If only life were hawdd! If you hadn’t guessed, hawdd is the Welsh word for easy.
Don’t get tripped up though – there’s another equally common synonym, rhwydd, just to make things anodd (difficult).
hawdd
easy
The etymology of hawdd is a bit of a mystery. We don’t know much more than that it appeared in older Welsh as haut or hawt, and that it may be connected to the Cornish hueth, meaning quiet. Cornish is the closest living language to Welsh and these two Brythonic languages share a lot of vocabulary, so until more information arises, this is linguists’ best bet.
Apart from hawdd and rhwydd, there are actually a few other translations of easy to be aware of. Didrafferth, which literally means without trouble, is also commonly used. If you are referring, not to the easiness of a task, but to an easy manner, an easy life, or even an easy chair, you should use esmwyth (soft or smooth).
You can use hawdd whether you are describing a masculine, feminine, or plural noun; it doesn’t change at all. But it is worth knowing the words haws (easier, also hawsach and hawddach), hawsaf (easiest), and hawsed (as easy). That’s a lot to get your head around so if you’re going to pick one to learn, go with haws.
Roedd yr un prawf yn haws na’r llall.
One test was easier than the other.
Hawdd and its various derived forms don’t mutate in any context; words beginning with the letter h never do in Welsh.
I mentioned earlier that difficult is anodd, and there are plenty of synonyms for this, such as caled (hard), which has the same two meanings as its English translation, astrus, which means obscure or complicated, and trafferthus, which refers to something troublesome or laborious.
There are plenty of English phrases using easy that can be recreated in Welsh. That is easy to see is hawdd gweld hynny, and something can also be o fewn cyrraedd hawdd (within easy reach). Even the unpleasant insult that a woman is easy is the same in Welsh, with the phrase being merch hawdd ei chael (an easy girl to get).
On a brighter note, I’d argue that easier said than done is even better in Welsh than in English because it rhymes – haws dweud na gwneud! You can also use haws dweud mynydd na mynd drosto (it’s easier to say ‘mountain’ than to go over one) or the lovely rhyming proverb:
Hawdd yw dwedyd “dacw’r Wyddfa”, nid eir drosti ond yn ara’
It’s easy to say “there’s Snowdon”, but you’ll only get over it slowly.
The phrase easy as pie is a bit different in Welsh though – you might instead describe a syml (simple) task as hawdd fel dŵr (easy like water), hawdd fel baw (easy like dirt), or even cyn hawsed â thynnu llaw dros wyneb (just as easy as pulling your hand across your face). Some people do use hawdd–pawdd, which is a direct equivalent of easy-peasy.
Unfortunately, most things in life that we might describe as hawdd are more often than not anodd instead. But thinking positively, here are some contexts in which you might want to use this Welsh word:
- gwaith hawdd = easy work
- gorchwyl hawdd = an easy task
- swydd hawdd = an easy job
- arholiad hawdd = an easy exam
- hawdd i wneud = easy to do
- hawdd deall = understandably
You can also use hawdd to mean facile or superficial – simply say rhy hawdd (literally: too easy).
Deuai canu’n hawdd iawn iddi hi.
Singing came very easily to her.
Someone who’s contented and materially well-off could be described as hawdd ei fyd (literally: easy his world). If your Welsh friend thinks that you’ve been getting a lot of lwc (luck) in life, they might accuse you of bod mewn hawddfyd (being in ease), or simply cael hi’n hawdd (getting it easy). But you can yn hawdd (easily) reply with the simple nid hawdd bodloni pawb (it’s not easy to please everyone).
There are a lot of great Welsh idioms and proverbs involving the word hawdd, such as the rather optimistic hawdd cymodi lle bo cariad (easy to reconcile where there’s love), which suggests it’s easy to make up after an argument with someone you care about. I’m not sure I always find that one to be the case!
Potentially more realistic, and quite funny too, is hawdd cynnau tân ar hen aelwyd (easy to start a fire on an old hearth). This is similar to the English idiom rekindling an old flame, and suggests jocularly that it’s easier to start up a failed relationship again than to begin a new one.
