The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are few case inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.
Modern Welsh can be written in two varieties – Colloquial Welsh or Literary Welsh. The grammar described on this article is for Literary Welsh.
Initial consonant mutation is a phenomenon common to all Insular Celtic languages (there is no evidence of it in the ancient Continental Celtic languages of the early first millennium). The first consonant of a word in Welsh may change depending on grammatical context (such as when the grammatical object directly follows the grammatical subject), when preceded by certain words, e.g. Welsh: i, Welsh: yn, and Welsh: a or when the normal word order of a sentence is changed, e.g. Welsh: Y mae tŷ gennyf, Welsh: Y mae gennyf dŷ "I have a house".
Welsh has three mutations across four paradigms: the soft mutation (Welsh: treiglad meddal), the nasal mutation (Welsh: treiglad trwynol), and the aspirate (or spirant) mutation (Welsh: treiglad llaes); and the mixed mutation (Welsh: treiglad cymysg) where the aspirate mutation is applied where possible, else the soft mutation is applied. These are represented in writing, as shown in the table below along with their corresponding IPA symbols.
| Radical Welsh: Gwreiddiol | Soft Welsh: Meddal | Nasal Welsh: Trwynol | Aspirate Welsh: Llaes | Mixed Welsh: Cymysg | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| p pronounced as //p// | b pronounced as //b// | mh pronounced as //m̥// | ph pronounced as //f// | ph pronounced as //f// | |
| t pronounced as //t// | d pronounced as //d// | nh pronounced as //n̥// | th pronounced as //θ// | th pronounced as //θ// | |
| c pronounced as //k// | g pronounced as //ɡ// | ngh pronounced as //ŋ̊// | ch pronounced as //χ// | ch pronounced as //χ// | |
| b pronounced as //b// | f pronounced as //v// | m pronounced as //m// | f pronounced as //v// | ||
| d pronounced as //d// | dd pronounced as //ð// | n pronounced as //n// | dd pronounced as //ð// | ||
| g pronounced as //ɡ// | ∅* | ng pronounced as //ŋ// | ∅* | ||
| m pronounced as //m// | f pronounced as //v// | f pronounced as //v// | |||
| ll pronounced as //ɬ// | l pronounced as //l// | l pronounced as //l// | |||
| rh pronounced as //r̥// | r pronounced as //r// | r pronounced as //r// |
A blank cell indicates no change.
For example, the word for "stone" is Welsh: carreg, but "the stone" is Welsh: y garreg (soft mutation), "my stone" is Welsh: fy ngharreg (nasal mutation) and "her stone" is Welsh: ei charreg (aspirate mutation).
* The soft mutation for g is the simple deletion of the initial sound. For example, Welsh: gardd "garden" becomes Welsh: yr ardd "the garden". But this can behave as a consonant under certain circumstances, e.g. "gellir" (one can) becomes "ni ellir" (one cannot) not "*nid ellir". This however also stands alongside Welsh: gardd, but Welsh: yr ardd not *Welsh: y ardd.
The soft mutation (Welsh: Welsh: treiglad meddal) is, by far, the most common mutation in Welsh. When words undergo soft mutation, the general pattern is that voiceless plosives become voiced plosives, voiced plosives become voiced fricatives, and voiceless liquids becomes voiced. The full list is shown in the above table.
Common situations where the full soft mutation occurs are as follows – this list is by no means exhaustive:
In some cases a limited soft mutation takes place. This differs from the full soft mutation in that words beginning with rh and ll do not mutate.
Situations where the limited soft mutation occurs are as follows.
The occurrence of the soft mutation often obscures the origin of placenames to non-Welsh-speaking visitors. For example, Welsh: Llanfair is the church of Welsh: Mair (Mary, mother of Jesus), and Welsh: [[Pontardawe]] is the bridge on the Tawe.
The nasal mutation (Welsh: Welsh: treiglad trwynol) normally occurs:
Under nasal mutation, voiced stop consonants become voiced nasals, and plain stops become voiceless nasals.
Welsh: Yn meaning "in" must be distinguished from other uses of Welsh: yn which do not cause nasal mutation. For example:
The Welsh: ’m form often used instead of Welsh: fy after vowels does not cause nasal mutation. For example:
The aspirate mutation (Welsh: traiglad llaes) turns the voiceless plosives into voiceless fricatives. In writing, the aspirate mutation is shown by an addition of an h in the spelling (c, p, t → ch, ph, th), the resultant forms are single phonemes: (pronounced as //k p t// → pronounced as //χ f θ//).
