Colloquial Welsh nouns


Colloquial Welsh nouns deals with the nouns of the colloquial Welsh language, the spoken register of the modern Welsh language as spoken in Wales by first-language speakers. This page does not deal with the literary standard forms nor any dialect which may have arisen outside of Wales. Welsh has two standardised forms: Literary Welsh – a conservative language reserved for literary purposes which retains some features of older Welsh; and Colloquial Welsh – the Welsh one will hear being spoken in Welsh speaking areas. For the most part the two languages share rules governing nouns, though one may encounter differences. Colloquial Welsh also shows some variation in initial-consonant mutations, which is explained below, while the literary form retains the proper mutations in all cases.

Introduction to the Welsh noun

Nouns are words that names things, places, people, ideas, and concepts. They are the largest category of words in the Welsh language and fall into two broad groups:
In general, count and mass nouns behave in the same way, except that mass nouns are not usually found in the plural. Abstract nouns are often found without the article.
In addition Welsh has a large number of verbal-nouns, but these are not dealt with in this article.

'Specific' and 'non-specific' words

The concept of 'specific' and 'non-specific' words is important in Welsh, and the distinction between them is crucial to understanding some aspects of Welsh grammar: mostly the preposition yn and the negator mo.
A word counts as 'specific' if it is:
  1. preceded by the definite article – y / yr / 'r
  2. a proper name
  3. a pronoun
  4. preceded by a possessive adjective
For example, tŷ ' house' is non-specific as it could refer to any house, while y tŷ 'the house' is specific because the speaker has a particular house in mind – this satisfies rule 1 above. Ei dŷ 'his house' is specific for the same reason and satisfies rule 4. Pronouns are used to refer to people or things already mentioned and are specific by definition. Proper nouns are names of people or places: Caernarfon is a particular place.

Mutations with the Welsh noun

The most common cause of mutations to nouns is their contact with prepositions – most of which cause soft mutation, three cause aspirate mutation and one causes nasal mutation. However, in reality the aspirate mutation is dying out in the colloquial language and it is usually only found with the mutation of c to ch. Yn ‘in’ alone causes the nasal mutation which also is not as widespread as suggested by the literary standard and is often replaced by the soft mutation. The literary language, however, retains all proper uses of the mutations without exception.

Proper nouns

It is a general rule of modern colloquial Welsh that personal names are not mutated. Compare the following two sentences with a common noun and a proper noun:
I gave the details to the head of the department yesterday
I gave the details to Pedr yesterday

Geographical names

Geographical names are subject to mutation – not only places in Wales, but also places outside of Wales for which the Welsh language has a name in common use, including many towns and cities in England which retain their old Celtic names in Welsh. Examples with i 'to':
  1. i Gaerdydd – 'to Cardiff'
  2. i Landeilo – 'to Llandeilo'
  3. i Ddyfed – 'to Dyfed'
  4. i Fangor – 'to Bangor'
  5. i Fanceinion – 'to Manchester'
  6. i Gaergrawnt – 'to Cambridge'
  7. i Gaer – 'to Chester'
  8. i Rydychen – 'to Oxford'
  9. i Lundain – 'to London'
  10. i Gymru – 'to Wales'
  11. i Loegr – 'to England'
This also occurs with the aspirate mutation, e.g. Caerdydd 'Cardiff' becomes a Chaerdydd 'and Cardiff'; and for the nasal mutation after yn 'in', e.g. yn Nhalybont 'in Talybont'. See Colloquial Welsh prepositions for more on yn and its complications.
Mutation of non-Welsh place names is also common place in the spoken language, e.g. i Firmingham 'to Birmingham'. This is contrary to the rules of the standard literary language which prefers i Birmingham or i ddinas Birmingham 'to the city of Birmingham' .
The points on the compass are also susceptible to mutation when used in geographical names, e.g. i Ogledd Cymru 'to North Wales' ; o Dde Affrica 'from South Africa' ; yng Ngorllewin Morgannwg 'in West Glamorgan' .

Genitive noun phrases

Two or more nouns can be used together in a genitive relationship. This is achieved by two methods in English:
  1. the doctor's car
  2. the car of the doctor
In Welsh, the only option available to us is above. All English expressions involving the clitic 's or s' must be rephrased using the "of " construction before being translated into Welsh – even when this would be unnatural in English. This means that 'Dafydd's book' becomes 'the book of Dafydd'.
Welsh, like the other Celtic languages, has a special way of expressing genitive noun phrases which has mutation implications.
Using the above example of the doctor's car, we must rephrase this into the "of " construction to make it suitable for translating into Welsh:
We then remove the word 'of':
Thus leaving the two separate noun phrases 'the car' and 'the doctor'.
Finally, we must now remove any instances of the word 'the', except the one before the final element in the phrase :
This can now be translated, word-for-word, into Welsh:
In effect, the two nouns are linked by the intervening y, and it is particularly important to remember that there is no definite article at the beginning of genitive noun phrases in Welsh. Phrases like *y gyrrwr y bws and *y canol y dre are serious and basic errors and are ungrammatical. The correct forms being gyrrwr y bws and canol y dre. Likewise, use of the preposition o as in *gyrrwr o'r bws or *canol o'r dre are also ungrammatical and would be seen as a basic error. The preposition o can mean 'of' but never in genitive constructions, where 'of' must not be translated.
The above method for translating noun-noun genitive relationships works regardless of how many nouns are involved:
The following sentence has three nouns: 'the bank manager's daughter'.
For four nouns: 'the bank manager's daughter's cat'
The second noun in a genitive noun phrase can be indefinite:
'the middle of a city'
In this example the Welsh has only two words remaining because 'the' and 'of' are eliminated in Operations 1 and 2 and the indefinite article 'a, an' does not have a counterpart in Welsh and so goes untranslated, therefore, canol dinas.
Examples with proper nouns:
Dafydd's house:
The capital of France:

