Are you fed up with using the same old hackneyed expression “Iawn, diolch!” whenever someone asks how you are in Welsh?
To be fair, it is by far the most common response to << sut wyt ti >>, even when native Welsh speakers talk amongst themselves, but if, as a learner, you’d like to spice things up a bit, why not give one of the following ten expressions a try!
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In standard Welsh, there are different ways of saying “home” depending on the context of the sentence.
The first word cartref, or cartrefi in its plural form, is the generic noun for “home” and is often used in the sense of ‘a home’.
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The Welsh word for “blue” is glas or las in its mutated form following feminine nouns.
Dark blue is glas tywyll or dulas, whereas light blue is glas golau or goleulas.
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Washed-up jellyfish on the beach are a very common sight in Wales, especially during the summer months. Despite their fearsome reputation, most species are actually quite harmless, inflicting just a mild sting. That said, there are a vicious few such as the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish that can do plenty of damage, even posthumously, so unless you know your jellyfish really well, it’s probably best to avoid touching them!
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Have you ever been talking to someone about Welsh, only for them to joke all-knowingly about the total absence of vowels in the language? I know I have, on more than one occasion!
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If you’re searching for the Welsh word for love, you probably want to say one of four things:
The Welsh word for dog is ci, or cŵn in the plural form. Because it is a masculine noun, it never mutates after the definite pronoun ‘y’. (e.g. Y ci du – The black dog)
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You simply cannot visit Wales without encountering “Y Ddraig Goch” – the iconic red dragon that adorns the Welsh flag, as well as most souvenirs you’ll end up buying in Wales.
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Did you know that the most searched-for Welsh word on the web is microwave? (With the possible exception of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, of course!)
The widely accepted word is for microwave in Welsh is popty microdon (or just microdon) with popty meaning oven and microdon meaning microwave.
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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 point. When used as a verb (to snow), it becomes either bwrw eira or pluo eira. The latter literally means “it’s feathering snow” which makes sense since the Welsh refer to snowflakes as snow feathers (plu(f) eira).
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