Cymraeg ac yr Plant / Welsh Phrases to Use at Home with the Children!

This one is for the speakers and learners. Speakers - thank you for your help. Learners - see if you can fill in the blanks! :wink:

The quick backstory:

I am a proud Welsh learner. And I have two quite young children (5 and 2). It would be very fun - and I would like to encourage them to feel comfortable with a bit of Welsh in our everyday lives. I can’t speak to them completely in Welsh because my ability isn’t there yet, and we have actually made a commitment to speak another foreign language in our home - my wife’s first language (not Welsh and not English - we’ll keep it at that for the purpose of this discussion). They are completely fluent in both her native tongue and English.

For the purposes of Welsh, I know a few easy ones and use them sometimes already (Bore Da and “Amser Codi” in particular).

So… how would you say some of the following phrases and sentences?

  1. Rise and shine
  2. Let’s go out
  3. Let’s go to the playground
  4. Let’s brush your teeth
  5. Bon appetit (or something similar)
  6. Oh my god!
  7. Put on your shoes
  8. Take off your shoes
  9. A phrase that encourages good behavior - like “Listen!”
  10. Listen to your mother!
  11. Listen to your father!
  12. How was your day at school/preschool?
  13. Take care of your sister!
  14. What’s this? [questioning what an item is]
  15. Sleep well / sleep tight
  16. Sweet dreams

Thanks everyone for your help! Diolch yn fawr!

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Without attempting to “fill in the blanks” I was wondering if you watch “ti, fi a cyw” on S4C, click or youtube? It’s chock full of phrases that are helpful to parents. Also you could follow @BabyTalkCymraeg on Twitter (although it has gone quiet for a while @CatrinLliarJones) for lots of everyday useful prases.

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Rise and shine - amser deffro!
Let’s go out - awn ni allan
Let’s go to the playground - awn ni i’r maes chwarae
Let’s brush your teeth - beth am frwsio dy ddannedd?
Bon appetit (or something similar) - mwynha dy fwyd
Oh my god! - O fy Nuw!
Put on your shoes - gwisga dy sgidia
Take off your shoes - tynna dy sgidia
A phrase that encourages good behavior - like “Listen!” - Gwranda!
Listen to your mother! - Gwranda ar dy fam!
Listen to your father! - Gwranda ar dy dad!
How was your day at school/preschool? - Sut oedd heddiw yn yr ysgol/cylch meithrin?
Take care of your sister! - Gofala am dy chwaer!
What’s this? [questioning what an item is] - Beth ydi hwn?
Sleep well / sleep tight - cysga’n dawel
Sweet dreams - very idiomatic, no immediate thoughts - we just say ‘nos da, cysga’n dawel’

Hope that helps :sunny:

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Myself and a close friend of mine who is also learning Welsh have been using “breuddwydion melys” a lot to say ‘sweet dreams’. Is this wrong???

Nope, not at all! It’s not something I’ve ever heard anyone say, but I haven’t spent a lot of time eavesdropping on other parents putting their kids to bed either :wink:

My gut feeling would be that it is the kind of direct translation from the English that just isn’t a part of normal idiomatic Welsh speech - in the same way that ‘sleep quietly’ just isn’t what you’d usually say in English - but as Iestyn is fond of saying, hey, it’s your language too now, so say whatever you want to :sunny:

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My 8 yo would like to know how to say to another child, “please could I have a go on that [play equipment] after you”? Or “please could I play with that [toy]?”, please can anyone give a way to say that kind of thing? We’re learning South if it makes a difference. Even better if it’s written out in english sounds as we don’t really read/write yet.

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Something like ‘Plis ga i dro ar dy ol di?’ or ‘Plis ga i dro wedyn?’ or ‘Plis ga i chwarae gyda hynny?’… sorry, I’m no good at figuring out how the English sounds would look - maybe someone southernish could do a Soundcloud recording for you… :slight_smile:

[looks hintingly at southernish types]

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How about
"Please guy dro ar de () oal dee?" () as in eau DE Cologne
“Please guy dro weddin?”
“Please guy chwaray 'da honey” You know the Welsh ch as in loch, of course.

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You can try putting a backslash \ before the star to cause it to show up rather than being interpreted as italics: (\*) will end up displayed as (*).

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Thanks Aran!

Thank you kindly!

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I found this nice phrase in gweiadur.com:

am fod pam yn bod a bod yn pallu

[ymateb i gwestiynau parhaus gan blentyn - Pam? ]

because that’s why

see: http://www.gweiadur.com/en/Pawb/pallu#Tab=phrases
(note: you have to register, but it’s free, and appears to be spam-free).

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