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 …
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 …
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 …
People often joke that modern life is full of biwrocratiaeth (bureaucracy). Whether it’s paying your trethi (taxes) or getting your trwydded yrru (driver’s license), everything seems to take a lot of gwaith papur (paperwork)! At an Eisteddfod when I was about ten, I remember the cerdd (poem) picked for the recitation competition was all about …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is llyffant, pluralised as either llyffaint or llyffantod. It can mean toad or frog depending on whether you’re in South or North Wales, and its etymology is unclear. You can also use it as an insult – like how we call someone a toad in English if we think …
Do you know your body parts in Welsh? If not, today’s post will be a step in the right direction, because we’re talking about clustiau (ears). The singular, and our word of the day, is clust (an ear). clust ear clustiau ears Clust is a feminine noun which originates from the proto-Celtic *klousta, also referring …
The Welsh word anwes is a noun that can’t be translated directly into English. It can refer to a physical caress, but is also more abstract and could mean an indulgence or an excessive fondness. It’s masculine, and pluralises to anwesau. But it’s quite likely that if you’ve encountered this word before as a learner, …