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Pronouncing Welsh Place Names

Welsh Place Names | Signs in Welsh | Useful Words and Phrases

( also read A Brief History of the Welsh Language )

Wales is a bi-lingual country – both Welsh and English are spoken. You certainly don't need to speak any Welsh to enjoy your visit to Wales. But, just a little understanding of Welsh place names will bring your cycle ride to life, especially as most Welsh place names are largely descriptive. So, if you want to learn a little bit about the Welsh language, here goes...

Apart from a few vowels that are slightly different from English, Welsh is a more or less a phonetic language, you pronounce it as it looks. Don't get put off by the long list of vowels and consonants, once you've understood the few rules it is easy.

It may help you to pronounce names if you remember that the emphasis in Welsh is usually on the penultimate syllable. For example, Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von), Beddgelert (beth-gel-airt), Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris), Felindre (veh-lin-dray).

Protest sign The Goat pub Village sign

Welsh has a slightly different alphabet from English – we've listed the differences below:-

C - pronounced as a K, as in English 'kick' eg: Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von).

CH - pronounced as in the Scottish 'loch' and the composer Bach.

DD - pronounced TH, as in English 'breathe' eg: Beddgelert (beth-gell-airt).

G - pronounced as a hard G, as in English 'get' eg: Beddgelert (beth-gell-airt).

LL - roughly pronounced THL eg: Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris)

F - pronounced as a V, as in English 'of' eg: Felindre (veh-lin-dray).

FF - pronounced as an F, as in English 'off' eg: FFestiniog (fest-in-yog).

W - pronounced as an OO, as in English 'swoon' eg: Llanrwst (thlan-roost).

Y - has two different pronunciations. In all but the last syllable of a word it's pronounced as a U - as in English 'fun'. When it is in the last syllable of a word it is pronounced as an i - as in English 'is'. For example, the Welsh for mountain is mynydd (mun-ith); the Welsh for mountains is mynyddoedd (mun-uth-oith).  Because it no longer occurs in the last syllable, the sound of the second y changes from 'i' to 'u' (also, notice the emphasis moves along to the new penultimate syllable). In single syllable words, the Y is unpredictable!

Welsh Place Names:-

Welsh place names are largely descriptive, eg: Mynydd Bach is small mountain (Mynydd = mountain, Bach = small). A famous example of this is:-

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Which roughly translates as:-

The Church of St. Mary by the pool with the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's church and the red cave.

The actual name of the village is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is locally abbreviated to Llanfair PG (well wouldn't you). A Victorian publicity stunt landed the villagers with the long name. If you really want to show off by learning how to pronounce it, try this:-

thlann vyre pooth gwinn gith gogg-erra kweern drobbooth lann tuss-ill-yo goggo gauk.

The following list of place name elements might help make your map reading a little easier:

Place Name Elements
Welsh English Example Rough Pronunciation
aber river mouth Aberdaron abb-er-darron
afon river Afon Dee avv-on dee
bach or fach small Felinfach velin-vach
bont or pont bridge Pontnewydd pont-neh-with
bwlch gap, pass Bwlch boolch
carreg stone Carreg Samson karregg samson
cefn ridge Cefn-coed kevenn-koid
coch red Castell Coch kass-teth koch
coed wood Cefn-coed kevenn-koid
cwm valley Cwmfelin-fach koom-velin-vach
dinas fort, city Dinas  Emrys dinnass emm-riss
du black Cwmdu koom-dee
eglwys church Eglwyswrw egg-lewis-oorroo
fawr or mawr big Fforest Fawr forest vowr (rhymes with hour)
felin or melin mill Felinfach velin-vach
croes or groes cross Croesgoch croiss-goch
llan church lands Llanwrtyd thlan-ooer-tid
llyn lake Llyn  Brianne thlin bree-annay
maes field Maesteg mise-teg
mynydd mountain Mynydd  Bach munnith bach
pen top Pen-y-bont pen-a-bont
rhyd ford Rhydfelen reed-vellen

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Signs in Welsh
Welsh English Rough Pronunciation
ARAF SLOW arav
Dim mynediad No entry dim munned-yad
Dim ... No ... dim ...
Lôn Lane lonn
Ffordd Road forth
Llwybr Cyhoeddus Public Footpath thlooy-beer kahoy-this
Cymru Wales kumm-ri
Gwesty Hotel gwesty
Siôp Shop shop
Swyddfa'r Post Post Office sooeethva post
Gorsaf Station gorsav
Heddlu Police hethlee
Ysbyty Hospital uss-butty
Traeth Beach trye-th
Toiledau Toilets toy-led-eye
Merched Ladies (toilet) mair-kedd
Dynion Gentlemen (toilet) dunny-onn

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Useful Welsh Words & Phrases
English Welsh Rough Pronunciation
thanks diolch dee-olck
thanks very much diolch yn fawr dee-olck unn vowr
please plis please
OK iawn yown (rhymes with gown)
good morning bore da bor-er dah
good afternoon prynhawn da prin-hown dah
good evening noswaith dda noss-wythe-ah
good night nos da noss dah
hello helo hello
cheerio, goodbye hwyl who-ill
currant bread bara brith barrah breeth
leek soup cawl cennin cowl kennin

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Foot-note: If you think that Welsh is unpronounceable, then think on. In fact English is one of the most unphonetic languages. For instance the English '...ough' can be pronounced 10 different ways:- through, though, thought, tough, cough, borough, bough, hiccough, lough (pronounced 'och' as in loch), and hough ('ock'). The last is fairly archaic, but it does appear in the 1995 Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Apologies to Welsh speakers if we have taken a few liberties with the pronunciations. We have tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Please Bookmark This Page this Welsh pronunciation page.

Also read A Brief History of the Welsh Language

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Welsh Language Books

Welsh For Beginners

Welsh for Beginners

The Modern Welsh Dictionary

Modern Welsh Dictionary

Understanding Welsh Place Names

Understanding Welsh Place Names: What They Mean and How to Say Them

Welsh Place-names Unzipped

More Welsh Language Books

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Welsh History, Folklore & Language Books

Welsh Guide Books

Accommodation Guidebooks

Buy a Map

Rough Guide to Wales

The Rough Guide to Wales