Mutation implications of genitive noun phrases

These implications are a result of the first definite article of a genitive noun phrase being dropped. Compare:
I left the papers on the table
I left the papers on the boss' table
This is due to the preposition ar causing the soft mutation. Further examples:

Principles of gender systems

Like many European languages, such as French, German, Russian, and Spanish, Welsh features grammatical gender. In fact, English is one of the few European languages which does not feature grammatical gender. English currently operates a system of natural gender – gender dictated by the meaning of the noun.
The two systems classify the world around us in different ways, though both start with the premise that everything that needs a name and can be identified as either:
  1. Animate – a living thing or organism; or
  2. Inanimate – anything that does not come under above.
From this premise the natural gender system is simple enough:
This is the essence of the Modern English gender system. Note that the vast majority of nouns are inanimates and so do not have gender at all.
From the same animate/inanimate premise, grammatical gender systems operate on either a two-way gender system, or a three-way system. In either case, the fundamental principle is that all nouns are assigned a gender, and on this principle the classification process is as follows:

Gender of the Welsh noun

Welsh nouns are either animate or inanimate and masculine or feminine. Where predictable, this can be done either by form or by meaning. Meaning can be split into two further groups:
  1. Nouns that denote male or female things or people
  2. Nouns of the same gender within a generic group
Animate nouns usually have their gender assigned by meaning – males are usually masc., and females are usually fem.
Inanimate nouns sometimes have their gender assigned by form – the shape of the word, or some part of it is associated with one or other gender.
Additionally, some animate nouns can have their gender changed by altering the form of the word.

Feminine nouns

Feminine nouns behave differently to masculine nouns in three main respects:
  1. When singular, they undergo initial soft mutation after the definite article:
cath 'a cat', but y gath 'the cat'.
  1. When sing. they cause soft mutation to a following adjective:
mawr 'big', but cath fawr.
  1. Special forms of some numbers and adjectives are used with them:
dau 'two', but dwy gath 'two cats'
gwen 'white ', but cath wen 'a white cat'

Determining gender by meaning

Note: this section involves animates only.

Names of male persons and animals

Names of masculine persons and specifically male animals are masculine. Examples:
Names of female persons and animals are feminine. Examples :
All of these undergo soft mutation when they follow the definite article: y ferch , y wraig ,
y fuwch , y gaseg , yr ast .

Nouns which can refer to either sex

Many nouns of this type, particularly animals, are applied to either sex without altering their grammatical gender. For example, cath 'cat' is fem. even when the cat referred to is a male. Similarly with ci 'dog' which is masc. This is when speaking in general terms of the species and the animal's sex is not important – as in English where we can say I have a black cat with no regard to sex. We only need to say 'tom-cat' when we wish to draw attention to the sex of the animal in question.
The Welsh equivalents of 'he–...' or 'she–...' are gwryw and benyw, respectively: cath wryw 'tom-cat' ; draenog benyw 'female hedgehog' . Some nouns have special forms for one or other sex: ci 'dog' and gast 'bitch'; while occasionally there are words for either sex but no general word to refer to the species, as with ceiliog 'cockerel' and iâr 'hen'.
Some gender-fixed nouns which can refer to humans of either sex are:
and nouns ending with -ydd which denote agent nouns which are often professions:
Note, however, that some agent nouns ending with masc. -ydd form feminine counterparts by adding -es :
ysgrifennyddes
teipyddes

Verbal-nouns

Verbal-nouns, when used as nouns, are always masculine:
An exception to this is gafael 'grip, grasp':
This involves both animates and inanimates, though animates are usually identifiable by meaning too.

Nouns masculine by form

All of the following nouns are masculine by form, that is they can be seen to be masc. due to the shape of the word.
  1. Nouns ending in -wr, -ydd, and -yn. Examples:
  2. # cyfreithiwr
  3. # actiwr
  4. # cyfieithydd
  5. # gwleidydd
  6. # gwresogydd
  7. # teimlydd
  8. # hogyn
  9. # rhwymyn
  10. # mochyn
Care should be taken with nouns in -yn which is sometimes a singulative noun derived from a collective noun.
  1. Nouns derived from adjectives and verbs ending in:
  2. # -deb
  3. # -der
  4. # -did
  5. # -dod
  6. # -dra
  7. # -edd
  8. # -had
  9. # -iad
  10. # -iant
  11. # -ni
  12. # -rwydd
  13. # -wch
All of the following nouns are feminine by form, that is they can be seen to be fem. by the shape of the word.
  1. Nouns ending in -en and -es. Examples:
  2. # rhaglen
  3. # teisen
  4. # meistres
  5. # tywysoges
There are exceptions in -en, e.g. taclen 'forehead'; maharen 'ram'. Also note that many fem. -en nouns are singulatives derived from collective nouns.
  1. Many derived nouns ending in -aeth and some in -as. Examples:
  2. # cenhedlaeth
  3. # swyddogaeth
  4. # priodas
  5. # perthynas
Several commonly used words ending in -aeth are masc., however, notably gwasanaeth 'service', gwahaniaeth 'difference', and hiraeth 'longing'.
  1. Nouns ending in -fa denoting places where actions or events happen. These are derived mostly from verbs, sometimes from nouns. Examples:
  2. # arhosfa
  3. # meithrinfa
  4. # meddygfa
  5. # swyddfa
  6. Two-syllable words with -e- in the second syllable are very often feminine, particularly if the vowel of the first syllable is -a-. As with all rules-of-thumb, this one is fallible but reliable all the same. Examples:
  7. # tabled
  8. # sianel
  9. # colled
  10. # siwmper
  11. # ornest

