Using Formal and Informal Welsh – The ultimate guide!

As with many other languages, the type of Welsh you use in conversation depends on who you’re speaking to.

This mainly comes down to the distinction between formal and informal speech. Formal speech is typically used when addressing someone older than you, someone you don’t know personally, or someone in a professional or service role. Informal speech, on the other hand, is reserved for people you know well or who are younger than you.

In many ways, the same principles of formality and politeness that apply in English also apply in Welsh. For instance, you’re more likely to use contractions, omit parts of phrases, or incorporate slang, when you’re speaking to close friends or family. In contrast, these elements are generally avoided in professional or formal settings.

The most noticeable indicator of formality in Welsh is the word used for you. The informal version is ti, while the formal version is chi, which is also used when addressing multiple people.

As mentioned, there are a few additional nuances of formality, such as how much slang is appropriate in a given situation. However, the key aspect to master is knowing when to use ti or chi and understanding the different grammatical structures that accompany them.

Second-person pronouns in Welsh

There are two main second-person pronouns in Welsh – ti, which is informal and singular, and chi, which is formal and plural. If you’re talking to a group of people informally, or one person formally, you should still use chi.

Verbs in a sentence change their conjugation depending on whether you’re addressing someone with ti or chi. While it can feel daunting at first, you’ll become more comfortable with the patterns as you learn each new verb.

A helpful general tip to get started is that the conjugated verb often ends with the same letter the pronoun starts with. This is especially true for chi and is frequently observed with ti, particularly in the past tense.

Here are some examples of this pattern, featuring some of the most useful verb conjugations you’ll likely encounter. In each example, the first Welsh translation listed is the formal version with chi and the second is the informal version with ti.

You might have noticed that often, in the informal conjugations, ti is actually rendered di. This should feel familiar because t sounds often mutate to d sounds in Welsh.

Ti changing to di isn’t really a proper mutation and it has its own unique rules, but you can think of it as just part of the weird and wonderful tapestry of letter-changing that is the Welsh language.

Di is used instead of ti in the following three cases:

• In the possessive construction dy __ di (your ___)
• The subject of future tense conjugations, as in the examples above
• In the imperative tense, when reinforcing the command

Now, if you live in or visit North Wales, you might come across chdi. This is just an alternative form of ti / di, the informal singular second-person pronoun. It’s particularly common to use chdi at the end of phrases, like efo chdi (with you) or i chdi (to you).

Lastly, chwi is a literary alternative to chi. It’s not in common usage. (We’ll talk more about literary Welsh in a second.)

As I hinted above, possessive pronouns also change, depending on whether it’s ti or chi that you’re using. In general, you say dy __ di when you’re speaking to someone using ti, and eich ___ chi when you’re speaking to someone using chi.

You can also often drop the last pronoun, so it’s just dy ___ or eich ___.

Another option is dropping the first pronoun. This is very casual and quite informal, so you wouldn’t normally use it with chi. You can use it with ti, and here you do use the form ti instead of di. For example, you’d say Mae hi’n hoffi ffrog ti for She likes your dress.

All of the also pronouns have emphatic forms – tithau for ti/di, chdithau for chdi, chwithau for chwi, and chithau for chi. (There are also emphatic forms for first and third person pronouns). For example, you might say a tithau (and you) instead of a ti.

It’s not absolutely necessary to learn the emphatic pronouns because there is no circumstance where they are grammatically required. They just add a bit of a variety to speech. But it’s good to know they exist so you don’t get confused if people use them!

In general, chi is used if you’re in any sort of professional context, if you’re talking to someone you don’t know, if you’re talking to someone older than you, or if you’re talking to multiple people. Ti is used with friends and family – people you know well. Whether children call their parents chi or ti is variable.

Welsh speakers will report that although ti and chi are both still in common use, which is used when is becoming less and less predictable, and people switch to using ti faster than they previously might have.

If you’re not sure whether ti or chi is more appropriate in a given situation, you can always err on the side of caution and use the more polite chi. However, most Welsh people are fairly relaxed about formality and as a learner you’re not likely to get in trouble if you slip up!

Literary versus colloquial Welsh

Something that makes things complicated in Welsh is that there are two main registers of the language, which don’t map exactly onto ‘formal’ and ‘informal’.

Firstly, there is literary Welsh, which you’ll find in historical documents, and which occurs today in religious or poetic writing, and some particularly formal contexts.

