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.
Are you at that point in your Welsh-learning journey where you’re confident in the words and phrases you do know, but you’d like to liven things up a bit? One good way to do that is by varying the amount of emphasis you place on different elements of speech. Or maybe you’re just starting out …
The Welsh word for a garden, whether it’s a public park full of rare and beautiful flowers, or your own backyard which you use to grow vegetables in, is gardd. The plural form is gerddi – though you may less commonly encounter garddau or geirdd. gardd garden Gardd was a borrowing from the Old Nose …
Did you know that Welsh has two, very different forms? These are literary and colloquial Welsh – the Welsh you’ll find in poetry and historical documents is very different to the Welsh spoken in even the most formal contexts. And some Welsh words are these days mostly used only in the former context. One of …
Mis Ebrill (the month of April) is my favourite time to visit my grandparents’ fferm (farm) in Cwm Elan (the Elan Valley). This is because it’s the height of tymor ŵyna (lambing season), which usually means I get to cuddle and bottle feed a lot of ŵyn (lambs) and mynnan (goat kids). Ebrill April The English …
There are two kinds of Welsh learners – those who anxiously memorise mutation charts and the gender of nouns, and those who sit back, relax, and hope it will come to them in time. Honestly, there are merits to both approaches. Learning as an adult, it’ll probably take a while for you to get enough …
Did you know that there are two separate words meaning to know in Welsh? One is gwybod, which refers to knowing facts or information, and the other is adnabod / nabod, which refers to knowing or recognising a person or place. In literary Welsh, adnabod is the form of this word used. However, in colloquial …
Wyt ti’n barod (are you ready) to learn about the word parod (ready)? If your answer is something like, “Hold on a second, those are two different words!”, don’t worry! This is just one of the many confusing consequences of the use of treigladau (mutations) in Welsh, but all will become clear in time! parod …
From the height of the glorious Cadair Idris (Idris’ Chair) mountain in Gwynedd, to the ceremony of cadeirio’r bardd (chairing the bard) that is the crowning glory of the Eisteddfod, cadeiriau (chairs) occupy a perhaps unexpectedly significant position in Wales’ culture, geography, and history. So, get yourself settled in a comfortable cadair freichiau (armchair), and …
Pasg (Easter) is a gŵyl (holiday) that’s important to many people. You might celebrate Pasg because you are a Cristion (Christian), commemorating the resurrection of Christ, to honour even older cultural and spiritual traditions surrounding the advent of gwanwyn (spring), or simply as an excuse to see family and eat some siocled (chocolate)! And all …
When I was little, my parents would give us siocled Pasg (Easter chocolate) in the shape of cwningod (rabbits) or defaid (sheep). I was quite a sappy child and couldn’t bear to eat anything that looked like an animal, so mine often got passed onto my siblings. As an adult, I’d never dream of letting …
