Quick And Easy Welsh Words

 I started reviving my Welsh on Duolingo. 

I went back to Spanish. I saw the Spanish word sofa. Easy-peasy. Would there be similar words in Welsh?

In my languages A5 notebook I kept one page of words which were just learned, in alphabetical order. I started a second page on words which were the same or almost the same in English, so I could look at them last thing at night, instead of counting sheep, counting in another language, or before a bus or train journey, to remember the same and similar words and repeat them to myself.

Then I thought, why am I bothering to compile a list of same words? Just find a list in google using AI, or in Wikipedia, and put it in alphabetical order so I can remember it.

Here is my result

In Welsh

Welsh - English

bedd - grave (a bed for the dead)

beic - bike

bont/pont - bridge

caer - castle or fort, for example, Caerleon, which is near Cardiff, Caerphilly, 9 miles north of Cardiff, gives its name to Caerphilly cheese, and Caerphilly castle.  Possibly Caerphilly came from Philip's castle, or castle of Philip. 

capel - chapel

car - car

castell - castle

croes -cross/crossroad

cwm - combe, a steep, narrow valley

Glynn - Welsh boys' first name, from Glwn - glen/valley/deep valley

melin - mill

Rhil - yr-the+hill

merthyr - martyr (Merthyrtidfil)

tabl - table

tren - train

tref- town/village + fôr / mawr - large (major, think of the English word more) - Trevor

English - Welsh

bike - beic

bridge - bont/pont

car - car

castle - castell

chapel - capel

glen/valley - gwyn/Glynn

grave - bedd

mill - melin

table - tabl

train - tren

Trevor - tref=village+mawr  /fôr large

In Spanish

Spanish - English

Useful Websites

translate Google

wikipedia - similar words in Welsh

wikipedia - Welsh Wikipedia

Useful Websites On Welsh Words And Names

https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/welsh

Welsh Placenames

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_toponymy

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March 1st - St David's Day

 The flag of Wales has the symbol of the red dragon against green and white.

March 1st is St David's Day. St David is the patron saint of Wales.

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, visited Wales, held yellow daffodils, the national flower, and spoke in Welsh.

In Wales

A parade of people dressed as dragons or wearing Welsh costume, is held in the capital, Cardiff.

The day is celebrated in Wales by people wearing daffodils, or leeks. Eating Welsh cakes - which are like think small pancakes or thin scones, yummy when served hot with butter melting on top.

What to do in Wales? 

1 Visit castles. Stay in a castle hotel or a hotel with a view of the castle. 

2 Eat Welsh food. Lamb and Welsh cakes. 

3 Visit Museums In Wales.

4 Learn Welsh. Start with words on trains from Paddington, in London, to Cardiff. Notice signs on stations. Learn Welsh on Duolingo.

5 Hear Welsh music. Welsh male voice choirs, singing in Welsh and English. Harpists who also sing. Esteddfod festivals.

Visits

Welsh museums 

My favourites are 

1 The Roman Museum near Caerleon. 

2 The tapestry in the library at Fishguard.

3 The free museum in Cardiff, the capital.

In summer you might visit an open air museum, go down a mine. 

Trails

Dylan Thomas

Fun Photos In Wales

Castles. 

Yourself and a castle. 

Yourself wearing a Welsh hat.

Souvenirs Of Wales To Buy Before Returning Home

You might buy Welsh souvenirs such as 

1 Carved love spoons. 

2 Welsh dragon or flag symbol 

On tee shirts or aprons or tea towels.

3 Welsh Words

I bought a book on Welsh words in a supermarket. 

4 Welsh Cakes

I bought Welsh cakes on the train home to London from Wales, but ate them cold which was not as nice. I should have saved them for later and heated them up.

Welsh Music

Land of my fathers

Men of Harlech 

Calon Lan (sung at Rugby matches)

Welsh Male Voice Choirs.

Solo artists such as Sir Tom Jones - singing Green Green Grass of Home). Dame Shirley Bassey.

Recordings sold in souvenir shops.

Welsh Food and Drink

1 Welsh cakes containing currants or dried fruit

2 Bara brith - speckled bread, a fruit cake

3 Lava bread (seaweed)

4 Lamb Casserole, with vegetables, (called cawl)

5 Leeks

Factory tours and tasting shops

Beer

Honey

Whisky

Wine

Words in Welsh-English

Dewi Sant - saint David (adjective second after the noun, like Spanish and French)

Do the little things in life. (Quote from St David.)

gwnewch y pethau bychain

 Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi    Happy birthday to you

Words in English - Welsh

Do the little things in life = gwnewch y pethau bychain

Happy birthday to you -   Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi

Welsh Words - English

aber - estuary

allanfa - exit 

bara brith - speckled bread bara-bread brith-speckled

bore - morning

bws - bus

car - car

cath - cat

croeso - welcome

diolch - thanks

eglwys - church

fach - small

felin - mill

fferi - ferry

llan - church

mawr - big (I think of more or magnificent)

o - of

plas - mansion (not just a place, a mansion)

pont - bridge

toiled - toilet

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

twr - tower

tywel - towel

y - the

English - Welsh

A- D

big - mawr (I think of more or magnificent)

bridge - pont

bus - bws 

car - car

cat - cath

church - eglwys / Llan

E - K

estuary - aber

exit - allanfa

ferry - fferi

good - da

Good morning.