    Nouns as part of a group

Some words are part of natural groupings, like days of the week, months, seasons, etc.
Note that in some areas munud is fem. and there also exists the word diwrnod which is masc.

Nouns with differing genders in different regions

This phenomenon happens in all languages with grammatical gender. In some cases one gender is accepted as standard with the other as a "regional variant". In Welsh the choice between the two is arbitrary.
As mentioned above, munud is one example – officially masc. but frequently fem. in some parts of Wales. Some nouns of "undecided" gender are:
Many Welsh-English dictionaries, particularly those designed primarily for Welsh speakers, use Welsh terminology when indicating the gender of a noun :
This section deals with grammatical number of the Welsh language which should not be confused with the numerals of Welsh. Grammatical number deals with how a language deals with singular nouns, plural nouns, [|dual] nouns, paucal nouns, collective nouns, etc. No language has all types of grammatical number and the Welsh grammatical number is discussed below.

Comparison of the English and Welsh noun number systems

The number systems for English nouns is a simple singular-plural distinction, of which the singular is the base form – meaning that the singular is changed somehow to form a plural, in English this is usually the addition of '-s'. Any English noun can be placed into one of three sub-classes within this two-way system:
  1. Nouns that can be used in either the singular or plural, these make up the vast majority of non-abstract things – 'cat', 'star', 'tree'.
  2. Nouns that can normally only be used in the sing., these are mainly abstract ideas and uncountable things – 'honesty', 'milk', 'health', 'flour'.
  3. Nouns that can only be used in the pl., often denoting things that are or have two parts – 'trousers', 'scissors'.
Welsh, however, has two mutually exclusive systems:
  1. System 1: singular-plural
  2. System 2: collective-singulative
System 1 works in much the same way as the English singular-plural system, with the same three sub-classes. The difference being that not all Welsh nouns fit into the singular-plural system – these nouns belong to the collective-singulative system which has its own rules of operation. Note that some Welsh grammar books and resources will treat the collective-singulative nouns as singular-plural nouns which is misleading and distorts the logic of the Welsh system.

Distinction between 'singular-plural' and 'collective-singulative' systems

As has been established above, the Welsh sing.–pl. system mirrors that of English and other European languages in that the basic form of the noun is sing., with the pl. derived from it by one method or another. It does not matter if a particular noun cannot form a pl., the base noun is still the sing., which is enough to classify it as belonging to the sing.–pl. system.
The collective-singulative system comprises mostly living things that are most often associated as being part of a group. This includes many trees, plants, and animals. The base form of this nouns is not singular but has a collective meaning, with the unit form derived from it – similar to how a plural is derived from a singular.
From the English speaker's single sing.–pl. perspective, 'collective' seems little different from 'plural', and 'singulative' seeming equal to 'singular'. It is therefore tempting to make the coll.–sinv. nouns fit the sing.–pl. system. Examples:
and this would be acceptable but for two considerations:
  1. Such an arrangement leaves the coll.–sinv. nouns deriving their "singular" from the "plural" by the addition of the suffixes -yn and -en. This goes against the sing.–pl. principle of deriving the pl. from the sing.
  2. While coed can be translated as 'trees', it has a strong sense of a homogenous group about it that 'trees' cannot convey. The alternative English translation is 'wood' which conveys the idea of a single item or group but cannot include any idea of the units that make up that group. Both English translations are perfectly adequate as far as they go, but the relationship between the group and its individual components is neatly expressed only in the coll.–sinv. system. A clearer example may be dail/deilen. Deilen is 'leaf' while dail is often translated as 'leaves' which it does indeed mean:

    Singular–plural nouns

This section discusses the sing.–pl. system. The coll.–sinv. system is discussed further down.

