Our 'how to' guide to pronunciation
Helping you get your head, or rather your tongue, around the
Welsh language!
You've booked your holiday, packed your bags and made your way
to North Wales; but have you brushed up on any Welsh? I thought it
time to try my hand at some useful phrases and tackle popular place
names; and share their tricky pronunciations with you, in the hope
that more of us will speak at least a little Welsh each day!
'Croeso i Gymru' is likely to be the first Welsh you come across
during your stay in North Wales; you will spot plenty more Welsh on
signs, in shops and hear it spoken around you. I must admit my
Welsh leaves rather a lot to be desired. I know the odd word, with
odd being the important point here, as they could not be used to
string a sentence together! I can recall allan for exit, araf
meaning slow and llaths the word for yards; there is no prize for
guessing where I picked up the majority of my Welsh.
Interestingly in a Government survey completed last year it was found,
out of those surveyed, the number of non-fluent Welsh speakers had
increased substantially. Giving us all the more reason to attempt
to learn some basic Welsh, here goes!
Useful Welsh phrases
When driving round North Wales, it can be incredibly hard
to pick up the proper pronunciation of the place names you see on
signs along the way. Most are hard enough to spell, let alone say.
Below I've featured a couple of the commonly mispronounced places
along with the phonetic sounds to help you. There is a bit of a
challenge too - the longest place name in the whole of the
UK!
Place names
I know I am far from fluent but at least now I will be
able to use some basic Welsh whilst running errands, out for food
or exploring all that North Wales has to offer! Why not
print out our handy tables and keep them close by whilst
holidaying here?