The aspirate mutation occurs:
Notes
A mixed mutation occurs after the particles Welsh: ni (before a vowel Welsh: nid), Welsh: na (before a vowel Welsh: nad) and Welsh: oni (before a vowel Welsh: onid) which negate verbs. Initial consonants which can take the aspirate mutation do so; other consonants take the soft mutation if possible - all other consonants do not mutate. For example, Welsh: clywais "I heard" is negated as Welsh: ni '''ch'''lywais "I did not hear", Welsh: na '''ch'''lywais "that I did not hear" and Welsh: oni '''ch'''lywais? "did I not hear?", whereas Welsh: dywedais "I said" is negated as Welsh: ni '''dd'''ywedais, Welsh: na '''dd'''ywedais and Welsh: oni '''dd'''ywedais?.
In the modern spoken language, the aspirate mutation is declining and is (outside of set phrases) often omitted or replaced by the soft mutation. However, in the formal literary language (here presented) all mutations are preserved and used as expected without regional or dialectal intrusion.
The true phonetic values of some of the Welsh phonemes, particularly pronounced as //ŋ̊ n̥ m̥// are often debated in academia. It is often claimed that the voiceless nasals are actually aspirated pronounced as /[/ŋ̊ʰ n̥ʰ m̥ʰ]/. The value of Welsh is also often debated as to whether it has the underlying value pronounced as //χ// or pronounced as //x//; regardless of its underlying value, it is often heard as pronounced as /[x]/ in the South and pronounced as /[χ]/ in the North.
Welsh has no indefinite article. The definite article, which precedes the words it modifies and whose usage differs little from that of English, has the forms Welsh: y, yr, and Welsh: ’r. The rules governing their usage are:
The letter w represents both a consonant pronounced as /link/ and the vowels pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //ʊ// - a preceding definite article will reflect this by following the rules above, e.g. Welsh: y wal pronounced as //ə ˈwal// "the wall" but Welsh: yr wy pronounced as //ər ˈʊˑɨ// or pronounced as //ər ˈʊi// "the egg". However, pre-vocalic Welsh: yr is used before both the consonantal and vocalic values represented by i, e.g. Welsh: yr iâr pronounced as //ər ˈjaːr// "the hen" and Welsh: yr ing pronounced as //ər ˈiŋ// "the anguish". It is also always used before the consonant h, e.g. Welsh: yr haf pronounced as //ər ˈhaːv// "the summer".The first rule may be applied with greater or less frequency in various literary contexts. For example, poetry might use Welsh: ’r more often to help with metre, e.g. Welsh: ’R un nerth sydd yn fy Nuw "The same power is in my God" from a hymn by William Williams Pantycelyn. On the other hand, sometimes its use is more restricted in very formal contexts, e.g. Welsh: Wele, dyma y rhai annuwiol "Behold, these are the ungodly" in Psalm 73.12.
The article triggers the soft mutation when it is used with feminine singular nouns, e.g. Welsh: tywysoges "(a) princess" becomes Welsh: y dywysoges "the princess", but no mutation in the plural: Welsh: y tywysogesau "the princesses".
Like most Indo-European languages, all nouns belong to a certain grammatical gender; in this case, masculine or feminine. A noun's gender conforms to its referent's natural gender when it has one, e.g. Welsh: mam "mother" is feminine. There are also semantic, morphological and phonological clues to help determine a noun's gender, e.g. Welsh: llaeth "milk" is masculine as are all liquids, Welsh: priodas "wedding" is feminine because it ends in the suffix Welsh: -as, and Welsh: theatr "theatre" is feminine because the stressed vowel is an e. Many everyday nouns, however, possess no such clues.
Sometimes a noun's gender may vary depending on meaning, for example Welsh: gwaith when masculine means "work", but when feminine, it means "occasion, time". The words for languages behave like feminine nouns (i.e. mutate) after the article, e.g. Welsh: y Gymraeg "the Welsh language", but as masculine nouns (i.e. without mutation of an adjective) when qualified, e.g. Welsh: Cymraeg da "good Welsh". The gender of some nouns depends on a user's dialect, and although in the literary language there is some standardization, some genders remain unstable, e.g. Welsh: tudalen "page".
