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?!
