Words

The Welsh word for “Grandmother” – Nain or Mam-gu?

Depending on where you live in Wales, there are different ways of saying grandmother in Welsh. nain grandma mamgu grandma If you call North Wales your home, the most common word you’ll hear is nain while South Walians prefer the cute-sounding mam-gu (pronounced maam-gee). However this doesn’t mean you won’t hear nain in the south …

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The Welsh Word for Blue: Glas

welsh-word-for-blue-glas-1

The Welsh word for “blue” is glas or las in its mutated form following feminine nouns. 

  • yr aderyn glas (the blue bird)
  • y faner las (the blue flag)

Dark blue is glas tywyll or dulas, whereas light blue is glas golau or goleulas.

glas

blue

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The Welsh Word for Dog – Ci

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)

ci

dog

welsh word for dog

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The Welsh Word for Snow – Eira / Ôd

welsh word for snow
welsh for snow

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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