Body and Health in Welsh

In Brief

Welsh does not use one direct equivalent of English have for every health problem. Learn common symptoms as whole patterns: Mae pen tost gyda fi or Mae gen i ben tost (“I have a headache”), Mae annwyd arna i (“I have a cold”), and Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo (“My leg hurts”). For a general state, use bod (“to be”): Dw i'n sâl means “I am ill.”

Overview

Body parts and basic health phrases are useful from A1: they let you say that you feel unwell, identify where something hurts, and understand simple questions from a pharmacist or doctor. The vocabulary itself is manageable, but Welsh packages it into several patterns that do not map word for word onto English.

The key difference is that English uses have very broadly: “I have a headache,” “I have a cold,” and “I have a pain in my back.” Welsh commonly divides those meanings among gan/gyda (“with, in someone’s possession”), ar (“on”), a possessive body-part phrase, and a form of bod (“to be”). Instead of trying to translate “have” first, choose the Welsh phrase that belongs with the symptom.

This topic builds on possession. It also gives you practical experience with mutation (a change to the first consonant of a word) after fy “my,” dy “your,” and in the gen i construction. At beginner level, memorising a few complete phrases is more important than naming every mutation rule.

How It Works

Essential body-part words

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Many Welsh body-part nouns have plurals that are not formed by simply adding one regular ending, so learn the singular and plural together when both are useful.

Welsh	English	Note
pen	head	Appears as fy mhen i, “my head”
gwallt	hair	Usually treated as a mass of hair in basic descriptions
wyneb	face	—
llygad / llygaid	eye / eyes	Irregular-looking plural
clust / clustiau	ear / ears	—
ceg	mouth	Appears as fy ngheg i, “my mouth”
dant / dannedd	tooth / teeth	Irregular plural
gwddf	neck; throat	Context decides the meaning
braich / breichiau	arm / arms	Appears as fy mraich i, “my arm”
llaw / dwylo	hand / hands	Irregular plural
cefn	back	Appears as fy nghefn i, “my back”
stumog	stomach	Its initial s does not change after fy
coes / coesau	leg / legs	Appears as fy nghoes i, “my leg”
troed / traed	foot / feet	Irregular plural

Four core health patterns

The safest A1 approach is to learn these as four separate sentence frames.

Welsh pattern	English meaning	Main use
Dw i'n + adjective	I am + adjective	A general state: Dw i'n sâl.
Mae + body part + gyda fi	I have + body-part problem	Common possession-style pattern: Mae pen tost gyda fi.
Mae gen i + symptom	I have + symptom	Another possession-style pattern: Mae gen i ben tost.
Mae + symptom + arna i	I have + symptom	Common with conditions experienced as being “on” someone: Mae annwyd arna i.
Mae fy + body part + yn brifo	My + body part hurts	Focuses on the painful body part: Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo.

Here adjective means a describing word, such as sâl “ill” or iawn “all right.” The apostrophe in Dw i'n represents the shortened form of yn. Before an adjective or verb-noun, this yn links the subject to what is being said about it.

Saying that you are ill or well

For your overall condition, use the present tense of bod followed by yn and an adjective:

• Dw i'n sâl. — “I am ill.”
• Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda. — “I do not feel well.”
• Dw i'n iawn nawr. — “I am all right now.”

Teimlo is the verb-noun “to feel.” A verb-noun is the basic Welsh verb form used after constructions such as dw i'n; it often corresponds to an English infinitive (“to feel”) or an -ing form.

Saying that a body part hurts

In Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo, the body part is the grammatical subject (the person or thing being described). The sentence therefore works more like “My leg is hurting” than “I have pain in my leg.”

The structure is:

Mae + possessive body part + yn + brifo

• Mae fy mhen i'n brifo. — “My head hurts.”
• Mae dy fraich di'n brifo. — “Your arm hurts.”
• Mae ei stumog hi'n brifo. — “Her stomach hurts.”

The final pronouns i, di, and hi reinforce whose body part it is. This “double marking” is normal Welsh: fy ... i literally brackets the noun with “my ... me.” In everyday speech, forms vary, but this full pattern is clear and valuable for learners.

Mutation after “my” and “your”

Fy “my” causes nasal mutation. Nasal mutation changes certain initial consonants: for example, p becomes mh, b becomes m, and c becomes ngh. Other initials, including s, remain unchanged.

Basic noun	With fy ... i	English
pen	fy mhen i	my head
braich	fy mraich i	my arm
coes	fy nghoes i	my leg
cefn	fy nghefn i	my back
ceg	fy ngheg i	my mouth
troed	fy nhroed i	my foot
stumog	fy stumog i	my stomach

Dy “your” for one familiar person causes soft mutation, a different set of initial changes. Thus pen becomes dy ben di, braich becomes dy fraich di, and troed becomes dy droed di. Do not copy the mutation from fy: “my head” is fy mhen i, but “your head” is dy ben di.

“With me”: gyda fi and gen i

Both of these patterns can express possession, including possession of a symptom:

• Mae pen tost gyda fi. — “I have a headache.”
• Mae gen i ben tost. — “I have a headache.”

Gyda fi is literally “with me.” In speech it is often shortened to 'da fi. Gen i is a form of the preposition gan used with “me.” The two constructions have strong regional associations—gen i is especially associated with northern speech and gyda fi/'da fi with southern speech—but real usage is not divided by a hard border. Pick the form used in your course or community, while learning to recognise the other.

