I’ve been living in Swansea for nearly 15 years, which is a little bit scary if I’m honest, mainly because it means that in 3 years time I’ll have lived here for longer than I lived in Kent! I’m not sure I’m ready for that flip to happen!
I do love it here though, and have definitely picked up some Welsh-isms over the last 15 years. Some are so ingrained in me now that I don’t even realise I’m saying anything that my English family might question!
So here are my favourite Welsh words and expressions, with a little explanation for those of you who might not have heard them before:
My favourite words:
Dwti
I love this word for expressing that someone is small, “ahh you’re so dwti”.
Twp
Stupid. “Yeah, he’s a bit twp”
Cwtch
A really popular word, which is used in several ways, but the main one is for a cuddle/hug. Can also be used as a verb, “They’re cwtching on the sofa”.
Tapped
A little bit unstable – “He’s tapped”. When I worked in a call centre a few of my colleagues would tap on the desk to signal that the person they were on the phone with was ‘tapped’ if they were being really unreasonable!
Scram
Used instead of scratch, as in, “I scrammed myself on that tree” or “I’ve got a scram on my knee”
Picking
When it’s just starting to rain, used instead of ‘spitting’.
Expressions I love but don’t say that often myself:
Ach-y-fi
Love this. It’s basically an exclamation of disgust, so if your child comes at you with mucky hands you might say “ach y fi” to them.
Cowin’ mega lush
This is quite a new one to me, even though, apparently, it’s a real Swansea thing! The standard expression is ‘cowin’ lush’ which is basically ‘really great’, but one of my friends heard it said with the addition of ‘mega’ and thought it was brilliant so it’s kind of stuck.
Where to are you?
This is one that my friend Matt introduced me to. The addition of the extra, unnecessary word ‘to’ used to drive me mad! I don’t tend to say it much myself, but sometimes it slips out and my husband finds it hilarious when it does!
By there/by here
Used in response to the above phrase. “Where to are you?” “Over by here”. Brilliant.
Expressions that I now use on a regular basis:
Now in a minute
Ah this one confused me for ages when I first moved here. And now I say it all the time! Basically, it means ‘in a little bit’. The thing is, sometimes the ‘in a minute’ bit gets dropped so you’re just left with, what I call, the Welsh ‘now’. I had a friend in Uni who used to say she’d be up to see me ‘now’ and it took me ages to work out she didn’t actually mean straight away, she meant in a little bit!
There you are then/There we are then
This is a bit of a hard one to explain! I tend to use it to express that something is sorted, so if someone is telling me they’ve found a solution to a problem I’ll say ‘oh there you are then’. It’s one of those expressions that has just sort of snuck into my speech!
After
The Welsh version of later. Really confused me when I first moved here. My friend Matt used to say ‘I’ll see you after’ and I’d always think, ‘after what?!’. Took me a while to work out he just meant ‘later’. Now I use it myself a fair bit!
Phrases that have slipped so subtly into my speech that I either didn’t even realise they were Welsh-isms or didn’t realise that I said them:
Fair do’s
An alternative to ‘fair play’, which I still say half the time. So you might say “fair do’s, that soup was lush!”
Joking
This one really got me the other day when Steve and I were discussing words and expressions for this list, it’s really crept into my speech without me realising! It’s used where you might use ‘pretend’ or ‘artificial’, so “I wanted some flowers for the table but they only had joking ones”
Gip/gyp
I’m not sure of the spelling of this one, but it’s used to express that something’s bothering you – “Nerys’ teeth are really giving her gyp at the moment”
Any Welsh people out there who might be reading this, please do correct me if you think I’ve got any of these wrong, but from my experience living in Swansea this is what I’ve picked up!
Any non-Welsh people, have you learnt anything new from my list?!
Tidy means good.Half tidy is very good.
Tidy darts is something they say in Cardiff. Meand same as tidy in Swansea
Ah, I hadn’t heard ‘half tidy’ before!
Cowin Mega Lush?! Ha ha! Never heard of that before. I know a fair few of these, but some similar to Scottish (where I grew up) and I used to live very close to North Wales. Great post. Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList x
Cowin mega lush is brilliant isn’t it! x
Lovely post! I spent family holidays in Cardiff when I was young and this takes right back! #thelist
Glad I’ve brought back some good memories! x
Swansea born and bred, I can relate to all of these! Love it ?
my partner , who is also from Kent, didn’t believe scram or “i’ve got a baddie” (scrape on my knee0
I think ‘scram’ is one of my mum’s favourites out of all the welshisms I’ve told her over the years! I forgot about ‘I’ve got a baddie’, I do use that one too with my children at times! x
I heard most of these on “Stella”….such a brilliant series!
I’ve found this because I’m writing something that’s set in West Wales (fictional town) and it’s dead helpful! I spent years in Glasgow so I get the Scottish version of these things, but it’s really helpful to hear more. I also heard that it’s common to stick an ‘o’ at the end of a lot of words for emphasis. Like, ‘bloodio’ or ‘shitio’ is this true?
Glad this post has been able to help you a bit! I’m not sure about the ‘o’ at the end of words thing though, it’s not something I’ve really heard in terms of slang. It’s more that some welsh words seem to end in ‘io’, so ‘no parking’ is ‘dim parcio’. Hope that helps a little! x
It might be different where your story is set, but in Conwy we don’t tend to.
Thanks for explaining ‘there we are then’ at the moment I’m phoning Welsh offices and they normally finish with ‘there we are then’. Now it’s demystified! Sally
Haha, glad I was able to help clear this one up for you! x
Thanks, Madeline!
I used to have a Welsh-speaking friend whose family were from the Amman valley. Spent many happy holidays in S Wales. She used a lot of these. The phrase that always made me smile was when she was trying to find out whose owned something – “who belongs to this?” Literal translation of what is said in Welsh apparently.
Oh I love things like that, when expressions are translated literally!
Yes but here is a funny one. You may have noticed that Irish people, even with English as a first language, often use “after” to make the present tense into the past, as in the phrase “I was after going”.
As I understand it, this same construction is used in the Welsh language by putting “wedi” before a present tense in order to make it past tense. Yet I have never known a Welsh person to use that construction when speaking English.
Tidy post this. I’m Welsh, but I’ve been living in England for so long I’ve forgotten a lot of these expressions. Your post reminded me of a couple that may be peculiar to my home town or area as I haven’t seen them in any Welshism list so far. They are:
Dull — meaning stupid. Often used in sentences like “That’s dull, that is.” Or “burnt his hand on a sospan, the dull b—“
Up down there — a non-specific location. In my family we’ve lengthened this (for a historic reason that I won’t go into here) to “up down there, where Uncle Harry found the watch.
🙂
Thanks, I can definitely relate to these! We moved from London to the South Wales Valleys in 2002..big culture shock! It’s strange how these expressions become part of your speech. Has anyone else come across this one, “I’m going for food?” Or, “come over for food?”…
I’m watching, “Bang” on Acorn and I couldn’t 100 % understand what “fair play” means in American English.
I landed here doing a search. I’ve watched (and read the Welsh translations) for many crime genre shows.
Your guide helped me clear up a few I hadn’t figured out. I love “now” and “after” the most from your list. Very funny!!
Funny story, I’m so used to having the closed-caption on for my British shows – either the accent or slang throws me off unless I’m reading the CC. I watched my first Welsh show and didn’t realize until episode 7 that I was hearing mostly Welsh not English. I’m so used to reading the dialogue, it slipped by me. So, now I watch lots of shows that aren’t in English except for a few instances. Ta-ra!
So glad this post helped clear a few things up for you! x