Forming noun plurals

The methods for deriving plurals from singulars in Welsh are so numerous and often unpredictable that the best approach is to simply learn the plural forms as one encounters them. This is most unlike English with its almost universal '-s' suffix for plurals.
Deriving of Welsh plurals involves two main principles – adding suffixes and internal vowel change. These are used separately and in combination. Examples:
  1. Suffixes – there are roughly a dozen of these in common use in colloquial Welsh:
  2. # -au – siop 'shop' becomes siopau 'shops'
  3. # -iau – mur 'wall' becomes muriau 'walls'
  4. # -on – geiriadur 'dictionary' becomes geiriaduron 'dictionaries'
  5. # -ion – colled 'loss' becomes colledion 'losses'
  6. # -i – capel 'chapel' becomes capeli 'chapels'
  7. # -ed – merch 'girl' becomes merched 'girls'
  8. # -oedd – mynydd 'mountain' becomes mynyddoedd 'mountains'
  9. Change of one or more vowels of the sing. noun. This is essentially the same process which resulted in 'man' > 'men', 'goose' > 'geese' in English, but is much more common in Welsh. Examples:
  10. # castell 'castle' > cestyll 'castles'
  11. # car 'car' > ceir 'cars'
  12. # corff 'body' > cyrff 'bodies'
  13. # brân 'crow' > brain 'crows'
  14. Many nouns use a combination of and above, changing their internal vowel and adding a suffix. Examples:
  15. # mab 'son' > meibion 'sons'
  16. # gardd 'garden' > gerddi 'gardens'
  17. # cyfaill 'friend' > cyfeillion 'friends'
  18. # iaith 'language' > ieithoedd 'languages'
  19. A small group of nouns ending in -yn and -en in the sing. replace these with pl. suffixes of various types. Examples:
  20. # blodyn 'flower' > blodau 'flowers'
  21. # oedolyn 'adult' > oedolion 'adults'
  22. # sleisen 'slice' > sleisys 'slices'
  23. Nouns ending in -wr, and some ending in -ydd, which are agent nouns and professions, replace the suffix with -wyr. Examples:
  24. # ymwelwr and ymwelydd 'visitor' > ymwelwyr 'visitors'
  25. # trydanwr 'electrician' > trydanwyr 'electricians'
  26. # siaradwr 'speaker' > siaradwyr 'speakers'
  27. # cyfieithydd 'translator' > cyfieithwyr 'translators'
  28. Another small set of nouns derive their pl. from an older, extended form of the sing. Examples:
  29. # dosbarth 'class' > dosbarthiadau 'classes'
  30. # llif 'flood' > llifogydd 'floods'
There are a number of nouns which form their pl. by means other than those stated above, but these are best regarded as 'irregular'.

Plurals of compound nouns

Compound nouns are made up of a combination of a noun + some other element. Welsh only usually allows compounds of two words and no more. The combinations are noun + noun, verb + noun, and adjective + noun. Compound nouns form their pl. in the same way as the second element of the compound. Note that the second element of the compound will usually undergo soft mutation. Examples:
  1. llys 'court' + mam/mamau 'mother/mothers' yields llysfam/llysfamau 'step-mother/step-mothers'
  2. prif 'main' + ffordd/ffyrdd 'road/roads' yields priffordd/priffyrdd 'motorway/motorways'
There are some circumstances where compounding of more than two elements is seen, particularly place-names.

Plural suffixes

There are 12 different plural suffixes in use in the modern language; some are fairly restricted and others are commonplace. They can be grouped thus:
Of these, -au/-iau is the most common, and is usually the suffix of choice for borrowed words and new words. -on/-ion and -i are also fairly common. All variants involving an -i- are likely to involve a change of internal vowel, especially -a- changing to -e- or -ei-.
Monosyllabic nouns in the sing. with a long-vowel will usually shorten that vowel when a pl. suffix is added, e.g. trên 'train' becomes trenau.
The effect of pl. suffixes on the final consonant of the sing.
On occasion the adding of a pl. suffix can affect the final consonant of the sing. noun. Sometimes this results in a change of pronunciation and sometimes it is to satisfy spelling conventions only. Examples:
  1. Before -au word-final -nt changes to -nn-: peiriant 'machine' > peiriannau 'machines'. This results in a change of pronunciation.
  2. Words ending -i in the sing. form their plurals in -ïau and -ïon. The ï signifies that the letter performs a dual-function and should be pronounced as if the original final -i of the sing. were still present, followed by the endings -iau, -ion: stori 'story' > storïau 'stories'; egni 'energy' > egnïon 'energies'.
  3. Loanwords ending in -a in the sing. make their pl. in -âu, with the accented 'a' performing the same function as the two dots above the 'i' in above. Camera 'camera' > camerâu 'cameras'; drama 'drama' > dramâu 'dramas'.

    plurals

This is the most common pl. suffix in modern Welsh. Internal vowel change is possible with either variant. Some examples:
  1. llyfr – llyfrau 'book/books'
  2. siop – siopau 'shop/shops'
  3. cloch – clychau 'bell/bells'
  4. bwrdd – byrddau 'table/tables'
  5. gwefus – gwefusau 'lip/lips'
  6. trên – trenau 'train/trains'
  7. taith – teithiau 'journey/journeys, tour/tours'
  8. drws – drysiau 'door/doors'
  9. bws – bysiau 'bus/buses'
Nouns with predictable -au suffix
The -au pl. suffix can be predicted for the following types of noun:
  1. Nouns ending with -iad in the sing. and those ending in -aeth in the sing. take the -au suffix in the pl. Examples:
  2. # cyfieithiad > cyfieithiadau 'translation/translations'
  3. # gwasanaeth > gwasanaethau 'service/services'
  4. Nouns ending in -iant in the sing.. With these the final -t becomes -n- before the suffix. Examples:
  5. # llwyddiant > llwyddiannau 'success/successes'
  6. # gwelliant > gwelliannau 'improvement/improvements'
  7. Feminine nouns in -es denoting persons, derived from the masculine equivalents. Examples:
  8. # tywysoges > tywysogesau 'princess/princesses'
  9. # athrawes > athrawesau 'teacher/teachers '
  10. Abstract nouns in -deb, where a pl. is possible. Examples:
  11. # cyfrifoldeb > cyfrifoldebau 'responsibility/responsibilities'
  12. # ffurfioldeb > ffufrioldebau 'formality/formalities'

