Language/Welsh/Grammar/The-article

The Article in Welsh

There is no indefinite article (a / an) in Welsh. e.g. cath a cat afal an apple merch a girl ysgol school

There are three forms of the definite article (the) in Welsh

i

‘y’ is used in front of a consonant. Singular, feminine nouns will undergo a Soft Mutation after ‘y’ (except those beginning with ‘ll’ and ‘rh’). See S.M. rule 1.

e.g. ci y ci the dog cath y gath the cat bachgen y bachgen the boy merch y ferch the girl

ii

‘yr’ is used in front of a vowel and in front of h. Remember that ‘w’ and ‘y’ are vowels in Welsh. e.g.

ysgol yr ysgol the school enw yr enw the name afal yr afal the apple het yr het the hat

iii

‘r’ is used after a word ending in a vowel, no matter whether the word which follows begins with a vowel or with a consonant.

e.g. Mae’r plant The children are Mae’r ysgol The school is Dyma‘r llyfr Here’s the book Dacw‘r afon There’s the river