1. Introduction to Welsh
Welsh (Cymraeg) is a Celtic language of the Brythonic branch, spoken in Wales (Cymru) and by communities in Patagonia and beyond. It has the oldest living literary tradition in Britain, and after decades of decline it is now the focus of a major, well-funded revival: the Welsh Government aims for one million speakers by 2050.1
For an English speaker, Welsh is close to home geographically but structurally very different: it puts the verb first (VSO), changes the first letters of words (initial mutations), has grammatical gender, and drops the word for “a/an.” None of this is hard once you see the patterns — and the spelling, unlike English, is highly regular.
Why learn Welsh?
- A living revival: Welsh is one of the great language-revitalization stories, with immersion schools, media (S4C), and a huge free learner ecosystem.
- Regular spelling: once you learn the alphabet, you can pronounce almost any Welsh word on sight.
- Cultural depth: a thousand years of poetry (the eisteddfod, cynghanedd), song, and the place-names all around you (Llan-, Aber-, Cwm-).
- A gateway to the Celtic languages — its cousins Breton and Cornish share the Brythonic structure.
What the levels mean here
This guide follows the CEFR: A1–A2 (beginner) are complete below; B1–C2 are outlined and clearly marked incomplete.
2. Pronunciation & spelling
Welsh uses the Latin alphabet with 29 letters, several of which are digraphs (two letters, one sound): ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th. Importantly, w and y are vowels. Spelling is consistent, so pronunciation is predictable.3
Sounds that surprise English speakers
| Letter(s) | Welsh sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ll | voiceless “hl” — hiss it like /ɬ/ | Llanelli, llaeth (milk) |
| ch | raspy /χ/ (as in Scottish “loch”) | bach (small) |
| dd | voiced “th” as in “this” /ð/ | dydd (day) |
| f | /v/ | afon (river) = “AH-von” |
| ff | /f/ | ffenestr (window) |
| w (vowel) | /u/ (“oo”) | cwm (valley) = “koom” |
| y | /ə/ or /ɪ/ | y (the), dydd |
| r / rh | tapped / voiceless-tapped | Rhondda |
Stress
Welsh almost always stresses the second-to-last syllable: caNOL (centre), ysGOLion (schools). This is regular enough to trust.
3. How Welsh sentences work
Four features carry most of Welsh grammar. Master them and beginner Welsh opens up.
Verb first (VSO)
A neutral Welsh sentence starts with the verb, then the subject, then the object: “Mae'r ci yn rhedeg” = literally “Is the dog running” → “The dog runs / is running.” The little word yn links the verb-noun to the subject.
The verb ‘to be’ (bod), present tense
| Welsh | English |
|---|---|
| Dw i | I am |
| Rwyt ti | you are (informal) |
| Mae e / hi | he / she is |
| Dyn ni | we are |
| Dych chi | you are (formal/plural) |
| Maen nhw | they are |
No word for ‘a/an’
Welsh has no indefinite article. “ci” means “a dog” or just “dog.” It does have a definite article — y / yr / 'r (“the”) — chosen by the surrounding sounds.
Initial consonant mutations
This is the hallmark of Celtic languages: the first letter of a word can change depending on what comes before it. The most common is the soft mutation (treiglad meddal). For example, “cath” (cat) becomes “y gath” (the cat), because a feminine singular noun softens after the article. The soft-mutation pairs to memorize first:
| Original | Softens to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| p | b | pen → ei ben (his head) |
| t | d | tad → ei dad (his father) |
| c | g | cath → y gath (the cat) |
| b | f | bara → ei fara |
| d | dd | darn → ei ddarn |
| g | (disappears) | gardd → yr ardd (the garden) |
4. Beginner vocabulary
Greetings & courtesy
Note: Welsh usually answers “yes/no” by echoing the verb, not with single words — but ie (“yes”) and nage (“no”) exist for some contexts.
| Welsh | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Shwmae / S'mae | Hi (informal) | South Wales; North: Su'mae |
| Bore da | Good morning | |
| Prynhawn da | Good afternoon | |
| Noswaith dda | Good evening | |
| Nos da | Good night | |
| Diolch (yn fawr) | Thank you (very much) | |
| Croeso | Welcome / you're welcome | |
| Sut wyt ti? | How are you? (informal) | reply: Da iawn, diolch |
Core words
| Welsh | English | Welsh | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| dŵr | water | tŷ | house |
| bara | bread | ci | dog |
| cath | cat | llyfr | book |
| ysgol | school | afon | river |
| da | good | mawr | big |
Numbers 1–10
| Welsh | English | Welsh | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| un | 1 | chwech | 6 |
| dau / dwy | 2 (m / f) | saith | 7 |
| tri / tair | 3 (m / f) | wyth | 8 |
| pedwar / pedair | 4 (m / f) | naw | 9 |
| pump | 5 | deg | 10 |
Welsh has both a decimal system (shown here) and a traditional vigesimal (base-20) system still used for dates and ages.
Practice: greetings, numbers & ‘to be’
Practice: Core greetings, the numbers 1–10, and the present tense of bod (‘to be’). Type the Welsh word.. Type the missing word — accents are optional.
- 1.‘Good morning’ is Bore .
Hint: the Welsh word for ‘good’
- 2.‘Thank you’ is (yn fawr).
Hint: one word; sounds like ‘DEE-olch’
- 3.‘Welcome’ (also on road signs into Wales) is .