    ''-on/-ion'' plurals

The -ion suffix is much more frequent than -on and often causes internal vowels to change. Examples:
  1. modur – moduron 'motor/motors'
  2. rhagolwg – rhagolygon 'forecast/forecasts'
  3. awel – awelon 'breeze/breezes'
  4. cennad – cenhadon 'envoy/envoys'
  5. mab – meibion 'son/sons'
  6. ysgol – ysgolion 'school/schools'
  7. claf – cleifion 'patient/patients'
Nouns with predictable -ion suffix
The -ion suffix can usually be predicted for the following types of noun:
  1. Nouns ending in -og denoting persons. Examples:
  2. # swyddog > swyddogion 'officer/officers'
  3. # tywysog > tywysogion 'prince/princes'
  4. Nouns ending in -or denoting persons. Examples:
  5. # canghellor > canghellorion 'chancellor/chancellors'
  6. # telynor > telynorion 'harpist/harpists'
Also, many nouns ending in -ydd denoting persons and instruments add -ion to form the pl. But note that for persons -wyr is often preferred. Examples:
  1. cadeirydd > cadeiryddion 'chairperson/chairpersons'
  2. teipydd > teipyddion 'typist/typists'
  3. gwleidydd > gwleidyddion 'politician/politicians'
  4. cysodydd > cysodyddion or cysodwyr 'compositor/compositors'
  5. gohebydd > gohebyddion or gohebwyr 'correspondent/correspondents '
Singulars in -ydd sometimes must take the -wyr plural, e.g. cyfieithydd 'translator' > cyfieithwyr 'translators'.

''-i'' plurals

This is a limited class of plurals, but includes many common, everyday nouns - many of which are borrowings. Almost all of them have -e- as their final vowel in the sing., or change -a- in the sing. to -e- in the pl. Some have a final diphthong -wy-, which remains unchanged. The vast majority of nouns with -i plurals are feminine.
Here follows the most frequent nouns which take the -i plural:
  1. allwedd > allweddi 'keys'
  2. arglwydd > arglwyddi 'lords'
  3. baner > baneri 'flags, banners'
  4. basged > basgedi 'baskets'
  5. bisged > bisgedi 'biscuits'
  6. blanced > blancedi 'blankets'
  7. bwced > bwcedi 'buckets'
  8. cadwyn > cadwyni 'chains'
  9. camles > camlesi 'canals'
  10. capel > capeli 'chapels
  11. cartre > cartrefi 'homes'
  12. cerdd > cerddi 'poems'
  13. cawr > cewri 'giants'
  14. clogwyn > clogwyni 'cliffs'
  15. clwyd > clwydi 'gates'
  16. coelcerth > coelcerthi 'bonfires'
  17. cofrestr > cofrestri 'registers'
  18. cornel > corneli 'corners'
  19. cyfres > cyfresi 'series'
  20. eglwys > eglwysi 'churches'
  21. ffenest > ffenestri 'windows'
  22. galwyn > galwyni 'gallons'
  23. gardd > gerddi 'gardens'
  24. lodes > lodesi 'girls, lasses'
  25. llechen/llech > llechi 'slates'
  26. llen > llenni 'curtains'
  27. llestr > llestri 'dishes'
  28. llwyn > llwyni 'groves'
  30. llwyth > lwythi 'loads'
  31. maen > meini 'stones'
  32. meistr > meistri 'masters'
  33. modfedd > modfeddi 'inches'
  34. paced > pacedi 'packets'
  35. pamffledd > pamffleddi 'pamphlets'
  36. parsel > parseli 'parcels'
  37. pêl > peli 'balls'
  38. pensaer > penseiri 'architects'
  39. pentre > pentrefi 'villages'
  40. perth > perthi 'hedges'
  41. plwy > plwyfi 'parishes'
  42. poced > pocedi 'pockets'
  43. potel > poteli 'bottles'
  44. roced > rocedi 'rockets'
  45. rhes > rhesi 'rows'
  46. rhestr > rhestri 'lists'
  47. rhiant > rhieni 'parents'
  48. rhwydd > rhwyddi 'nets'
  49. saer > seiri 'carpenters'
  50. sbaner > sbaneri 'spanners'
  51. sgert > sgerti 'skirts
  52. siaced > siacedi 'jackets'
  53. sianel > sianeli 'TV channels'
  54. soser > soseri 'saucer'
  55. syflaen > syfleini 'bases'
  56. ticed > ticedi 'tickets'
  57. tunnell > tunelli 'tons'
Of these, the following have alternative plurals in -au:
There is another small class of nouns which all take the -i pl. suffix. These are all feminine nouns ending in -en often denoting sheets or printed papers which are used in everyday life. These also double the final -n before the suffix. Examples:
  1. amlen > amlenni 'envelopes'
  2. bwydlen > bwydlenni 'menus'
  3. dogfen > dogfenni 'documents'
  4. ffurflen > ffurflenni 'forms'
  6. lloeren > lloerenni 'satellites'
  7. rhaglen > rhaglenni 'programmes'
  8. taflen > taflenni 'leaflets'