Bore da. (BOR-eh dah) (The adjective is after the noun, literally morning good.)

Good night.

Nos da. (NOHS dah)

L - R

mill - felin

 morning - bore

mansion - plas  (not just a place, a mansion of - o

S - Z

small - fach the - y

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

tower - twr 

towel - tywel 

toilet - toiled

welcome - croeso 

Useful Websites On Welsh Souvenirs and Subjects

Languages

duolingo.com

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Welsh_phrasebook

translate google

Saint David - Dewi Sant

Dylan Thomas

Useful Websites About Wales and St David's Day

Report of the royal visit on Sunday March 1st 2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70n99e396jo

Music

https://tirglas.co.uk/pages/portal-famous-welsh-songs-and-anthems

Calon Lan hymn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calon_L%C3%A2n

We Are Still Here recording in Welsh, solo with chorus

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0179/9045/files/21_-_Yma_O_Hyd.mp3?v=1654767520

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Language misunderstandings

 Duolingo tells me that my friends will 'defraudara' me. Defraud me? Cheat me? That can't be right.

I looked it up with a little help from handy AI. Defrauda means will disappoint.

I wonder what else I am misunderstanding?

I half remember that there are lists of false friends in Wikivoyage. Spanish and Italian and Portuguese have false friends - words which sound similar in two languages but have different meanings. Often they are cognates Let's look at them again.

Useful Websites 

 

Brixton, bustling, bohemian

 

The streets thronging with people

Old and new architecture. Art deco. Neon.

Mural and music at the station. And the aroma of marihuana. 

Everything and everyone all around you. Happy smiling youngsters. Sad, shuffling old people. Beggars lying propped up against the wall with signs. Groups gaily greeting each other. Singles and couples dancing along. McDonalds for fast food. Morleys department store opposite the station for fashion and big name brands. Wide pavements crowded with people.  It feels like you have got in free to a festival. Or a hairdressing contest. Just like the rest of London. But more so.

We changed from train to bus here, in busy Brixton. We were on our way to quiet, elegant, empty Dulwich, a complete contrast.

Strings of red double decker red buses take you from Brixton back into London and onwards around the area and out of London. 

Useful website on Brixton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton

Dulwich wine bars with wonderful Portuguese wines

 

Wine from Quinta Das Bageiras. Bruto natural (dry), and rose.

Portuguese pink sparkling wine.

Delightful.

Inexpensive. Under ten pounds a bottle online.

Drop Dulwich Wine Bar, 1 Melbourne Grove, London.

About four minutes from East Dulwich Station which is about 15 minutes from London Bridge station.

Useful websites

https://dropdulwich.co.uk/

London Bridge Station

 

• London Bridge logo. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Quite a walk through vast high ceilinged halls from the overground to the underground. 

Shops including Hamleys toys.

Attractive, colourful murals of London landmarks. The Royal Albert Hall. Liberty's department store.

On the platform, we met a mouse. It ran very fast. Zig-zagging.

Useful Websites

https://bugwomanlondon.com/2023/04/07/mice-on-the-underground/ 

Spanish words which sound similar to English

 I have been re-learning, revising, Italian which I learned two years ago on Duolingo, but using Spanish as which I have been learning for 6 months, as the instruction language. A huge number of words in Spanish sound similar to English. Once you have learned the correct translation, the Spanish words is easy to recognize.

Here are the ones I have found.

Spanish - English

acerca de - about (think of encircled by)

ahora - now (now is the hour, as the old song said, on the hour) (not to be confused with allora, Italian for now, let's go, then)

allegra/o - lovely

amatista - amethyst

ascenso - ascend/rise

asi - so (ah - see, so)

borrar - delete (brush off, rub out)

clic - click

descenso - descent

describir - describe

division (accent on the o) - division

empleo - employment

escribe - write/inscribe

estado - status (in Spanish the letter e often goes before s at the start of the word, like the name of the country, Espana, escuala - school)

felicidades - congratulations (felicitations)

gramaticales - grammatical

impresionante - awesome/impressive

legas - leagues

minutos - minutes

perfecta - perfect

practicar - practise

reportar - to report

terminos - terms

utilizar - to utilize

zona - zone

verdad (Spanish)/vero (Italian) - true (like the English word verify)