Welsh Names, St Albans, Welsh For coffee and a toilet on trains to Writers' and Artists' Holidays in Wales - Live and Learn!

Window on Wales from Fishguard Bay Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Fishguard Bay Hotel, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury

Problem 1
I am going to Wales soon for Writers Holiday in Fishguard. I usually go in summer, but for 2018 the summer course has stopped but a long weekend course is available in February. I was emailed that new posts had been made in the forum of people who were learning Welsh on Duolingo. Another leaner asked?
How do you pronounce Welsh names?

Answer
If it's a living person, just ask them. If it's a character in a book, they are not around, consult a reference work.

I looked up a list of Welsh names, just out of curiosity. It reminded me of Welsh pronunciation of place names.

The big surprise was discovering the meaning of an English place name. Alban is Latin for mountain.  So St Albans - now I know a way to remember the name, and a Latin word.

Problem 2
I wrote on a forum on Duolingo:
Would somebody please tell me, for Welsh (and other langauges) a few phrases I can use on a train and at a railway station, such as 'where is ..' 'a cup of coffee' and 'the toilet'.

Another reader answered:

Ble mae'r . . . . . ffôn (Where is the . . . . . . phone) ....................tŷ bach (toilet) ................. allanfa (exit) ................. afon (river) .................. gwesty (hotel) .................. tacsi (taxi) .................. bws (bus) .................. trên (train) .................... tŷ bwyta (restaurant)

Faint ydy'r . . . . . tocyn (How much is the . . . . . ticket) ............. paned o goffi (cup of coffee) ............ bwyd (food) ............ brechdan (sandwich)

English - Welsh
bus - bws
coffee - goffi
exit - allanfa
food - bwyd
hotel - gwesty
How much is - Faint ydy'r ( my way of rmembering it is thinking : Have you a faint idea how much is ..?)
of - o
phone - ffôn 
river - afon
sandwich - brechdan
taxi - tacsi
toilet - tŷ bach 
where is - Ble mae'r

Welsh - English
allanfa - exit
afon - river (like the River Avon which is the same thing said twice in two languages)
Ble mae'r - where is
brechdan - sandwich
bws - bus
bwyd - food
Faint ydy'r - how much is
ffôn - phone
gwesty - hotel (think of a hotel guest)
o - of
tacsi - taxi
tŷ bach - toilet

Useful Website for Welsh Words
Welsh names
http://www.namenerds.com/welsh/trad2.html

Learn Welsh on
http://duolingo.com

Welsh Holiday Information:
http://visitwales.com

Writers' Holiday in Wales:
http://www.writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on learning Welsh and other languages such as Italian, French, German, Russian, Hebrew. Please share links to your favourite posts.