Welsh has two systems of grammatical number. Singular/plural nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system of English, although unlike English, Welsh noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. Some nouns form the plural with an ending (usually Welsh: -au), e.g. Welsh: tad and Welsh: tadau. Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. Welsh: bachgen and Welsh: bechgyn. Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, e.g. Welsh: chwaer and Welsh: chwiorydd.
Several nouns have two plural forms, e.g. the plural of Welsh: stori "story" is either Welsh: storïau or Welsh: straeon. This can help distinguish meaning in some cases, e.g. whereas Welsh: llwyth means both "tribe" and "load", Welsh: llwythau means "tribes" and Welsh: llwythi means "loads".
The other system of grammatical number is the collective/singulative. The nouns in this system form the singulative by adding the suffix Welsh: -yn (for masculine nouns) or Welsh: -en (for feminine nouns) to the collective noun. Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups, for example, Welsh: plant "children" and Welsh: plentyn "a child", or Welsh: coed "trees, forest" and Welsh: coeden "a tree", Welsh: ffawydd "a beechwood, beech trees, beeches" and Welsh: ffawydden "a beech tree". In dictionaries, the collective form, being the root form, is given first.
Adjectives normally follow the noun they qualify, e.g. Welsh: mab ieuanc "(a) young son", while a small number precede it, usually causing soft mutation, e.g. Welsh: hen fab "(an) old son". The position of an adjective may even determine its meaning, e.g. Welsh: mab unig "(a) lonely son" as opposed to Welsh: unig fab "(an) only son". In poetry, however, and to a lesser extent in prose, most adjectives may occur before the noun they modify, but this is a literary device.[1] It is also seen in some place names, such as Harlech (hardd + llech)[2] and Glaslyn.
When modifying a noun (i.e. in an attributive construction) belonging to the feminine, adjectives undergo soft mutation, for example, Welsh: bach "small" and following the masculine noun Welsh: bwrdd and the feminine noun Welsh: bord, both meaning "table":
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Welsh: bwrdd bach | Welsh: bord fach | |
| Plural | Welsh: byrddau bach | Welsh: bordydd bach |
For the most part, adjectives are uninflected, though there are a few with distinct masculine/feminine and/or singular/plural forms. A feminine adjective is formed from a masculine by means of vowel change, usually "w" to "o" (e.g. crwn "round" to cron) or "y" to "e" (e.g. gwyn "white" to gwen). A plural adjective may employ vowel change (e.g. marw "dead" to meirw), take a plural ending (e.g. coch "red" to cochion) or both (e.g. glas "blue, green" to gleision).
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Welsh: bwrdd brwnt | Welsh: bord front | |
| Plural | Welsh: byrddau bryntion | Welsh: bordydd bryntion |
Adjective comparison in Welsh is fairly similar to the English system except that there is an additional degree, the equative (Welsh y radd gyfartal). Native adjectives with one or two syllables usually receive the endings Welsh: -ed "as/so" (preceded by the word cyn in a sentence, which causes a soft mutation except with ll and rh: Welsh: cyn/mor daled â chawr, "as tall as a giant"), Welsh: -ach "-er" and Welsh: -af "-est". The stem of the adjective may also be modified when inflected, including by provection, where final or near-final b, d, g become p, t, c respectively.
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welsh: tal | Welsh: taled | Welsh: talach | Welsh: talaf | "tall" | |
| Welsh: gwan | Welsh: gwanned | Welsh: gwannach | Welsh: gwannaf | "weak" | |
| Welsh: trwm | Welsh: trymed | Welsh: trymach | Welsh: trymaf | "heavy" | |
| Welsh: gwlyb | Welsh: gwlyped | Welsh: gwlypach | Welsh: gwlypaf | "wet" | |
| Welsh: rhad | Welsh: rhated | Welsh: rhatach | Welsh: rhataf | "cheap" | |
| Welsh: teg | Welsh: teced | Welsh: tecach | Welsh: tecaf | "fair" |
Generally, adjectives with two or more syllables use a different system, whereby the adjective is preceded by the words Welsh: mor "as/so" (which causes a soft mutation except with ll and rh), Welsh: mwy "more" and Welsh: mwyaf "most".
