What are your favourite words in Welsh?

Not a single word, but I rather like the phrase dwn i’m – such a short way to say “I don’t know”!

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My phrase for that was ‘wn i ddim’!

This is mine, too! :slight_smile:

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Awww my Nain had a sbench. I forgot all about that word. Happy days!

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I quite appreciate gwerthfawrogi too. :slight_smile:

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Has anyone mentioned ‘ofnadwy’?

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My very favourite random word is ‘ysglyfaeth’ (meaning ‘prey’), because it rolls around the mouth so beautifully! (And leads on to ‘ysglyfaethus’, another lovely one which has a variety of meanings…)

The other one is ‘diwrnod’, ever since I first noticed how my youngest daugther said it very soon after starting in Welsh nursery school. I still can’t hope to match it - how a 3-year-old can so complelety pick up the essence of a language!

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Lovely question :heart:

One of my favourite words is crampog, which I think is pancake. And sbwriel (bin?).

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Talking of rubbish, I also love ‘rwtsh llwyr’, complete rubbish. It feels really nice to say, and you can deliver it with utter disdain and the rolling of eyes!

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I believe it’s rather the “litter, rubbish, trash” which goes inside that bin :slight_smile:

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Speaking of which, “trash” is a good old English word (going back at least to Elizabethan days), and not, as may be thought, an “Americanism”. (sorry to go off-topic).

Funnily enough, one of the reasons I like sbwriel is because of the french word poubelle!

An even closer French word to sbwriel is pourriel which is a suggested neologism for “spam” (unsolicited commercial/bulk email), from pourri “rotten, decayed” and courriel “email”, itself from courrier électronique “electronic mail”.

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The musician Gai Toms called his record label Sbensh… because he lives in Tanygrisiau. Absolutely true.

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Was going to make that very point. The opening lyrics to the song Graffiti Cymraeg by Gai’s former group Anweledig are

Ges i ngeni ym Mangor
Ges i 'm magi mewn Sbensh

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They certainly are, and that was the first time I came across the word sbensh!

… and also, one of the albums he did with another of his groups, Mim Twm Llai, was called O’r Sbensh. :slight_smile:

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So so many words, two that spring to mind:

Gwobr
Gwiwer

very similar to @Deborah-SSi’s reason for loving her word. It’s the feel of it.

Boncyff is Emma’s favourite word.

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Reminds me of ‘bonclust’, another wonderful word.

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Oh, how could I forget! Mabolgampau

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My first memory of the word ‘gwobr’ was from my older daughter when she was in year one - one day she came bouncing out of school in a state of highest excitement: “Mummy Mummy I won a gwobr!!!”, “Oh, well done, er, what’s a gwobr?”, “I don’t know!!!” (hop hop, celebrate anyway…)
We went home and looked it up, and were none the wiser!

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