend, which is cyfaill. But if there’s one thing I love about Welsh, it’s that when words are borrowed, they quickly become ‘Welshified’. So in my mind, ffrind (plural: …
What’s your favourite diwrnod yr wythnos (day of the week)? At the moment, I’ve been really enjoying dydd Mercher (Wednesday), since I get to work from home, but when I was a child, I hated it! It was when my primary school had a trip to the pwll nofio (swimming pool), and although I did …
It’s hard to imagine what landscapes like those of the UK looked like before humans began to interfere with them. Nature historians believe that most of Britain was covered with a vast expanse of coed (trees or woodland) that is referred to as The Wildwood (Y Goedwig in Welsh, literally just meaning The Forest). It’s …
Like its English equivalent fair, the Welsh word teg has a variety of meanings. It can mean fair as in just or equitable, but can also refer physical beauty and pleasantness, or even just a particularly nice day. Used in a lot of literature and poetry, it’s a word with a significant place in Welsh …
In my experience, Cymru (Wales) is no different to the rest of Ewrop (Europe) when it comes to caws (cheese) – we love it! This word behaves a bit weirdly when it comes to plurals. Many people simply say cawsiau to mean cheeses, but this is a bit of a modern innovation. caws cheese Technically, …
Any good linguist will tell you that languages aren’t isolated, scientific phenomena—they are deeply woven into the history and culture of the people who speak them. With that in mind, learning Welsh isn’t just about mastering vocabulary and grammar; it’s about immersing yourself in the country’s rich traditions. Perhaps the most iconic of these is …
The Welsh word for long is hir. I know what you’re thinking – it’s a very short word for such a long concept! hir long The word hir existed in both Middle and Old Welsh, and even in Brittonic, which was the parent language of Old Welsh, Old Cornish, Old Breton, and the now sadly …