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welsh: diddorol | Welsh: mor ddiddorol | Welsh: mwy diddorol | Welsh: mwyaf diddorol | "interesting" | |
| Welsh: cynaliadwy | Welsh: mor gynaliadwy | Welsh: mwy cynaliadwy | Welsh: mwyaf cynaliadwy | "sustainable" | |
| Welsh: llenyddol | Welsh: mor llenyddol | Welsh: mwy llenyddol | Welsh: mwyaf llenyddol | "literary" |
The literary language tends to prefer the use inflected adjectives where possible.
There are also a number of irregular adjectives.
| Positive | Equative | Comparative | Superlative | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welsh: da | Welsh: cystal | Welsh: gwell | Welsh: gorau | "good" | |
| Welsh: drwg | Welsh: cynddrwg | Welsh: gwaeth | Welsh: gwaethaf | "bad" | |
| Welsh: mawr | Welsh: cymaint | Welsh: mwy | Welsh: mwyaf | "big" | |
| Welsh: bach | Welsh: cyn lleied | Welsh: llai | Welsh: lleiaf | "small" | |
| Welsh: hir | Welsh: hwyed | Welsh: hwy | Welsh: hwyaf | "long" | |
| Welsh: cyflym | Welsh: cynted | Welsh: cynt | Welsh: cyntaf | "fast" |
These are the possessive adjectives:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: fy (n) | Welsh: ein | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: dy (s) | Welsh: eich | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: ei (s) | Welsh: eu |
| Feminine | Welsh: ei (a) | ||
The possessive adjectives precede the noun they qualify, which is sometimes followed by the corresponding form of the personal pronoun, especially to emphasize the possessor, e.g. Welsh: fy mara i "my bread", Welsh: dy fara di "your bread", Welsh: ei fara ef "his bread" etc.
Welsh: Ein, Welsh: eu and feminine Welsh: ei add an h a following word beginning with a vowel, e.g. Welsh: enw "name", Welsh: ei henw "her name".
The demonstrative adjectives are inflected for gender and number:
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proximal | Welsh: hwn | Welsh: hon | Welsh: hyn | |
| Distal | Welsh: hwnnw | Welsh: honno | Welsh: hynny |
These follow the noun they qualify, which also takes the article. For example, the masculine word Welsh: llyfr "book" becomes Welsh: y llyfr hwn "this book", Welsh: y llyfr hwnnw "that book", Welsh: y llyfrau hyn "these books" and Welsh: y llyfrau hynny "those books".
The Welsh personal pronouns are:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: fi, mi, i | Welsh: ni | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: ti, di | Welsh: chwi, chi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: e(f) | Welsh: hwy, hwynt |
| Feminine | Welsh: hi | ||
The Welsh masculine-feminine gender distinction is reflected in the pronouns. There is, consequently, no word corresponding to English "it", and the choice of Welsh: e or Welsh: hi depends on the grammatical gender of the antecedent.
The English dummy or expletive "it" construction in phrases like "it's raining" or "it was cold last night" also exists in Welsh and other Indo-European languages like French, German, and Dutch, but not in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, or the Slavic languages. Unlike other masculine-feminine languages, which often default to the masculine pronoun in the construction, Welsh uses the feminine singular Welsh: hi, thus producing sentences like:
Welsh: Mae hi'n bwrw glaw.
It's raining.
Welsh: Yr oedd hi'n oer neithiwr.
It was cold last night.
The usual third-person masculine singular form is Welsh: ef in Literary Welsh. The form Welsh: fe is used as an optional affirmative marker before a conjugated verb at the start of a clause, but may also be found elsewhere in modern writing, influenced by spoken Welsh.
The traditional third-person plural form is Welsh: hwy, which may optionally be expanded to Welsh: hwynt where the previous word does not end in Welsh: -nt itself. Once more, modern authors may prefer to use the spoken form Welsh: nhw, although this cannot be done after literary forms of verbs and conjugated prepositions.
Similarly, there is some tendency to follow speech and drop the "w" from the second-person plural pronoun Welsh: chwi in certain modern semi-literary styles.
In any case, pronouns are often dropped in the literary language, as the person and number can frequently be discerned from the verb or preposition alone.