Hint: begins with the cr- cluster
- 4.The number 1 is .
Hint: two letters; related to Latin ‘unus’
- 5.The masculine form of ‘three’ is .
Hint: Welsh splits 3 into masculine and feminine (tair)
- 6.The number 10 is .
Hint: three letters; compare the start of ‘decimal’
- 7.‘I am’ is Dw .
Hint: the pronoun meaning the speaker
- 8.‘How are you?’ (informal) is Sut wyt ?
Hint: the informal singular ‘you’
- 9.‘Very good’ (a common reply) is Da .
Hint: this word means ‘very’
- 10.The Welsh name for Wales is .
Hint: the country whose language you are learning
10 questions
Grammar reference: Vocabulary and forms per Gareth King, Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge); sentences original to LinguaCommons. CEFR A1.. Sentences are original to LinguaCommons.
5. More grammar
The soft mutation in action
The soft mutation is the first big habit to build. It happens, among other cases, to a feminine singular noun after the article (y), and to many words after certain prepositions and possessives. Learn the six pairs above and you will handle most beginner cases.
The definite article: y, yr, 'r
Use yr before a vowel or h (yr afon = the river), y before a consonant (y ci = the dog), and 'r after a vowel (i'r ysgol = to the school).
Verb-nouns and the ‘yn’ link
Welsh verbs often appear as verb-nouns (like English “-ing”), joined to bod with yn: “Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg” = “I am learning Welsh” (dysgu = to learn / learning).
Practice: mutations, articles & VSO
Practice: Soft mutation, the definite article, and verb-first word order. Type the Welsh (or, where noted, the English) answer.. Type the missing word — accents are optional.
- 1.‘cath’ (cat, fem.) after the article softens: y .
Hint: c softens to its voiced pair
- 2.Soft mutation: p → .
Hint: p becomes its voiced partner
- 3.Soft mutation: t → .
Hint: t becomes its voiced partner
- 4.Soft mutation: c → .
Hint: c becomes its voiced partner
- 5.Welsh has no article (the word for ‘a/an’). (answer in English)
Hint: the opposite of ‘definite’
- 6.‘The’ before a consonant is (e.g. ___ ci = the dog).
Hint: a single letter; it becomes ‘yr’ before a vowel
- 7.In the present of bod, ‘he/she is’ is (it starts VSO sentences).
Hint: three letters; ‘___ e’n rhedeg’ = he is running
- 8.‘The dog runs’ = Mae'r ci yn (rhedeg = to run).
Hint: the verb-noun meaning ‘run(ning)’
- 9.The feminine form of ‘three’ is (masc. is ‘tri’).
Hint: the feminine of 3
- 10.Welsh word order is Verb–Subject–Object, so the comes first. (answer in English)
Hint: the V in VSO
10 questions
Grammar reference: Grammar per Gareth King, Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar; sentences original to LinguaCommons. CEFR A2.. Sentences are original to LinguaCommons.
6. Culture & context
Welsh identity is bound up with its language. The National Eisteddfod — a festival of poetry, song and performance held entirely in Welsh — is over 800 years old, and the intricate sound-patterning of cynghanedd is a poetic art with no real English equivalent. The language lives in everyday place-names too: Llan- (church/parish), Aber- (river-mouth), Cwm- (valley), Caer- (fort).
After long decline, Welsh has rebounded through Welsh-medium schools, the S4C television channel, and a government commitment to a million speakers by 2050 — making it a model that other minority languages study.
“Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon.” — A nation without a language is a nation without a heart. (Welsh proverb)
Where this guide is going
A1–A2 above are complete: pronunciation, bod, the article, the soft mutation, VSO, beginner vocabulary and two practice sets. The intermediate material below is outlined and marked incomplete.
Planned B1–C2 (stubbed)
- B1: the past tenses (preterite; imperfect with bod), the nasal and aspirate mutations, possessive constructions.
- B2: the short-form (inflected) verbs, conditional, relative clauses.
- C1: registers (formal/literary Welsh vs colloquial), idiom, dialect differences (north/south).
- C2: literary Welsh, cynghanedd, unadapted prose and poetry.
7. Learning resources
Welsh has an outstanding free learner ecosystem (verified June 2026):
- Learn Welsh / Dysgu Cymraeg (National Centre for Learning Welsh)Beginner — the official adult-learner programme; courses at every level
- Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (GPC) — University of Wales DictionaryReference — the standard historical dictionary of Welsh, free online
- Beginners Welsh (Aberystwyth University)Beginner — free structured beginners' course
- Duolingo — WelshSupplement — popular free basics; good for daily habit
- Welsh language (overview) — classification, history, status
8. Notes & limitations
- North vs South Welsh differ in some everyday words (e.g. greetings) and pronunciation; this guide notes the main ones and leans neutral/standard.
- This guide covers A1–A2 fully; B1–C2 are stubs.
Notes & Bibliography
- Welsh (Cymraeg) is a Brythonic Celtic language of Wales; the 2021 census recorded ~538,000 speakers, and the Welsh Government's Cymraeg 2050 strategy targets one million speakers by 2050. See “Welsh language.” [source] ↩
- Verb-first (VSO) order, the present tense of bod, the indefinite-article gap, and the initial consonant mutations follow the standard reference: Gareth King, Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar, 3rd ed. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015). [source] ↩
- On the 29-letter alphabet with digraphs (ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th), w and y as vowels, and the regular, largely phonemic orthography, see “Welsh orthography.” [source] ↩