    plurals

Of these classes, the -edd suffix is the least numerous, with fewer than 20 simple nouns. Nouns which take the -ydd pl. suffix are more numerous than -edd but are still fairly limited. The -oedd class is larger but includes those which are rarely encountered in speech because it has often been replaced by other, more common, pl. suffixes but the -oedd suffix is retained in the literary standard in all cases. This article will deal with the most common nouns in these classes.
plurals
The following nouns have their plurals in -edd and often include internal vowel change or other modifications:
  1. adain > adanedd 'wings'
  2. bys > bysedd 'fingers'
  3. celain > celanedd 'carcasses'
  4. dant > dannedd 'teeth'
  5. edau > edafedd 'threads'
  6. elain > elanedd 'fawns'
  7. ewin > ewinedd 'nails, claws'
  8. ewythr > ewythredd 'uncles'
  10. gwraig > gwragedd 'wives'
  11. mign > mignedd 'marshes'
  12. modryb > modrybedd 'aunts'
  13. neidr > neidredd 'snakes'
  14. rhiain > rhianedd 'maidens'
  15. teyrn > teyrnedd 'lords, monarchs'
  16. ysgithr > ysgithredd 'tusks, fangs'
    plurals
The following nouns have their plurals in -ydd. Internal vowel change less common in this class. This list is not exhaustive.
  1. aelwyd > aelwydydd 'hearths'
  2. afon > afonydd 'rivers'
  3. bwyd > bwydydd 'foods'
  4. bro > bröydd regions
  5. bron > bronnydd 'breasts '
  6. cawod > cawodydd 'showers'
  7. clos > closydd 'yards'
  8. cyfarfod > cyfarfodydd 'meetings'
  9. diod > diodydd 'drinks'
  10. dôl > dolydd 'dales, meadows'
  11. fferm > fermydd 'farms'
  13. gofer > goferydd 'streams'
  14. heol > heolydd 'roads'
  15. lle > llefydd 'places'
  16. maes > meysydd 'fields''
  17. mynwent > mynwentydd 'cemeteries'
  18. nant > nentydd 'streams, brooks'
  19. palmant > palmentydd 'pavements'
  20. pont > pontydd 'bridges'
  21. rhew > rhewogydd 'frosts'
  22. storm > stormydd 'storms'
  23. tre > trefydd 'towns'
    plurals
The following are some of the most common nouns with plurals in -oedd. Internal vowel change is rare in this class though some nouns will show other changes to their base form.
  1. aber > aberoedd 'estuaries'
  2. amser > amseroedd 'times'
  3. blwyddyn > blynyddoedd 'years'
  4. brenin > brenhinoedd 'kings'
  5. byd > bydoedd 'worlds'
  6. cant > cannoedd 'hundreds'
  7. cell > celloedd 'cells'
  8. cenedl > cenhedloedd 'nations'
  9. cylch > cylchoedd 'circles'
  10. dinas > dinasoedd 'cities'
  11. dŵr > dyfroedd 'waters'
  12. ffatri > ffatrïoedd 'factories'
  13. gallu > galluoedd 'abilities'
  14. gorsa > gorsafoedd 'stations'
  15. gwynt > gwyntoedd 'winds'
  16. iaith > ieithoedd 'languages'
  17. llyn > llynnoedd 'lakes'
  19. marchnad > marchnadoedd 'markets'
  20. mil > miloedd 'thousands'
  21. mynydd > mynyddoedd 'mountains'
  22. nef > nefoedd 'heavens'
  23. oes > oesoedd 'ages'
  24. pobl > pobloedd 'peoples'
  25. punt > punnoedd 'pound '
  26. rhyfel > rhyfeloedd 'wars'
  27. safle > safleoedd 'sites, positions'
  28. tir > tiroedd 'lands'
  29. ynys > ynysoedd 'islands'
  30. stafell > stafelloedd 'rooms'

    plurals

This class of plurals is mainly associated with names of animals. In some cases the sing. ending is replaced by -od and others undergo other changes to the base form. Examples:
  1. cath > cathod 'cats'
  2. cwningen > cwningod 'rabbits'
  3. llwynog > llwynogod 'foxes'
  4. asyn > asynnod 'asses, donkeys'
  5. buwch > buwchod 'cows'
  6. llew > llewod 'lions'
  7. tylluan > tylluanod 'owls'
  8. broga > brogaod 'frogs'
  10. eliffant > eliffantod 'elephants'
  11. hwch > hwchod 'sows'
  12. gwiwer > gwiwerod 'squirrels'
  13. twrci > twrcïod 'turkeys'
  14. ystlum > ystlumod 'bats'
  15. teigr > teigrod 'tigers'
The -od suffix is also used of some nouns denoting persons and some nationalities:
  1. baban > babanod 'babies'
  2. Gwyddel > Gwyddelod 'Irishmen'
  3. gwrach > gwrachod 'witches'
  4. benyw/menyw > benywod/menywod 'women'
  5. Ffrancwr > Ffrancod 'Frenchmen'
A few inanimate nouns take this suffix, too:
  1. nionyn > nionod 'onions'
  2. nyth > nythod 'nests'
  3. bwthyn > bythynnod 'cottages'