Welsh: Chi, in addition to serving as the second-person plural pronoun, is also used as a singular in formal situations. Conversely, Welsh: ti can be said to be limited to the informal singular, such as when speaking with a family member, a friend, or a child. This usage corresponds closely to the practice in other European languages. The third colloquial form, Welsh: chdi, is not found in literary Welsh.
The reflexive pronouns are formed with the possessive adjective followed by Welsh: hunan (plural Welsh: hunain) "self".
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: fy hunan | Welsh: ein hunain | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: dy hunan | Welsh: eich hunain, eich hunan | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: ei hunan | Welsh: eu hunain |
There is no gender distinction in the third person singular.
Literary Welsh has reduplicated pronouns that are used for emphasis, usually as the subject of a focussed sentence. For example:
Welsh: Tydi a'n creodd ni."(It was) You that created us."
Welsh: Oni ddewisais i chwychwi?"Did I not choose you?"
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: myfi | Welsh: nyni | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: tydi | Welsh: chwychwi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: efe | Welsh: hwynt-hwy |
| Feminine | Welsh: hyhi | ||
Welsh has special conjunctive forms of the personal pronouns. They are perhaps more descriptively termed 'connective or distinctive pronouns' since they are used to indicate a connection between or distinction from another nominal element. Full contextual information is necessary to interpret their function in any given sentence.
Less formal variants are given in brackets. Mutation may also, naturally, affect the forms of these pronouns (e.g. minnau may be mutated to finnau)
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: minnau, innau | Welsh: ninnau | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: tithau | Welsh: chwithau | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: yntau (fyntau) | Welsh: hwythau (nhwythau) |
| Feminine | Welsh: hithau | ||
The emphatic pronouns can be used with possessive adjectives in the same way as the simple pronouns are used (with the added function of distinction or connection).
In addition to having masculine and feminine forms of this and that, Welsh also has separate set of this and that for intangible, figurative, or general ideas.
| Masculine | Feminine | Intangible | |
|---|---|---|---|
| this | Welsh: hwn | Welsh: hon | Welsh: hyn |
| that | Welsh: hwnnw, hwnna | Welsh: honno, honna | Welsh: hynny |
| these | Welsh: y rhain | ||
| those | Welsh: y rheiny | ||
In certain expressions, Welsh: hyn may represent "now" and Welsh: hynny may represent "then".
In literary Welsh, far less use is made of auxiliary verbs than in its colloquial counterpart. Instead conjugated forms of verbs are common. Most distinctively, the non-past tense is used for the present as well as the future.
The preterite, non-past (present-future), and imperfect (conditional) tenses have forms that are somewhat similar to colloquial Welsh, demonstrated here with Welsh: talu 'pay'. There is a regular affection of the a to e before the endings -ais, -aist, -i, -ir and -id.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preterite | 1st Person | Welsh: telais | Welsh: talasom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: telaist | Welsh: talasoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: talodd | Welsh: talasant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: talwyd | ||
| Non-Past | 1st Person | Welsh: talaf | Welsh: talwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: teli | Welsh: telwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: tâl | Welsh: talant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: telir | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: talwn | Welsh: talem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: talit | Welsh: talech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: talai | Welsh: talent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: telid | ||
To these, the literary language adds pluperfect, subjunctive, and imperative forms with affection before -wyf and -wch.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pluperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: talaswn | Welsh: talasem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: talasit | Welsh: talasech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: talasai | Welsh: talasent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: talasid | ||
| Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: talwyf | Welsh: talom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: telych | Welsh: taloch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: talo | Welsh: talont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: taler | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | Welsh: talwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: tala | Welsh: telwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: taled | Welsh: talent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: taler | ||
Bod ("to be") is highly irregular. Compared with the inflected tenses above, it has separate present and future tenses, separate present and imperfect subjunctive tenses, separate imperfect and conditional tenses, and uses the pluperfect as a consuetudinal imperfect (amherffaith arferiadol) tense. The third person of the present tense has separate existential (Welsh: oes, no plural because plural nouns take a singular verb) and descriptive (Welsh: yw/ydyw, ŷnt/ydynt) forms, except in the situations where the positive (Welsh: mae, maent) or relative (Welsh: sydd) forms are used in their place.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preterite | 1st Person | Welsh: bûm | Welsh: buom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: buost | Welsh: buoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: bu | Welsh: buont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: buwyd | ||
| Future | 1st Person | Welsh: byddaf | Welsh: byddwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: byddi | Welsh: byddwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: bydd | Welsh: byddant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: byddir | ||
| Present | 1st Person | Welsh: wyf, ydwyf | Welsh: ŷm, ydym |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: wyt, ydwyt | Welsh: ych, ydych | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: yw, ydyw; oes; mae; sydd | Welsh: ŷnt, ydynt; maent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: ydys | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: oeddwn | Welsh: oeddem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: oeddit | Welsh: oeddech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: oedd, ydoedd | Welsh: oeddynt, oeddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: oeddid | ||
