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.
There are two words for to wake up in Welsh: deffro and dihuno. As is often the case with common alternatives, the difference comes down to regional dialects—one is more common in the North, and the other in the South. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for the way I speak, and in this case, …
The Welsh word meaning to move is symud, although as you’ll see, it’s not really as broad as its English equivalent. Read on to discover when to use it and when to symud i ffwrdd (move away) from this simple word! symud to move The above clip is me pronouncing symud in my mid-Wales accent. …
One of my absolute favourite feelings in the world is boarding the trên (train) at Amwythig (Shrewsbury) when traveling from England to Wales. That moment marks the start of my journey on Rheilffordd Canol Cymru (The Heart of Wales Line), and it never fails to make me smile. It’s a sleepy, scenic little llinell (line), …
Despite not seeing it very often, the Welsh have more than one word for that lovely white stuff that occasionally falls out of the sky during the cold months of the year! The most common term for snow in Welsh is eira, a word which most learners will have encountered in their textbook at some …
If you’ve got ieithoedd (languages) on the mind, one useful gair (word) to be aware of is definitely llythyren. This is the Welsh for letter, as in a letter of yr wyddor (the alphabet). The plural form is llythrennau (letters). llythyren letter It’s important to remember that there is actually a different word for a …
If you asked any of my friends what their least favorite household chore is, I can almost guarantee they’d say taking out the biniau (bins). Personally, I don’t mind that one as much. Unfortunately, the one I dislike the most is something you have to do constantly – glanhau (cleaning) – which has never been …
Sometimes the littlest words are the most useful! One example of a ‘little word’ that can definitely come in handy when speaking Welsh is er. In English, people tend to use this word when they’re not sure what to say next. In Welsh, it means although. er although The exact same word exists in Cornish, …
One thing that’s pretty hard to get used to when you’re first learning Welsh is the sheer level of dialectical variation. On a basic level, vocabulary and grammar tend to vary between the North and South parts of the country, but it’s not as simple as that! In fact, fairly often, a word might be …
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Wy is the Welsh word for egg, and it’s our word of the day today. wy egg The evolution of the word wy is uncertain, but it’s hypothesised that it (and similar words in other Celtic languages) come from a proto-Celtic root word that was something like *auio or *awyom. Catchy! Wy first appeared in …
