A Guide To Pronouncing Welsh Words

As a Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons, Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe. With English sovereignty over Wales in the 1500s, speaking Welsh was banned and the language was almost wiped out. However, it made a revival in the 20th century and today Welsh is spoken by around 20% of the population.

As a bilingual country all signs in Wales are shown in both Welsh and English, often with the Welsh appearing first. Many of the place names in Wales are in Welsh and many of the topographical descriptions on maps appear in Welsh only.

Having an uncertainty in how to pronounce Welsh words can cause much confusion and dread to visitors of this beautiful land.

However, Welsh is largely a rules based language (unlike English where rules are flippantly disregarded at any given moment!), so if you understand the rules, deciphering this ancient language becomes a much easier task.

In this guide I hope to provide a basic understanding of Welsh language rules so that you can pronounce Welsh words with confidence. I also provide a translation for common Welsh words that you will likely encounter on a hike around Wales.

With all this, you’ll be better equipped for your next Welsh mountain adventure!

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Some Common FAQs

• How do you pronounce Gwrych Castle – Goo-reech (with a soft ch as in a Scottish loch) When I’m A Celebrity was filmed at Gwrych Castle I heard this question a lot, so i’m pre-empting your query before we get stuck in!
• How do you say Welsh in Welsh – Cymraeg (Kum-raig)
• How do Welsh people say Wales – Cymru
• How do you pronounce Cymru – Kum-ree

The Welsh Alphabet

The Welsh alphabet has 28 letters. The alphabet is mostly the same as English, however there are a few extra letters. There are also some letters that are the same as English but pronounced differently.

Welsh consists of vowels, consonants and diphthongs.

Welsh vowels – A, E, I, U, O, W, Y

Welsh consonants – B, C, Ch, D, Dd, F, Ff, G, Ng, H, L, Ll, M, N, P, Ph, R, Rh, S, T, Th

Diphthongs are combinations of letters which have specific sounds when they occur together.

Welsh diphthongs – Ae, Ai, Au, Eu, Ei, Ew, I’w, Y’w, Oe, Ow, Wy, Ywy, Aw. As this is a basic introduction to Welsh I won’t delve into the diphthongs here.

These are some of the more unusual vowels and consonants in Welsh:

c – pronounced k, as in cat. For example Cymru (Wales) is Kum-ree

ch – pronounced the same as in a Scottish loch. For example bach 

dd – pronounced th, as in bath. For example Carneddau is kar-neth-eye

g – pronounced as a hard g, as in gone. For example gwyn is goo-in

ll – pronounced like nothing else in the English language! To make this noise, put your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth and then blow. Ask a Welsh person to say Llanelli to fully understand. The closest English sound is thl (although this really isn’t right). For example llyn is thlin

The only other country where I’ve heard this sound is Mongolia, in their word for thank you (It’s баярлалаа in case you were wondering!)

f – pronounced as a v, as in alive. For example Tryfan is truh – van

ff – pronounced as an f as in off. For example ffyrdd is furth

w (used as a vowel) – pronounced as an oo, as in boom. For example drws is droos

rh – another difficult one to wrap your tongue around. When rh appears together it almost sounds like the h comes before the r and you blow out air as you speak. Similar to rhinoceros. For example rhag is hrag

y (used as a vowel) – this one’s a little complicated! Most of the time y is pronounced as a u, as in gun. But when it’s the last syllable of a word it becomes an i, as in if. A common example when hiking is the Welsh word for mountain, mynydd. This is pronounced mun–ith where the first y is a ‘u’ sound and the second sound is an ‘i’ sound.

Another common example is where ‘y’ appears by itself or joined by an ‘r’ to make ‘yr’. Y or yr means the and is pronounced as uh or er. For example, Pen y Fan (Pen uh van), Betws y Coed (Beh-toos uh koyd) or Pen yr Ole Wen (Pen er Ole When) However, sometimes it’s pronounced as an e, as in bee! For example, ysbyty (hospital) is us-buh-tee. I told you it was complicated!

Did you know you can learn Welsh for free on the app Duolingo? However if you’d like a good beginners course, take a look at the Speedy Way to Learn Welsh

Useful Welsh Words To Know When Hiking In Wales

In the list below I provide translations for many of the words seen on OS maps or road signs in Wales. If you’ve spent some time hiking around Wales these words may already be familiar to you.

Now that you understand how to say the letters, have a go at pronouncing these words – have you been saying them correctly?! Some commonly mispronounced names I hear quite regularly are Betws y Coed, Pen y Fan and Pen yr Ole Wen. (phonetically explained above)

Funny fact: Welsh does not possess the letters J, K, Q, V, X or Z, however they are sometimes imported from other languages when there is no applicable Welsh letter. A famous example of this is with the popular Welsh surname, Jones!

Mutations

You may be wondering why the word for small, which is bach, can also be seen as fach. In Welsh there are things called mutations (treiglad), where the starting letter or letters change depending on what precedes it.

There are three types of mutations – soft, nasal and aspirate. To provide an example, under the respective mutations the word Cymru mutates to – Gymru, Nghymru, Chymru.

It’s a fairly in depth set of rules so I won’t get into it too much here. I’ll just highlight this point so that you’re not left despairing when you look at the dictionary (or Google translate) for a word that doesn’t seem to exist. 

Some examples of mutations you might see are:

• Glyder fach
• Rhaeadr Fawr
• Croseo i Gymru
• Pen y Graig
• Llyn y Fan Fach
• Canol y dref

What About The Roof?

The circumflex (to give it it’s proper name), is the roof-shaped symbol that appears above the letter 6 on your keyboard: ^ (on an Apple at least!)

In the Welsh language this is used to lengthen a vowel. In changing the sound it also changes the meaning of the word. An example of the circumflex is in the Welsh word for fire, which is tân (taan), as in Tân Sam or Fireman Sam as you might remember him. (Seriously though, how many fires can one small village have?!)

Read Next

• Beautiful Landscape Photographs of Wales
• The ultimate Welsh road trip itinerary
• Top destinations to visit in Wales

A Few Handy Welsh Phrases

Here are a few common Welsh phrases to help you along the way, although I should prefix this with a word of warning. I am from South Wales. South Wales and North Wales have different dialects, so whilst Welsh speakers can usually decipher the difference, it may be quite a challenge for the untrained ear!

These are how phrases are said in South Wales. Can you work out how to pronounce them?

• Good morning – Bore da
• Good afternoon- Prynhawn da
• Good night – Nos da
• Hello/alright – Su’mae or shwmae
• Please – Os gwelwych yn dda
• Thanks – Diolch
• You’re welcome – Croeso
• Cheers – Iechyd da
• Bye – Hwyl
• OK – Iawn
• How are you? – Sut wyt ti?
• What’s the time? – Faint o’r gloch?
• Where are the toilets? – Ble mae’r tŷ bach? (or ble mae’r toiledau)

Tŷ bach is the best name for a toilet anywhere in the world by the way! Literally translated, it means small house and is a throw back to the days where we used to have outhouses.

Myth buster: Popty ping is not the Welsh word for microwave. You may have asked me and I may have said it’s true, but it’s not. It’s a joke. #sorrynotsorry

The real welsh word for microwave is meicrodon which isn’t funny at all

Understanding & Pronouncing Welsh Words Summary

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little about my language and I hope you find this guide useful on your next visit to Wales. With so many of the Welsh mountains and geographical points in Welsh, it’s useful to get your head around their meanings before embarking on a hike.

I hope you can now confidently describe your walking adventures to all those that are forced to listen them!

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