| Conditional | 1st Person | Welsh: buaswn | Welsh: buasem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: buasit | Welsh: buasech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: buasai | Welsh: buasent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: buasid | ||
| Consuetudinal Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: byddwn | Welsh: byddem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: byddit | Welsh: byddech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: byddai | Welsh: byddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: byddid | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: bwyf, Welsh: byddwyf | Welsh: bôm, byddom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: bych, Welsh: byddych | Welsh: boch, Welsh: byddoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: bo, byddo | Welsh: bônt, byddont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: bydder | ||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: bawn | Welsh: baem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: bait | Welsh: baech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: bai | Welsh: baent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: byddid | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | Welsh: byddwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: bydd | Welsh: byddwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: bydded, boed, bid | Welsh: byddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: bydder | ||
In less formal styles, the affirmative/indirect relative (Welsh: y(r)), interrogative/direct relative (Welsh: a), and negative (Welsh: ni(d)) particles have a particularly strong tendency to become infixed on the front of forms of Welsh: bod, for instance Welsh: roedd and Welsh: dyw for Welsh: yr oedd and Welsh: nid yw. Although the literary language tends toward keeping the particles in full, affirmative Welsh: y is optional before Welsh: mae(nt).
Reduplicating the negation of the verb with Welsh: ddim (which in the literary language strictly means "any" rather than "not") is generally avoided.
Certain other verbs with Welsh: bod in the verb-noun are also to some extent irregular. By far the most irregular are Welsh: gwybod ("to know (a fact)") and Welsh: adnabod ("to recognize/know (a person)"); but there also exists a group of verbs that alternate Welsh: -bu- (in the preterite and pluperfect) and Welsh: -bydd- (in all other tenses) stems, namely Welsh: canfod ("to perceive"), Welsh: cydnabod ("to acknowledge"), Welsh: cyfarfod ("to meet"), Welsh: darfod ("to perish"), Welsh: darganfod ("to discover"), Welsh: gorfod ("to be obliged"), and Welsh: hanfod ("to descend/issue from").
Therefore, presented below are Welsh: gwybod and Welsh: adnabod in the tenses where they do not simply add Welsh: gwy- or Welsh: adna- to forms of Welsh: bod. That they both, like Welsh: bod, separate the present and future tenses. A regular feature of this mood is the devoicing of b to p before the subjunctive endings,.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | 1st Person | Welsh: gwn | Welsh: gwyddom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gwyddost | Welsh: gwyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: gŵyr | Welsh: gwyddant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: gwyddys | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: gwyddwn | Welsh: gwyddem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gwyddit | Welsh: gwyddech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: gwyddai | Welsh: gwyddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: gwyddid | ||
| Present Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: gwypwyf, gwybyddwyf | Welsh: gwypom, gwybyddom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gwypych, gwybyddych | Welsh: gwypoch, gwybyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: gwypo, gwybyddo | Welsh: gwypont, gwybyddont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: gwyper, gwybydder | ||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: gwypwn, gwybyddwn | Welsh: gwypem, gwybyddem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gwypit, gwybyddit | Welsh: gwypech, gwybyddech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: gwypai, gwybyddai | Welsh: gwypent, gwybyddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: gwypid, gwybyddid | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | Welsh: gwybyddwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gwybydd | Welsh: gwybyddwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: gwybydded | Welsh: gwybyddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: gwybydder | ||
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | 1st Person | Welsh: adwaen | Welsh: adwaenom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: adwaenost | Welsh: adwaenoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: adwaen, edwyn | Welsh: adwaenant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: adwaenir | ||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: adwaenwn | Welsh: adwaenem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: adwaenit | Welsh: adwaenech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: adwaenai | Welsh: adwaenent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: adwaenid | ||
| Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: adnapwyf, adnabyddwyf | Welsh: adnapom, adnabyddom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: adnepych, adnabyddych | Welsh: adnapoch, adnabyddoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: adnapo, adnabyddo | Welsh: adnapont, adnabyddont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: adnaper, adnabydder | ||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (does not exist) | Welsh: adnabyddwn |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: adnebydd | Welsh: adnabyddwch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: adnabydded | Welsh: adnabyddent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: adnabydder | ||
The four verbs Welsh: mynd "to go", Welsh: gwneud "to do", Welsh: cael "to get", and Welsh: dod "to come" are all irregular. These share many similarities, but there are also far more points of difference in their literary forms than in their spoken ones. Each also has at least one other verbal-noun form of which the colloquial forms are contractions: Welsh: mynd / myned; dod / dyfod / dywad / dŵad; cael / caffael / caffel; gwneud / gwneuthur. Literary Welsh is remarkable in that it has imperative forms of Welsh: cael which are absent from the spoken language.
