Today’s Welsh word of the day is a bit of a mouthful, but it’s worth getting to grips with as it’s a really useful bit of vocabulary. It’s defnyddio, a verb-noun which means to use.
defnyddio
to use
Defnyddio comes from the combination of the noun defnydd (use) with the suffix -io, which is commonly used in Welsh to turn nouns into verbs. This pattern is found in many Welsh words.
Defnydd is itself a word with a wide variety of meanings – it’s most commonly used to mean material or substance but can also mean subject-matter, tool, cause, or use as a noun. To be honest, it doesn’t come up as much in daily life as the verb form defnyddio, but it always reminds me of high-school textiles classes (not my natural habitat, personally).
Going back, defnydd comes originally from the proto-Indo-European root *dem, to build, the same as the English timber. It’s also a cognate of the Irish damhna, meaning matter. There is another variant, deunydd, used in modern Welsh, which has just the same meaning – usually material or use as a noun.
There are quite a few other related words from this root, too, like defnyddiol (useful), defnyddiwr (user), camddefnyddio (to misuse), ailddefnyddio (to reuse), defnyddiedig (used) and defnyddioldeb (usefulness). I’m sure you’ll find some of them to be quite defnyddiol!
Here is how defnyddio mutates:
Soft mutation
ddefnyddio
Nasal mutation
nefnyddio
Aspirate mutation
N/A
Although it’s technically susceptible to both the soft and nasal mutations, it would be very rare to ever need to use the nasal mutation (nasal mutations of verbs in general don’t come up very often). The one exception would be in the phrase I feel used, which in Welsh becomes rather unwieldy…
Dw i’n teimlo fy mod i wedi cael fy nefnyddio.
I feel I’ve been used.
There are a few synonyms of defnyddio. For example, to use something as in to exploit it, implying a somewhat malicious intention, is manteisio.
If you are speaking quite formally, you could replace defnyddio with the phrase gwneud defnydd o, which literally means to make use of and gives a similar impression. To make good use of is, rather simply, either gwneud defnydd da o rywbeth or defnyddio rhywbeth yn dda.
Conversely, if you’re having a really casual conversation with someone you know well, the Wenglish slang iwsio (also sometimes rendered iwsho or iwso) is becoming more and more common in place of defnyddio. It’s generally used in South Wales.
You can see the most defnyddiol conjugations of defnyddio for everyday speech in the table below.
| Future | Conditional | Past | |
| First person singular | Defnyddia(f) i I will use | Defnyddiwn i I would use | Defnyddiais i I used |
| First person plural | Defnyddiwn ni We will use | Defnyddien ni We would use | Defnyddion ni We used |
| Second person singular / informal | Defnyddi di You will use | Defnyddiet ti You would use | Defnyddiaist ti You used |
| Second person plural / formal | Defnyddiwch chi You will use | Defnyddiech chi You would use | Defnyddioch chi You used |
| Third person singular | Defnyddith / Defnyddiff o/e/hi He/she will use | Defnyddiai fo/fe/hi He/she would use | Defnyddiodd o/e/hi He/she used |
| Third person plural | Defnyddian nhw They will use | Defnyddien nhw They would use | Defnyddion nhw They used |
Remember, though, that periphrastic conjugations are really common in Welsh. This means leaving the main verb of the sentence in its basic form and using a conjugated version of gwneud (to do) or bod (to be) to express the tense and person of the phrase. For example, gwnes i ddefnyddio (I did use) is just as valid as defnyddiais i (I used) and has the same meaning. It’s down to personal preference.
To use [something] as [something] is defnyddio [rhywbeth] fel [rhywbeth]. Here rhywbeth means something, so an example phrase could be defnyddio derbynneb fel llyfrnod (using a receipt as a bookmark). Fel translates to like or as.
Defnyddiais i fy mraich fel clustog.
I used my arm as a pillow.
In English, there is a very fine distinction between to use and to utilise, with the latter meaning that someone is making use of something strategically in a way that is beyond its original intended function. We don’t have this same distinction in Welsh, so if you want to talk about utilising something, you can also defnyddio the word defnyddio here.
Another little quirk in English is the phrase to use [something] up, which is quite funny if you think about it. What’s up got to do with using all of [something]? In Welsh, we simply translate literally the latter phrase literally, resulting in defnyddio’r cyfan o [rhywbeth] or defnyddio’r cwbl o [rhywbeth].
Occasionally, though, you might hear the words dihysbysyddu (to exhaust) or treulio (to spend – usually used in the context of time) used in this context – to exhaust [something] or to spend [something] is the same as to use it all up.
Well, I certainly hope I haven’t exhausted your patience reading this article! If not, why not leave a comment on Facebook or Instagram and let us know how you plan on defnyddio the word defnyddio in your next Welsh conversation?
