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.
Today’s Welsh word of the day is unfortunately a rather yucky one! We’re going to discuss the word seimllyd, literally meaning fatty. But it’s often used in a more general sense to refer to a greasy texture, or metaphorically to mean a smarmy person, like oily in English. seimllyd greasy This adjective can’t mutate, and …
The Welsh word for a roof is the very simple to, a masculine noun with the plural forms toeau and toeon (roofs). It’s an easy one to confuse, because people often shorten eto (again) to to colloquially. Plus, since it looks like the English word to, a lot of people mispronounce it. to roof toeon …
I love asking people what their favourite words in Welsh are, because you always hear such a great variety. But one that comes up time and time again is chwyrligwgan / chwirligwgan, an incredible tour-de-force of a noun that refers to a piece of children’s offer chwarae (play equipment) that troelli (spins). In particular, it’s …
A few months ago, we published an article about the Welsh word hyll, meaning ugly or hideous. Now we’re going to kick it up a notch – this article’s about a word that’s even hyllach (uglier). It’s time to delve into the expansively awful adjective that is erchyll (hideous, ghastly, terrible, atrocious, dreadful… ). erchyll …
One of the most compelling reasons to learn a foreign language is that languages differ not only in the words they use, but in what those words represent. The concepts and experiences that are given form through language – sometimes with a single word, sometimes with many – vary from one tongue to another. These …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is rhai, an incredibly useful determiner and pronoun. It’s best translated as some. rhai some Rhai can only mutate in one way, becoming rai. Soft mutationrai Nasal mutationN/A Aspirate mutationN/A But there are a lot of cases where this can happen, so it’s worth being aware of. For example, …
Today’s Welsh word may seem a bit of an oddball choice at first, but if you look a little closer, it’s key to the history and geography of Wales. I’m talking about abaty, meaning abbey. The plural form is abatai (abbeys). abaty abbey abatai abbeys This plural form may be a bit surprising. It’s because …
What would you say is the most distinctive feature of the Welsh language? I suspect everyone has their own answer, but one that I think comes up often is treiglo (mutation, as a phenomenon). Treiglo is not completely unique to Welsh – but it’s pretty close. This morphological phenomenon, by which the first letter of …
Personally, I’m someone who always wears trwsus (trousers) and could never be caught in a sgert (skirt). In general, I’m not the most benywaidd (feminine). So one of the most reliable ways I can make my friends laugh is to pull out an old picture of me in a girly ffrog! If you haven’t guessed, …
In any language, the most important words are often the most basic. One key example of this is the word big – short and simple, but used in almost every conversation you’ll ever have. The Welsh word for big is mawr. mawr big It’s sometimes pronounced like this in South Wales, colloquially: But this is …