| Welsh: mynd, myned | Welsh: gwneud, gwneuthur | Welsh: cael, caffael, caffel | Welsh: dod, dyfod, dywad, dŵad | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
| Preterite | 1st Person | Welsh: euthum | Welsh: aethom | Welsh: gwneuthum | Welsh: gwnaethom | Welsh: cefais | Welsh: cawsom | Welsh: deuthum | Welsh: daethom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: aethost | Welsh: aethoch | Welsh: gwnaethost | Welsh: gwnaethoch | Welsh: cefaist | Welsh: cawsoch | Welsh: daethost | Welsh: daethoch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: aeth | Welsh: aethant | Welsh: gwnaeth | Welsh: gwnaethant | Welsh: cafodd | Welsh: cawsant | Welsh: daeth | Welsh: daethant | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: aethpwyd, aed | Welsh: gwnaethpwyd, gwnaed | Welsh: cafwyd, caed | Welsh: daethpwyd, deuwyd, doed | |||||
| Non-past | 1st Person | Welsh: af | Welsh: awn | Welsh: gwnaf | Welsh: gwnawn | Welsh: caf | Welsh: cawn | Welsh: deuaf, dof | Welsh: deuwn, down |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: ei | Welsh: ewch | Welsh: gwnei | Welsh: gwnewch | Welsh: cei | Welsh: cewch | Welsh: deui, doi | Welsh: deuwch, dewch, dowch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: â | Welsh: ânt | Welsh: gwna | Welsh: gwnânt | Welsh: caiff | Welsh: cânt | Welsh: daw | Welsh: deuant, dônt | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: eir | Welsh: gwneir | Welsh: ceir | Welsh: deuir, doir | |||||
| Imperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: awn | Welsh: aem | Welsh: gwnawn | Welsh: gwnaem | Welsh: cawn | Welsh: caem | Welsh: deuwn, down | Welsh: deuem, doem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: ait | Welsh: aech | Welsh: gwnait | Welsh: gwnaech | Welsh: caet | Welsh: caech | Welsh: deuit, doit | Welsh: deuech, doech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: âi | Welsh: aent | Welsh: gwnâi | Welsh: gwnaent | Welsh: câi | Welsh: caent | Welsh: deuai, dôi | Welsh: deuent, doent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: eid | Welsh: gwneid | Welsh: ceid | Welsh: deuid, doid | |||||
| Pluperfect | 1st Person | Welsh: aethwn, elswn | Welsh: aethem, elsem | Welsh: gwnaethwn, gwnelswn | Welsh: gwnaethem, gwnelsem | Welsh: cawswn | Welsh: cawsem | Welsh: daethwn | Welsh: daethem |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: aethit, elsit | Welsh: aethech, elsech | Welsh: gwnaethit, gwnelsit | Welsh: gwnaethech, gwnelsech | Welsh: cawsit | Welsh: cawsech | Welsh: daethit | Welsh: daethech | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: aethai, elsai | Welsh: aethent, elsent | Welsh: gwnaethai, gwnelsai | Welsh: gwnaethent, gwnelsent | Welsh: cawsai | Welsh: cawsent | Welsh: daethai | Welsh: daethent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: aethid, elsid | Welsh: gwnaethid, gwnelsid | Welsh: cawsid | Welsh: daethid | |||||
| (Present) Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: elwyf | Welsh: elom | Welsh: gwnelwyf | Welsh: gwnelom | Welsh: caffwyf | Welsh: caffom | Welsh: delwyf | Welsh: delom |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: elych | Welsh: eloch | Welsh: gwnelych | Welsh: gwneloch | Welsh: ceffych | Welsh: caffoch | Welsh: delych | Welsh: deloch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: êl, elo | Welsh: elont | Welsh: gwnêl, gwnelo | Welsh: gwnelont | Welsh: caffo | Welsh: caffont | Welsh: dêl, delo | Welsh: delont | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: eler | Welsh: gwneler | Welsh: caffer | Welsh: deler | |||||
