Are you able to explain how you’re teimlo (feeling) in Welsh? If not, it might be time to incorporate this very useful verb into your vocabulary.
teimlo
to feel
Teimlo refers both to someone’s state of meddwl (thought / mind) and emotions, and to physically touching and feeling the byd (world) around us using our synhwyrau (senses). In this latter sense it is a bit like the word cyffwrdd (to touch).
It probably derives ultimately from the proto-Indo-European root tehg (to touch), meaning it has the unlikely cognate contaminate!
Teimlo is subject to all three kinds of Welsh mutations. However, it’s worth noting that the aspirate mutation is very often omitted when people are speaking casually, and for whatever reason, this seems to be more common with the t -> th mutation than with the other two kinds of aspirate mutation.
Soft mutation
deimlo
Nasal mutation
nheimlo
Aspirate mutation
theimlo
So although phrases like ni theimlodd hi (she didn’t feel) and cyffwrdd a theimlo (to touch and to feel) are technically accurate, they may sound a bit stuffy and formal.
Teimlo is also the ancestor of the important word teimlad (a feeling, emotion or sensation). This is a masculine noun with the plural teimladau (feelings, emotions or sensations). Ymdeimlad is a less common alternative which utilises the reflexive prefix ym.
Grammatically, you can use teimlo much as you would use to feel in English:
- teimlo fo = to feel it / to feel him
- teimlo’ch oedran = to feel one’s age
- teimlo (flin) dros = to feel (sorry) for
- teimlo awydd gwneud / teimlo fel gwneud = to feel like
- teimlo fel petai = to feel as if
- teimlo’n ddrwg = to feel bad
It is often used with yn, a linking word. In this context it’s inserted in between teimlo and the adjective that describes the way someone is feeling, though since teimlo ends with a vowel sound, yn will here always be contracted to ‘n. Also importantly, yn causes a soft mutation to adjectives and nouns which follow it – which is why we have ddrwg instead of bad above.
Dw i’n teimlo fy mod i wedi cael fy nefnyddio.
I feel I’ve been used.
You’d have to apply the same mutation to common words for teimladau (emotions), like trist (sad), bodlon (content), dig (angry), blin (angry, frustrated or weary), blinedig (tired), and balch (proud / pleased). Though of course some of these words, like unig (lonely) or the very important hapus (happy), don’t mutate at all anyway.
One important grammatical rule for the usage of teimlo that differs slightly from English is how it ‘links’ to other sentences.
In Welsh, when two sentences are linked together, we use the word bod (to be). What’s interesting about this is that bod is normally subject to a number of highly irregular conjugations depending on the exact tense of the situation, but when it’s being used as a linking word, it should technically be left unconjugated in any present or past tense sentences.
It’s hard to think this out in the abstract, so let’s work through an example if you’ve not come across this construction before.
She feels sick is mae hi’n teimlo’n sâl. However, if you feel sick were to become the second phrase in a sentence made of two linked phrases, the mae, which is a conjugated form of bod, would revert to just bod itself – so the second part of the sentence would now be (ei) bod hi’n teimlo’n sâl. This functions, essentially, as that she feels sick.
Dw i’n teimlo drosti oherwydd ei bod hi’n teimlo’n sâl.
I feel for her because she feels sick.
Sometimes people will use the conjugated form of bod when speaking colloquially – especially if they are speaking in the past tense, in which case the conjugated form provides useful information – but this is technically and traditionally incorrect, so best to avoid in any formal context or if you are practising your Welsh for an exam!
As versatile as teimlo is, that’s no excuse for not also getting familiar with synonyms and other options that serve a similar purpose! Especially if you’re keen to diversify your speech and writing in Welsh. Here are some I like:
- byseddu = to finger or to feel up
- chwilota = to feel about for
- synhwyro = to sense
- bodio = to touch or to handle
- swmpo = to feel (especially of a material)
- ymgyfarwyddo = to get the feel of
You might notice that most of these are more to do with physical teimlo and teimladau. On the other hand, teimlo as in to feel an emotion is pretty unique in Welsh, with no other single word I’m aware of capturing a similar meaning.
Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t expressions available in Welsh to convey strong teimladau of the more emosiynol (emotional) variety. And some of them involve the word teimlo – like teimlo ar eich calon (to feel strongly, literally to feel on one’s heart), teimlo i’r byw (to feel strongly, literally to feel to life) or teimlo’n chwith ar ôl rhywun (to miss someone, literally to feel ‘leftward’ / sadly / awkwardly after someone).
Crwydrodd hi ar y rhos, gan deimlo’n unig.
She wandered on the moor, feeling lonely.
I find that the words for teimladau are always interesting ones to explore in diverse languages because there’s so much variation. Different cultures just have different ways of thinking about things, and sometimes phrases in languages other than our own can come across so powerfully precisely because we’re not used to them!
We have a few erthyglau (articles) already that delve into different teimladau which you might find useful – check out cariad (love), trist (sad), and cof (memory) for some topics that I personally find particularly interesting. And let us know which Welsh words about teimlo you’d like to learn more about in future!