    plurals

The -iaid suffix, like the -od suffix, is mostly associated with animate beings, but where -od is mostly used with animals, -iaid is predominantly used with humans. It is invariably pronounced -ied in natural speech and is used with names of peoples, nationalities, tribes, etc., and with surnames. In all of these instances it is attached to a proper name which normally has no plural, or sometimes an adjective. It is sometimes accompanied by a vowel-change. Examples:
  1. Rhufeiniaid 'Romans'
  2. Rwsiaid 'Russians'
  3. ffyddloniaid ' faithful'
  4. Morganiaid ' Morgans'
It is also used with many loanwords descriptive of persons and professions. Examples:
  1. doctor > doctoriaid 'doctors'
  2. cwsmer > cwsmeriaid 'customers'
  3. prentis > prentisiaid 'apprentices'
  4. partner > partneriaid 'partners'
  5. fandal > fandaliaid 'vandals'
  6. pagan > paganiaid 'pagans'
  7. ffŵl > ffyliaid 'fools'
Nouns ending in -adur and denoting the doer of the action usually take the -iaid pl. suffix. Examples:
  1. ffoadur > ffoaduriaid 'refugees'
  2. pechadur > pechaduriaid 'sinners'
  3. cachadur > cachaduriaid 'cowards'
Note that nouns ending in -adur denoting things cannot take this animate pl. suffix, but instead must take -on, e.g. gwyddoniadur 'encyclopaedia' gwyddoniaduron 'encyclopaedias'; gliniadur 'laptop computer' gliniaduron 'laptop computers'.
Some animals, including anifail 'animal', also come under the -iaid class. Examples:
  1. anifail > anifeiliaid 'animals'
  2. cimwch > cimychiaid 'lobsters'
  3. fwltur > fwlturiaid 'vultures'
  4. gwennol > gwenoliaid 'swallows'
  5. ffwlbart > ffwlbartiaid 'polecats'
  6. blaidd > bleiddiaid 'wolves'
  7. barcud > barcutiaid 'kites'
It is worth noting here gefell and gefeilliaid 'twin/twins', which usually takes the soft mutation after the definite article in the pl. – yr efeilliaid. This is probably due to it originally being a dual rather than a plural.
plurals
This is a very small sub-class of the -iaid plurals which only includes two nouns in the colloquial language:
  1. merch > merched 'girls'
  2. pry > pryfed 'insects'

    plurals

These are very few in the spoken language:
  1. go > gofaint 'blacksmiths'
  2. euro > eurofaint 'goldsmith'
  3. nai > neiaint 'nephews'
  4. no singular > ysgyfaint 'lungs'

    English plurals ending in '-ys'

Some loanwords from English have retained their English pl. but with Welsh spelling :
  1. bws > bysys 'buses'
  2. matsien > matsys 'matches'
  3. nyrs > nyrsys 'nurses'
Note that trowsus 'trousers' is sing. in Welsh with what is regarded as unusual spelling.

Plurals formed by internal vowel change

This class is far larger in Welsh than it is in English which only has a few extant examples – 'men' < 'man', 'geese' < 'goose', 'mice' < 'mouse', etc. However, it is still a fairly restricted class in Welsh. Nouns which fall into this class can fall into one of two sub-categories:
  1. Nouns where only one vowel is changed
  2. Nouns where two vowels in consecutive syllables are changed
These two sub-categories are dealt with separately below, with indications of the most common vowel change patterns. In all cases the general principle is that back vowels become front vowels.
Single vowel change plurals
There are three main vowel alternation patterns where only one syllable in the sing. is changed:
another, less common alternation, is oe to wy.
Examples for this type follow below. These listings can be taken as fairly complete for the colloquial language. Written language retains older forms of plurals which feature only vowel changes where the colloquial language has replaced them with suffixes or vowel change + suffix. The written language is not represented in this article, which is concerned only with the colloquial register.
Plurals formed by changing a to ei
Some commonly occurring nouns of this type include:
  1. bardd > beirdd 'bards, poets'
  2. car > ceir 'cars'
  3. carw > ceirw 'deer, stags'
  4. gafr > geifr 'goats'
  5. gwalch > gweilch 'hawks'
  6. iâr > ieir 'hens'
  7. tarw > teirw 'bulls'
Plurals formed by changing a to ai
Nouns forming their plurals in this manner include:
  1. brân > brain 'crows'
  2. hwyad > hwyaid 'ducks'
  3. llygad > lygaid 'eyes'
  4. llyfant > llyfaint 'toads'
  5. sant > saint 'saints'
Plurals formed by changing o to y
Nouns of this type include:
  1. corff > cyrff 'bodies'
  2. corn > cyrn 'horns'
  3. ffon > ffyn 'sticks'
  4. fforc > ffyrc 'forks '
  5. fforch > ffyrch 'forks '
  6. ffordd > ffyrdd 'roads, ways'
  7. Cymro > Cymry 'Welshmen'
Plurals formed by changing other vowels
  1. croen > crwyn 'skins'
  2. cyllell > cyllyll 'knives'
  3. oen > ŵyn 'lambs'
  4. troed > traed 'feet'
These plurals are best learnt as they are encountered.
Two-vowel change plurals
Plurals formed by changing two consecutive vowels
This is a process which almost always involves a change from a to e and e to y. Examples:
Also, maharen > meheryn is a three-vowel change conforming to this pattern.
Plurals formed by miscellaneous two-vowel changes
The following do not fit into any of the established classes discussed above and should be learnt as encountered.
Some nouns drop a syllable in the pl. Examples:
Some nouns form their pl. from a derivative of the sing., often -ad:
But note:
In some cases two or more Welsh nouns have the same form in the singular but have different plural forms. Examples:
Some nouns have no sing. form, or are not used in the sing. Examples:
The noun aroglau 'smell' looks like a plural but it is not, even though the literary language has developed a sing. form arogl from it. The colloquial language keeps the original aroglau as the sing., though it has many forms – ogle, rogla, hogla. Note that the verb 'to smell' in this context is clywed.