| Imperfect Subjunctive | 1st Person | Welsh: elwn | Welsh: elem | Welsh: gwnelwn | Welsh: gwnelem | Welsh: caffwn, cawn | Welsh: caffem, caem | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: elit | Welsh: elech | Welsh: gwnelit | Welsh: gwnelech | Welsh: caffit, cait | Welsh: caffech, caech | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: elai | Welsh: elent | Welsh: gwnelai | Welsh: gwnelent | Welsh: caffai, câi | Welsh: caffent, caent | (Same as Imperfect) | (Same as Imperfect) | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: elid | Welsh: gwnelid | Welsh: ceffid, ceid | (Same as Imperfect) | |||||
| Imperative | 1st Person | (none) | Welsh: awn | (none) | Welsh: gwnawn | (none) | Welsh: cawn | (none) | Welsh: deuwn, down |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: dos | Welsh: ewch | Welsh: gwna | Welsh: gwnewch | Welsh: ca | Welsh: cewch | Welsh: tyr(e)d | Welsh: deuwch, dewch, dowch | |
| 3rd Person | Welsh: aed, eled | Welsh: aent, elent | Welsh: gwnaed, gwneled | Welsh: gwnaent, gwnelent | Welsh: caffed, caed | Welsh: caffent, caent | Welsh: deued, doed, deled | Welsh: deuent, doent, delent | |
| Impersonal | Welsh: aer, eler | Welsh: gwnaer, gwneler | Welsh: ceffid | Welsh: deuer, doer, deler | |||||
In Welsh, prepositions frequently change their form when followed by a pronoun. These are known as inflected prepositions. They fall into three main conjugations.
Firstly those in -a- (at, am (stem: amdan-), ar, tan/dan):
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: ataf | Welsh: atom | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: atat | Welsh: atoch | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: ato | Welsh: atynt |
| Feminine | Welsh: ati | ||
Secondly those in -o- (er, heb, rhag, rhwng (stem: rhyng-), tros/dros, trwy/drwy (stem: trw-/drw-), o (stem: ohon-), yn). All apart from o add a linking element in the third person (usually -dd-, but -ydd- in the case of trwy/drwy, and -t- in the case of tros/dros):
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: erof | Welsh: erom | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: erot | Welsh: eroch | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: erddo | Welsh: erddynt |
| Feminine | Welsh: erddi | ||
Thirdly, those in -y- (gan and wrth). Gan includes both vowel changes and a linking element, while wrth has neither:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: gennyf | Welsh: gennym | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: gennyt | Welsh: gennych | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: ganddo | Welsh: ganddynt |
| Feminine | Welsh: ganddi | ||
Finally, the preposition i is highly irregular:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | Welsh: imi, im | Welsh: inni, in | |
| 2nd Person | Welsh: iti, it | Welsh: ichwi | |
| 3rd Person | Masculine | Welsh: iddo | Welsh: iddynt |
| Feminine | Welsh: iddi | ||
All inflected prepositions may optionally be followed by the appropriate personal pronouns, apart from i, where this is only possible in the third person, thanks to its proper endings in the other persons sounding the same as the pronouns. In slightly less formal Welsh, the endings are split off the first and second persons of i to be interpreted as pronouns instead, although this creates the anomalous pronoun mi.
The majority of prepositions (am, ar, at, gan, heb, hyd, i, o, tan/dan, tros/dros, trwy/drwy, wrth) trigger the soft mutation. The exceptions are â, gyda, and tua, which cause the aspirate mutation; yn, which causes the nasal mutation; and cyn, ger, mewn, rhag, and rhwng, which do not cause any mutation.