Secondly, there’s colloquial Welsh. Colloquial Welsh is not necessarily informal, and it’s just as correct a form as literary Welsh. You can (and usually should) use the colloquial conjugation of a verb, no matter who you are talking to, without fear of seeming rude or overly informal. It’s not ‘extra polite’ to use full literary Welsh in casual speech – it’s actually a bit weird!

Here’s an example. You are in Welsh could be translated in three main ways:

Rwyt ti is the normal conversational, informal form. Rydych chi is the formal, literary form that you would use if you were writing a professional document, or would hear in the news. But dych chi, even though it is a colloquial conjugation, is still appropriate to use with someone you don’t know well or who’s senior to you.

This is because it uses the polite chi along with an appropriate conjugation for chi. If you’re chatting to someone older than you who you’ve recently met, you can use dych chi to show them respect without sounding old-fashioned. The North Welsh form of dych chi is dach chi.

However, some individual words or phrases from literary Welsh can be incorporated into normal speech. This is true especially if they’re part of a particular expression or stylised turn of phrase, or you’re trying to make what you’re saying sound particularly emphatic or interesting. We also often see literary Welsh used in (you guessed it) literature.

It’s fair to say that literary to colloquial Welsh is a spectrum, with ‘in between’ forms sometimes used to create a common ground between dialects. These are often the forms used in forums like the news, and taught to learners and schoolchildren. They reflect the modern development and use of the language whilst not being too slang-y or informal.

For example, the literary form yr ydwyf i (I am) is not common at all in casual speech. The most common form is the uber-abbreviated dw i (standard) or rwy (Southern). There are other regional colloquial forms too – like wi.

But, in between these ends of the spectrum, there is also yr wyf i, which you might see in formal written documents. Another option is rydw i, which is taught in schools, and which is heard a lot in semi-formal contexts in the South.

To be honest, in the example above, it’s usually fine to just use dwi or rwy. That said, it’s always better to lean towards politeness when in doubt!

Part of the reason colloquial and literary Welsh are so different, and that different parts of Wales use different colloquial language, is due to the historical repression of the language. This repression and enforced English dominance meant that people couldn’t exchange ideas and develop the language across dialects, or produce a lot of written texts in Welsh.

To recap: the difference between literary and colloquial Welsh is NOT the same as the difference between formal and informal Welsh. Literary and colloquial are two very different registers of the language, with different grammatical rules.

Literary Welsh is no longer in common use. Colloquial speech is appropriate for everyday conversation, no matter the degree of formality, and there is formal and informal vocabulary within the context of colloquial speech.

However, sometimes formal colloquial speech, or the formal speech used in professional contexts, retains influences of old-fashioned literary Welsh.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that the colloquial Welsh that’s used in North Wales is often perceived as more formal and/or old-fashioned by those from other parts of Wales. This is probably because North Wales has been the least influenced by Anglicisation, so older phrases and constructions are more likely to remain intact.

Every region has its own quirks, and all Welsh dialects are unique, valuable, and worth preserving. That said, we Welsh speakers understand how tricky our language can be and are always happy to chat with you, no matter which dialect you lean towards!

Contractions, Wenglish, and slang

Like any language, Welsh is full of slang. Because the language is so diverse, there are in particular plenty of colloquialisms that are common to particular regions.

Often, contractions of common phrases will differ based on whether you’re in the North or the South. One example is t’isio or t’isie as a contraction of wyt ti eisiau – the former is Northern and the latter is Southern.

This isn’t really slang per se, but it’s a good way to make your Welsh sound more natural and casual, whilst in a formal situation, it’s best to stick to wyt ti eisiau. Think of it like d’you wanna in English. You wouldn’t say it to your boss, but on the other hand you also probably don’t fully sound out do you want to every time you speak to a close friend.

Have you ever heard the term Wenglish? Wenglish is, as the name suggests, a way of speaking Welsh and English mixed together, which is really, really common in Wales. This could range from including Welsh words in an English sentence, to including English words in a Welsh sentence, to fully switching between the two as you talk. The linguistic term for this pattern of speech is code-switching.

Some people also use it for phrases in English that Welsh people use more commonly than people in other parts of the UK, like the cheeky “now in a minute”.

Although some people look down on Wenglish, it’s part of how the language has survived, and many heritage Welsh speakers use it. There’s also research evidence that people who use bratiaith (slang, literally ragged language) usually borrow English words, whilst retaining Welsh grammar.

Many English phrases have been adopted into Welsh and are becoming a part of the language. And often, there’s good grammatical sense behind it. For example, the Welsh caru (to love) shouldn’t technically be applied to objects; it’s only for other people. So, it makes sense that many younger Welsh people are these days using lyfio instead.