Duals

A very small number of nouns have special dual forms denoting "two of..." rather than "many of...". All are made up of the element deu- or dwy- 'two + noun':
Special plural for 'three days'
Dydd 'day' also has a special form for 'three days' which is widely used across Wales – tridiau.:

Collective-singulative nouns

Due to their relatively small number it is best to list here the most commonly used nouns so that they can be learnt and recognised by the learner. Feminines are, by far, the largest group and are given first with trees in a separate list, followed by the masculines.
Except where noted otherwise feminine sinv. nouns are formed by adding -en and masculines by adding -yn.

Feminine coll.–sinv. nouns

The following list is not complete, and omits trees and rarely used or obsolete nouns, but gives some of the most commonly used. The collective is given as the base form with the singulative form given only when it is derived by some method other than adding -en:
Note the true relationship between coll. and sinv. nouns is particularly clear in the English translations for some of the pairs above. As mentioned above, 'foliage' is a very close approximation of the actual sense of dail – conveying the idea of 'leaves' as one homogenous body. The translations for some of the sinv. forms are revealing: tywysen means 'an ear of corn'; llucheden means 'a flash of lightening'; mefus ' strawberries' or ' strawberries'.
Coll. nouns for trees
The following are the most common coll. nouns for native trees. All of them add -en to the coll. to give the name of a single tree of the species. Other changes are noted where required:
Notes:
  1. Afallen/afallennau 'apple ' is not a coll.–sinv. There is no form *afall for a group of apple trees. This noun belongs firmly with the sing.–pl. group.
  2. Other trees, including non-native species, are formed with the suffixes -wydd and -wydden Examples:
  3. # castanwydd > castanwydden 'chestnut'
  4. # cedrwydd 'cedar'
  5. # cypreswydd 'cypress'
  6. # ffawydd 'beech'
  7. # ffynidwydd 'fir, pine'
  8. # llarwydd 'larch'
  9. # sycamorwydd 'sycamore'

    Masculine coll.–sinv. nouns

As stated above, masc. singulatives are all formed by adding -yn to the collective noun. Again, sinv. forms are only given where there is an additional change to the form:
As shown above, Welsh grammatical number is much more complicated than that of English. Its saving grace, however, is that singulars and singulatives are usually used when counting nouns, particularly with low numbers. Examples:
  1. un ci 'one dog'; pedwar ci 'four dogs'
  2. un ffenest 'one window'; wyth ffenest 'eight windows'
Welsh shows gender specific variants for only three of its numerals:
Examples:
  1. dau gi 'two dogs'
  2. dwy gath 'two cats'
  3. tri hogyn 'three boys'
  4. tair hogan 'three girls'
  5. pedwar dyn 'four men'
  6. pedair dynes 'four women'
Some numerals change their form before nouns; pump 'five' > pum; chwech 'six' > chwe. Deg can often become deng which generally comes before time-expression words, e.g. deng munud 'ten minutes'. In most cases, however, deg o... is preferred. Examples:
  1. pum munud 'five minutes'
  2. chwe gwlad 'six nations'
  3. examples for deng:
  4. # deng munud 'ten minutes'
  5. # deng niwrnod 'ten days'
  6. # deng mis 'ten months'
  7. # deng mlynedd 'ten years'
  8. # deng mil 'ten thousand'
  9. # deng miliwn 'ten million'
  10. # deng milltir 'ten miles'
  11. # deng modfedd 'ten inches'
It is usual to use the pl./coll. form when the quantity is greater, but this must be used with the preposition o 'of'. The boundary for switching from the sing./sinv. to o + pl./coll. is unclear, some regard the boundary to lie at ten, but this is by no means a hard-and-fast rule. Examples of using the pl. or coll.:
  1. deuddeg o gŵn 'twelve dogs'
  2. pymtheg o boteli 'fifteen bottles'
  3. ugain o gathod 'twenty cats'
However, it is more usual to use o + coll. with children: dau o blant 'two children'.

Mutations following numerals

  1. Un 'one' causes soft mutation to fem. nouns
  2. # un gath 'one cat'
  3. # un ci 'one dog'
  4. # un llaw 'one hand'
  5. Both dau and dwy cause soft mutation to the following noun
  6. # dau gi 'two dogs'
  7. # dwy gath 'two cats'
  8. Tri causes aspirate mutation to a following noun, but tair does not cause mutation
  9. # tri chi 'three dogs'
  10. # tair cath 'three cats'
  11. Chwe causes aspirate mutation to a following noun
  12. # chwe chi 'six dogs'
  13. # chwe chath 'six cats'