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 These are literary and colloquial Welsh – the Welsh you’ll find in poetry and historical documents is very different to the Welsh spoken in even the most formal contexts.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 …
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 …
Acclaimed Welsh writers throughout the ages have included Hedd Wyn, an incredible Welsh-language poet who was posthumously awarded the great honour of Y Gadair (The Chair), famous children’s author Roald Dahl, who was in fact born and raised in Cardiff, and of course, the iconic Dylan Thomas. The Welsh word for to write is ysgrifennu. …
The Welsh word for goat – the mischievous domestic animal – is gafr. The plural form is geifr. gafr goat Gafr is exclusively a feminine noun, making it more accurately the equivalent of the English nanny goat, while a billy goat is a bwch gafr (plural: bychod gafr), though in informal conversation you might hear …
In Welsh, the verb meaning to complete something is cwblhau. cwblhau to complete It comes from the word cwbl, meaning complete or everything, paired with the suffix –hau, which is used to shift adjectives in Welsh into verb-nouns. For example, iach (healthy) becomes iachau (to heal, to make healthy), and cryf (strong) becomes cryfhau (to …