There are two words for to wake up in Welsh: deffro and dihuno. As is often the case with common alternatives, the difference comes down to regional dialects—one is more common in the North, and the other in the South.
Admittedly, I have a soft spot for the way I speak, and in this case, I side with the Northerners by using deffro. So, that’s the word we’ll be focussing on in today’s article.
deffro
to use
Other Celtic words, like the Cornish difuna, the Manx jeean,and the Breton dihuniñ, bear a much closer similarity to the alternative dihuno, meaning the etymology of deffro is a bit of a mystery.
However, one clue arises in the fact that the word cyffro (excitement) has the same suffix. It’s likely that this comes from a root word in proto-Indo-European meaning to jump or to stir. One possible candidate is *spherh, to kick, from which the English spur and spurn are descended.
Deffro responds to both the soft and the nasal mutation:
Soft mutation
ddeffro
Nasal mutation
neffro
Aspirate mutation
N/A
Like in English, you can use this word whether you’re talking about waking up as something you do yourself (whether naturally or with a larwm, alarm!) or if you’re talking about actively waking someone else. Indeed, a common situation where you’d use the mutations would be if you were using it with a personal pronoun – for example when saying waking you up (dy ddeffro) or waking me up (fy neffro).
Incidentally, this is a handy way to tell whether ei in Welsh is being used to mean his or her. In the first sense, ei causes a soft mutation, so in this case it would be ei ddeffro. In the second sense, it causes an aspirate mutation, so in this case, as there’s no aspirate mutation, it just stays as ei deffro.
Here is how deffro is conjugated:
| Future | Conditional | Past | |
| First person singular | Deffra(f) i I will awake | Deffrwn i I would awake | Deffrais i I awoke |
| First person plural | Deffrwn ni We will awake | Deffren ni We would awake | Deffron ni We awoke |
| Second person singular / informal | Deffri di You will awake | Deffret ti You would awake | Deffraist ti You awoke |
| Second person plural / formal | Deffrwch chi You will awake | Deffrech chi You would awake | Deffroch chi You awoke |
| Third person singular | Deffrith o/e/hi He/she will awake | Deffrai fo/fe/hi He/she would awake | Deffrodd o/e/hi He/she awoke |
| Third person plural | Deffran nhw They will awake | Deffren nhw They would awake | Deffron nhw They awoke |
The imperative form is deffrwch if you are speaking formally, or to multiple people, and deffra if you’re speaking informally to one person.
Deffra, deffra, rhaid i ni fynd!
Wake up, wake up, we have to go!
And in colloquial Welsh, the future tense conjugation is often used for the present tense as well. Alternatively, you might use a periphrastic construction—essentially saying the equivalent of “I am sleeping”—which keeps deffro in its root form.
If you’re speaking more broadly about awaking an emotion or feeling in a person, you can still use deffro, though it might be slightly more natural to use codi (to raise) or peri (to cause / to create). Another, quite poetic option is ennyn (to kindle). But dihuno wouldn’t sound right in this context.
To be awake as an adjective is to be effro or di-hun. Of course, which you use of these will probably depend on which word you use for the verb. The opposite of this is to be ynghwsg (asleep), often simplified to just yn cysgu (sleeping), or, in the South, cwsg.
Dw i’n rhy gysglyd i ddeffro.
I’m too sleepy to wake up.
Here is some handy vocabulary to chat about cysgu a deffro (sleeping and waking) in Welsh. Importantly, we don’t say deffro i fyny, which would be the literal translation of to wake up. Deffro on its own is enough.
- hollol effro = wide awake
- wedi blino = tired
- aros yn effro / cadw’n effro = to stay awake
- gwely = bed
- deffroad = awakening
- bore = morning
- nos = night
- cysgu’n hwyr / gorgysgu = to oversleep
- codi = to get up
Whether people prefer deffro’n hwyr (waking up late) or deffro’n gynnar (waking up early) obviously depends on work and other commitments.
But I also find that whether you’re a seren fore (early bird, literally morning star) or a codwr hwyr (night own, literally late riser) can be a big part of people’s identity. Some people love to jump out of bed with the gwawr (dawn), and others struggle out from under the carthen (duvet) and only get through the day with the help of a lot of coffi (coffee).
Personally, I admit I’m one of those weird people who likes to deffro as early as possible, ideally yn y bore bach (in the little morning, meaning in the early hours). But I don’t always get my way, as I’m as prone to gorgysgu (sleeping in) as the next person!