Of course, as a Welsh learner, you want to use as much Welsh as you can. Using Wenglish or bratiaith is a good way to get yourself feeling confident and practising Welsh even when you don’t have a huge vocabulary, but keep pushing yourself and learning more. It’s also best to avoid Wenglish in a formal context.

And remember, in Welsh, borrowings from English—whether they’re old or new—are always adapted to fit Welsh phonetics. For example, you can say really in Welsh, and it’s actually very common, but you’d better be spelling it rîli!

Another frequent pattern is adding -o to the end of English verbs to make them sound more like Welsh ones.

Anyway, here’s a few slang-y Welsh words that have been borrowed in from English:

• ymeising = amazing
• cweit = quite
• cŵl = cool
• iwsho = to use
• ffansio = to fancy
• dim probs = no problem

Honestly, there are some English words that I think are more common in Welsh than in English!

Everyday phrases and greetings

The first thing you need to make sure you know before speaking to someone in Welsh, of course, is hello!

You might be familiar with the very, very common word shwmae. This literally means how are you?, but it’s used as a greeting, like hello. This is the most ubiquitous way of greeting someone in Wales. It’s also very common in Welsh to just say haia (like the English hiya) to people you know well.

Since shwmae is a contraction of sut mae ti, using the pronoun ti, it’s technically informal. But it’s okay in most contexts – even if you’re meeting someone new.

If you do want to be more formal, for example at work, you could use helô. It’s borrowed from the English hello, but don’t ignore the accent! The final ô sound is not like the English oh. It’s more like a cross between the o in pot and the o in or.

Another good way to greet someone formally is to say good morning (bore da), good afternoon (prynhawn da / p’nawn da) or good evening (noswaith dda). It might also be nice to make someone feel at home by saying croeso (welcome), which is also the word for you’re welcome.

After meeting someone, you’ll probably want to ask how they’re doing. A common way to do this in Welsh is by saying sut hwyl. This phrase is tricky to translate directly into English, but hwyl can refer to a person’s mood or spirits, so it’s akin to asking, “How’s the mood?”

You can also use the direct translation of How are you? This varies based on whether you’re using the formal chi or the informal ti – it’s either Sut ydych chi? or Sut wyt ti?

Another common alternative is Sut mae hi? It’s a more casual way of asking. This literally means How is it? – it’s like asking How are things?

Although many Welsh people simply say plîs for please, there is a longer translation. This is os gwelwch yn dda, which means if you’ll see well. You could compare it to if you see fit in English.

Notice that here, the conjugation gwelwch ends in a ch noise. This is because it’s the appropriate conjugation for someone you’d address as chi. The full version of the phrase is os gwelwch chi’n dda, but the chi is often dropped because the conjugation makes it obvious you’re speaking formally.

The version of this phrase for someone you’d call ti is os gweli di’n dda. In this case, although it wouldn’t per se be incorrect to drop the pronoun di (remember, this is just a version of ti!), it’s not normal to do this.

It’s also worth noting that os gweli di’n dda is slightly less common than os gwelwch yn dda, because if you are close enough to someone to call them ti, you might just say the (much quicker!) plîs.

Sorry is similar. The first, and more formal, option is to say a fairly long all-Welsh phrase, mae’n ddrwg gen i (rendered mae’n ddrwg gyda fi in the South). And obviously, because nothing is ever simple with Welsh, there’s variation here – sometimes ddrwg is substituted for flin, the mae’n at the start of the phrase can be dropped in informal speech, and gyda is often shortened to just ‘da.

The second option is to just say sori. On a day-to-day basis, this is probably more common. However, the longer phrase is more appropriate for serious situations, where you need to be really polite.

Luckily, thank you remains the same. It’s diolch wherever you go and whoever you are. Thank you very much is diolch yn fawr.

Goodbye is also quite consistent. The word hwyl that we spoke about earlier is the one to use here, usually as hwyl fawr. Although they’re not direct equivalents, hwyl fawr feels more like goodbye and hwyl feels more like bye, so the former is more appropriate when you need to be formal.

If you’re speaking to a friend you’ll see again shortly, try using wela i di’n fuan (I’ll see you soon), too. A very informal version of this is ta ta tan toc, which is more common in the South, and means Bye for now! Both of these are nice even though they’re casual, because they suggest you want to meet up again before too long.

I hope you’re not exhausted after all that Welsh! Remember that Welsh speakers are almost always very grateful and excited when someone wants to learn their language – so don’t be scared to make mistakes, people in the community will guide you on your way.

Ta ta tan toc!