Welsh challenge (6)

This post is the 6^th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 5 of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany

For a few words and phrases, there are differences between north (N) and south (S) Wales.
I’ve used bold type below to highlight words affected by mutations and an asterisk * to mark words followed by mutation.

Asking and giving directions

Some useful verbs: ewch (‘you go’), trowch (‘you turn’), cymerwch (‘you take’), mae e/hi (‘it is’), fe /mi welwch chi fe /hi (‘you’ll see it’, gweld = ‘see’)

Some locations and directions:

• i’r dde (‘to the right’, de = ‘right’ / ‘south’), i’r chwith (‘to the left’), ar y dde (‘on the right’), ar y chwith (‘on the left’)
• yn syth ymlaen (‘straight on’), yn syth o’ch blaen (chi) (‘straight in front of you’)
• i lawr y ffordd (‘down the road’), i fyny’r ffordd (N) / lan y ffordd (S) (‘down the road’), y groesffordd (‘the crossroad’), y goleuadau (‘the traffic lights’),
• heibio (i) ’r (‘past the..), hyd at* (‘up to’, ‘as far as’), o flaen(‘ in front of’)
• yn ôl [’n ôl] (‘back’)
• y stryd gynta (the 1^st street, cynta), yr ail stryd (‘the 2^nd street’), yr drydedd stryd (‘the 3^rd street’)

In a sequence of directions, ‘then’ is wedyn (colloquially yna).

‘Direction’ is cyfeiriad.

Asking and saying where things are

‘Where is…?’ = lle mae … ? (N), le mae … ? /  ble mae … ? (S)

Unlike English, but like some other languages, including Spanish and Japanese, Welsh distinguishes ‘there (close)’ from ‘there (‘distant’). Welsh has 2 systems of words for ‘here’ and ‘there’ (table 1).

Table 1. Here and there.

Extended versions of system 1 forms dyma, dyna, dacw are used in ‘here is’, ‘there is’.

draw fan’na (over there’)

In natural spoken Welsh, questions begging lle mai …? are answered with the locative word (or locative phrase) in first position, where the question word was:

lle mae’r s wyddfa bost
where is the office post
‘where is the post office?’

draw fan’na ar  y    dde   mae hi
over  there  on the right is      it
‘ it is over there on the right’

Some other nouns for places: llyfrgell (‘library’), siop llyfrau (‘book ? shop’), gorsaf [f] (‘station’), ysbyty (‘hospital’), amgueddfa (‘museuem), nuadd[f] y dre (‘town hall’), pwll nofio (‘swimming pool’), archfarchnad [f] (‘supermarket’), ysgol (‘school’)

Requests: can you?

‘please’ = gwelwch un dda (polite) / os gweli di’n dda (familiar singular) / plîs

ellwch chi [in some areas allwch chi] (‘can you’), allech chi (‘could you’), followed by a verbal noun (VN, introduced in instalment 5). More on ‘can’ and on verbal nouns  in https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/07/welsh-challenge-5/

Stem of the verb

In forming the present, past and imperative forms of verbs, personal suffixes are added to the verb’s stem. The stem is usually formed from the verbal noun (VN, dictionary, citation) form:

• for citation forms ending in a vowel, delete the final vowel. (but for nearly all verbs ending in -au, change -au to -eu). Table 2 includes examples
• for some citation forms ending in a consonant, make no change
• for other citation forms ending in a consonant, make some change—usually add -I, or make some internal change (table 3, which shows changes in bold type)

Table 2. Some verb stems, verbs ending in a vowel

Table 3. Some verb stems, verbs ending in a consonant

Commands

Imperatives are formed by adding to the verbal stem the suffix -a (familiar) / -wch (polite). As far as I could, the textbook does not say explicitly which suffix is used for familiar plural: various internet sources say that the polite form is used for familiar plural, and this seems consistent with other aspects of inflection.

Table 4 lists some irregular imperatives.

Table 4 some irregular imperatives.

Negative commands

Negative commands are formed by adding paid (familiar) / peidiwch (polite) before the verbal noun.

Formal Welsh and some colloquial variants use â* after paid / peidiwch. â* sometimes induces aspirate mutation on a following verbal noun beginning with c-, p-, t-.

Family relationships

Table 5 lists some words for family members, together with their Irish equivalents. For more on the Irish words, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/06/irish-challenge-4/

Table 5. Some family members

Other words and phrases

Verbs: cymorth (‘help’), cyrraedd, (‘arrive, reach, get to’), dangos (‘to show’), cerdded (‘walk’)

Nouns: Gwaith (‘work’), munud (‘minute [of time]’), blodau (‘flowers’)

Adjectives: cywir (‘true’), anghywir (‘false’), rhym some

Phrases:

• holi’r ffordd asking the way
• esgusodwch fi ‘excuse me?
• dim o gwbwl not at all
• ddim yn bell o gwbwl ‘not far at all’ (pell = ‘far, distant’)
• newch chi ddeud hynny ’to (‘will you say that again’)
• allech chi sgwennu fe lawr i mi could you write it down for me?
• allech di ddangos i mi ar y map could you show me on the map?
• dw i’n chwilio am* I’m looking for
• dw i’n  dieithr fan hyn ‘I’m not from round here’

Politics

Lesson 5 lists many words about politics.

Source

Colloquial Welsh, Gareth King (2008)