Do you have any Welsh words you’ve learnt that you think are particularly hyfryd (lovely)? If so, we’d love to hear about them – and you never know, maybe one will be our next word of the day!
But today’s word of the day is hyfryd itself, an adjective that’s pronounced like this:
hyfryd
lovely
I think it’s best translated as lovely, but it can mean beautiful in some contexts, too, though not in the stereotypical looks-related sense. It works better adverbially, as in dawnsio’n hyfryd (to dance beautifully).
Hyfryd can also just mean very pleasant or delightful. This slightly different meaning becomes clearer in the noun form of the word, hyfrydwch, which means a delight or a pleasure – something that one mwynhau (enjoys) very much. A quick note to say, though, that you wouldn’t use this word for Turkish delight, which is melysyn Twrci (roughly this means little Turkey sweet).
Now, the etymology of hyfryd may not be what you’d expect. I’ll admit that I certainly didn’t expect it!
The second part of the word actually comes from the noun bryd, which is an archaic word that still shows up in a lot of compound words, like meddylfryd (mentality) or dedfryd (sentence as in a court sentence). It’s hard to translate into English. It’s most often rendered desire or will, sometimes opinion, but in medieval Welsh it was used in a similar metaphorical way to the way we talk about our heart or our mind in English.
The first part of the word is the prefix hy-. This can mean easy to, like the suffix –able in English, or it can mean very. It’s unclear which role it’s taking on here in hyfryd, especially since hy– isn’t usually applied to nouns at all. In the first sense, it tends to be paired with adjectives, and in the second, with verbs.
Mae gen ti lais hyfryd, beth am ganu cân i ni?
You have a lovely voice, why not sing us a song?
So what hyfryd literally means we may never know, but today it’s usually translated as lovely, pleasant, or delightful. For example, you might respond Hyfryd! if someone’s telling you about the nice gwyliau (holidays) they just had, or say dyna ffrog hyfryd (that’s a lovely dress) to compliment them.
Of course it’s not the only word that can be used in this way. Prydferth and hardd mean beautiful, so they would be appropriate for the second context. For the first, you might go for gwych (great) or perhaps something like bendigedig / ardderchog (amazing). And the word braf, which means fine, fair or excellent, could be a good way to talk about a lovely day.
On the other hand, gwael means miserable, rubbish or of poor quality, you can say hyll, hagr or salw for ugly, and drwg is just plain bad.
Mae hwnnw’n cwpan te mor hyfryd.
That’s such a lovely teacup.
Before we move on from antonyms and synonyms, one more word which you’ll often find given as lovely, especially in more formal dictionaries, is hawddgar. This comes from the adjective hawdd (easy), and I would translate it as agreeable or amiable.
It’s given in these dictionaries because they are interpreting the English word lovely in quite an old-fashioned way, seeing it as more akin to what we would today call lovable. For a more accurate translation of the way English lovely is used today, meaning great, excellent or delightful, it’s best to go with hyfryd.
Let’s run through some more vocabulary to pair with hyfryd:
- tywydd hyfryd = lovely weather
- profiad hyfryd = a lovely experience
- parti hyfryd = a lovely party
- dyn hyfryd / dynes hyfryd = a lovely man / a lovely woman
- pobl hyfryd = lovely people
- blodau hyfryd = lovely flowers
- gwên hyfryd = a lovely smile
Roedd hi’n hyfryd treulio cymaint o amser gyda Tad.
It was lovely spending so much time with Dad.
I’ll finish off with an interesting way of using the word that you can will almost certainly be able to incorporate the next time you greet someone in Welsh.
You may have heard the expression mae’n braf gen i before, which is very similar to this. You can put anything after mae’n braf gen i and it just means I’m glad to or I’m glad that.
Often, the mae’n at the start of the sentence is dropped, making it sound a little more casual and intimate. You can also just drop the gen i to make the sentence a literal translation of what it would be in English – that’s fine, but the more idiomatic Welsh version is a fun option to learn, and I would say also works better when you need to be formal.
Sometimes the braf is replaced by da too, which would mutate to dda after mae’n but wouldn’t mutate if the mae’n was dropped.
In particular, mae’n braf gen i often appears in the expression mae’n braf gen i gwrdd â chi (I’m glad to meet you, like it’s nice to meet you). As you can see, cwrdd (to meet) has taken a soft mutation here, as would any other soft-mutatable noun in its place in this sentence.
So how does hyfryd fit in here? Well, it’s just a way to intensify the meaning of the sentence: mae’n hyfryd gen i gwrdd â chi (it’s really lovely to meet you). This is particularly suitable for formal or posh contexts where you want to make a good impression, but you can use it with anyone to be polite and show off your Welsh skills!
