Weather words in Welsh

Weather words and weather-related expressions in Welsh with English equivalents.

General words and phrases

Cymraeg	English
tywydd	weather
braf	fine, nice, pleasant
diflas	miserable
poeth	hot
cynnes / twym	warm
haul	sun
heulog	sunny
oer	cold
rhew	frost
rhewi	to freeze
sych	dry
gwlyb	wet
llaith	damp, humid
cwmwl	cloud
cymylog	cloudy
niwl	fog, mist
niwlog	foggy, misty
glaw	rain
glawog	rainy
bwrw glaw, glawio	to rain
enfys; pont y glaw	rainbow
eira	snow
bwrw eira	to snow
glaw eira; eirlaw	sleet
cenllysg; cesair	hail
gwynt	wind
gwyntog	windy
storm	storm
stormus	stormy

Weather is refered to ashi (she/it) in Welsh, and when you put the above words into phrases, they're structured as follows:

Cymraeg	English
Sut dywydd ydi hi?	What's the weather like?
Sut mae'r dywydd heddiw?	What's the weather like today?
Mae hi'n braf	It's fine
Mae hi'n ddiflas	It's miserable
Mae hi'n boeth	It's hot
Mae hi'n heulog	It's sunny
Mae hi'n gynnes / dwym	It's warm
Mae hi'n oer	It's cold
Mae hi'n rhewi	It's freezing
Mae hi'n sych	It's dry
Mae hi'n wlyb	It's wet
Mae hi'n gymylog	It's cloudy
Mae hi'n niwlog	It's foggy
Mae hi'n bwrw glaw / Mae hi'n glawio	It's raining
Mae hi'n wyntog	It's windy
Mae hi'n stormus	It's stromy

You can miss out thehi in all these phrases, e.g.Mae'n braf. To talk about weather in the past just changemae orroedd, and for future weather change it tobydd, e.g.Roedd hi'n oer neithiwr (It was cold last night),Bydd hi'n braf yfory, gobeithio (It'll be fine tomorrow, hopefully).

Types of rain and other forms of precipitation

Cymraeg	English
glaw	rain
glaw mân; gwlithlaw; glaw smwc	drizzle, light rain
glaw trwm	heavy rain
glaw gyrru	driving rain
glaw rhewllyd	freezing rain
glaw iâ	frozen rain
glaw taranau / tyrfau	thundery rain
glaw gochel	heavy downpour ("rain to shelter from")
glaw 'Stiniog	(heavy) Ffestiniog rain
glaw tinwyn Abertawe	heavy cold rain from a south-easterly direction persisting all day long, 'the wettest rain out' ("white tailed rain of Swansea")
glaw mynydd	drizzle falling on high ground when it is dry in the lowlands ("mountain rain")
glaw golau	rain when the sky is bright towards the east
glaw tyfu / tyfiant	light April rain conducive to growth ("growing rain")
glaw (mis) Mai	first May rain (reputed to be good for weak eyes and also for killing lice in cattle)
cawod	shower
cawodi	to shower down
dafnu; pigo	to drip, drop
brasfrwrw	big spaced drops
sgrympian	short sharp shower
arllwys	pouring
tollti	pouring
yn ei dymchwel	pouring down
brylymu	pouring very quickly
llifo	flooding
towlud	throwing
taflu	throwing
hegar law	fierce rain
lluwchlaw	sheets of rain
chwipio bwrw	whiplash rain
pistyllio	fountain rain
piso	pissing down
curlaw	beating rain
tywallt	absolutely bucketing
stido	thrashing down
tresio	maximum intensity
eira mân	fine or driven snow
eira lluchio	drifting snow or driven snow
eira difrisg	trackless or untrodden snow

Idioms for heavy rain

Cymraeg	English
Mae hi'n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn	It's raining old women and sticks
Mae hi'n bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc	It's raining knives and forks
Mae hi'n bwrw fel o grwc	It's raining like from a bucket

Other idioms for heavy rain in various languages

Other weather-related expressions and sayings

Cymraeg	English
Mae golwg glaw arni, Mae hi'n cau am law, Mae hi'n hel am law, Mae hi am law, Mae glaw ynddi	It looks like rain
(Myned) haul dan ei gaerau	sunset ("The sun going under its ramparts").
O haul i haul	From day to day ("From sun to sun")
(Daw) haul ar fryn (eto)	Better days will come ("The sun will return to the hill").

Hear Welsh words for weather:

Links

Sources and more weather words in Welsh
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/cymraeg/yriaith/tudalen/derek_tywydd.shtml
http://www.learn-welsh.net/welshvocabulary?topic=World%20-%20weather&level=primary
http://joemoransblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/welsh-words-for-rain_8.html
http://techiaith.bangor.ac.uk/GeiriadurAcademi/
http://geiriadur.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, pleasecontact me.

How to talk about the weather in a variety of languages

Breton,Bulgarian,Chinese (Mandarin)Cornish,Czech,Dutch,Finnish,French,German,Irish,Italian,Kadazandusun,Neolatin,Russian,Spanish,Swedish,Welsh

Multilingual pages

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