The Welsh word for happy is very easy to learn if you’re a first language English speaker: it’s the very simple hapus.
hapus
happy
Hapus merges the word hap (chance or luck) with the suffix –us, which is used in Welsh to indicate a characteristic. This is a loan translation of the English happy, using the same root hap but changing the suffix from -y to –us to ‘Gallicise’ the word.
It may be pronounced slightly differently by those with a strong Northern accent, like this:
This reflects the general accent difference between the North and the South, with the former pronouncing u slightly more like ee as in English been, and the latter slightly more like i as in English bin. But in reality, both pronunciations are somewhere between the two.
Happiness and joy are of course one of the most important parts of life, and this is reflected in the abundance of choice in words we have for them in many different languages. The adjective llawen is a synonym of hapus which conveys joy and delight, and is used in the expression iach lawen to mean alive and well (literally: healthy and happy).
Siriol means joyful or cheerful, to be wrth eich bodd or wrth dy fodd (the former is more formal) means to be delighted, and to be dedwydd means to be happy and fortunate. There is also the expression gwyn eich byd or gwyn dy fyd (literally: your world is white), which means everything is going well for someone. On the other hand, anhapus is unhappy and trist is sad.
Hapus doesn’t mutate, making it comparatively easy to learn. The only altered version of hapus you might come across is hapusion, which can be used for plural nouns, though it’s no longer considered necessary in casual spoken Welsh. Happiness is hapusrwydd.
Teimlais i mor hapus ar dydd fy mhriodas.
I felt so happy on my wedding day.
Being hapus is a complex emotion that can describe a range of situations and teimladau (feelings), from simple bodlonrwydd (contentment), to mwynhad (enjoyment), to llawenydd (joy) and even gorawen (ecstasy). Plenty of things make us feel hapus, like listening to cerddoriaeth (music), ymarfer corff (exercise), achieving llwyddiannau (successes), or spending time with those we caru (love).
Human beings express hapusrwydd through gwenu (smiling). We might also chwerthin (laugh), curo dwylo (clap), canu (sing) or dawnsio (dance) when we feel hapus iawn (very happy), or even give a cwtsh (cuddle) to our teulu (family) or ffrindiau (friends).
Here are some other useful Welsh words for positive emotions:
- cyffro = excitement
- cariad = love
- llonder = gladness
- ymlaciad = relaxation
- hwyl = fun
- diolchgarwch = gratitude
- pleser = pleasure
- balchder = pride
The adverb happily is simply yn hapus. If you want to compare hapusrwydd, you can use the words hapusach (happier), hapusaf (happiest), and hapused (as happy as). However, there’s a decent argument to be made that being hapus is something you feel in your calon (heart), and not something you can compare with other people.
Mae o’n hapus pan mae o’n darllen.
He’s happy when he’s reading.
One of the most important phrases to learn using the word hapus has got to be penblwydd hapus, which means happy birthday. Penblwydd comes from the words pen (head or end) and blwyddyn (year). However, instead of wishing someone a Happy New Year, the Welsh simply say Blwyddyn Newydd Dda (good new year).
Yet another important gwyl (holiday) is, of course Nadolig (Christmas). The traditional greeting is Nadolig Llawen, but these days you might hear people say Nadolig Hapus, in the same way that the phrase Merry Christmas can be replaced by Happy Christmas.
There is a lovely expression in Welsh, hapus braf, which means something like the English phrase happy-go-lucky. Braf is a commonly used word meaning excellent or fine, and is often used to describe the weather.
But if you wanted to talk about someone who is simply very happy, in a similar sense to the English happy as Larry, you can say say mor llawen â’r dydd, which means as happy as the day. One other fun phrase, although it’s a little old-fashioned, is mor hapus â’r gog or mor llawen â’r gog. Don’t worry, this expression isn’t talking about North Walians – gog is also slang for cuckoo (gwcw).