After gen i, a following mutable consonant is normally softened. That is why pen tost appears as ben tost in Mae gen i ben tost. This mutation does not change the meaning.

Conditions with ar

Welsh often presents a condition as being “on” a person:

• Mae annwyd arna i. — “I have a cold.”
• Mae annwyd arni hi. — “She has a cold.”

Here ar is a conjugated preposition: it changes form according to the person. A preposition is a word such as “on,” “with,” or “to”; in Welsh, many prepositions combine with pronouns instead of simply standing before them.

Welsh	Literal guide	Natural English
arna i	on me	on me / I have
arnat ti	on you	on you / you have
arno fe / arno fo	on him	on him / he has
arni hi	on her	on her / she has
arnon ni	on us	on us / we have
arnoch chi	on you	on you (plural or polite) / you have
arnyn nhw	on them	on them / they have

At A1, you do not need to decide from a general rule whether every new illness takes ar, gen, or gyda. Record the full phrase you actually encounter: for example, learn annwyd arna i, not just the isolated word annwyd.

Asking where it hurts

Useful questions follow the same patterns:

• Ble mae'n brifo? — “Where does it hurt?”
• Ydy dy ben di'n brifo? — “Does your head hurt?”
• Wyt ti'n teimlo'n sâl? — “Do you feel ill?”
• Ydych chi'n iawn? — “Are you all right?”

Use wyt ti with one person you address familiarly. Use ydych chi (often pronounced or written dych chi in speech) for more than one person and for polite singular address.

Examples in Context

Welsh	English	Note
Mae pen tost gyda fi.	I have a headache.	gyda fi possession pattern
Mae gen i ben tost heddiw.	I have a headache today.	pen softens to ben after gen i
Mae fy mhen i'n brifo.	My head hurts.	pen undergoes nasal mutation after fy
Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo ar ôl cerdded.	My leg hurts after walking.	The body part is the subject
Mae ei stumog hi'n brifo.	Her stomach hurts.	ei ... hi marks “her”
Dw i'n sâl heddiw.	I am ill today.	General state with bod
Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda.	I do not feel well.	Natural general complaint
Mae annwyd arni hi.	She has a cold.	Condition with ar
Mae annwyd arna i hefyd.	I have a cold too.	First-person form arna i
Ble mae'n brifo?	Where does it hurt?	Useful question about pain
Ydy dy fraich di'n brifo?	Does your arm hurt?	braich softens after dy
Ydych chi'n iawn?	Are you all right?	Polite or plural question
Dw i'n iawn nawr, diolch.	I am all right now, thank you.	Reassuring reply
Mae angen meddyg arna i.	I need a doctor.	Useful urgent practical phrase

Common Mistakes

Translating every English “have” with one Welsh construction

• Wrong: Dw i'n cael annwyd. (when you mean that you have a cold now)
• Right: Mae annwyd arna i.
• Why: English “have” covers several relationships. Welsh commonly uses ar for annwyd. Learn symptom and construction together rather than translating “have” in isolation.

Forgetting nasal mutation after fy

• Wrong: Mae fy pen i'n brifo.
• Right: Mae fy mhen i'n brifo.
• Why: Fy causes nasal mutation, so pen changes to mhen.

Using the fy mutation after dy

• Wrong: dy mhen di
• Right: dy ben di
• Why: Fy takes nasal mutation, but dy takes soft mutation. The two possessives do not produce the same initial consonant.

Copying English word order with brifo

• Wrong: Dw i'n brifo fy nghoes for “My leg hurts.”
• Right: Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo.
• Why: In the normal Welsh phrase, the leg is what is hurting. The incorrect version can suggest “I am hurting my leg,” which expresses a different relationship.

Leaving out yn before brifo

• Wrong: Mae fy nghoes i brifo.
• Right: Mae fy nghoes i'n brifo.
• Why: The present-tense bod construction needs yn before the verb-noun. After the vowel in i, it appears as 'n.

Treating regional forms as different meanings

• Wrong assumption: Mae gen i ben tost and Mae pen tost gyda fi describe different kinds of headache.
• Right understanding: Both can mean “I have a headache.”
• Why: The choice often reflects dialect, speaker preference, or the variety taught. Meaning usually comes from the whole phrase and context.

Usage Notes

Speak in chunks, not translations

Health expressions are especially suitable for chunk learning. Store Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda as one usable sentence and Ble mae'n brifo? as one question. In a real conversation, retrieving a complete phrase is faster and safer than assembling it from an English sentence.

North and south

Welsh has lively regional variation. Learners often meet Mae gen i... in northern-oriented materials and Mae ... gyda fi or the spoken Mae ... 'da fi in southern-oriented materials. Forms such as e/fe and o/fo for “he” also vary. There is no need to mix every variant into your own speech: choose a consistent model, but train your ear to recognise the alternatives.

Polite health questions

Use Ydych chi'n iawn? when speaking politely to one adult or when addressing several people. Wyt ti'n iawn? suits a friend, relative, child, or another person with whom you normally use ti. The difference is social and numerical; it does not make the health question more or less serious.

Sâl and teimlo'n sâl

Dw i'n sâl states that you are ill. Dw i'n teimlo'n sâl says that you feel ill and can be useful when describing your current sensation. Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda is a broad, natural way to say that you are not feeling well without naming a specific symptom.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following details at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

The preposition ar has more formal or literary forms without the reinforcing pronouns: arnaf, arnat, arno, arni, arnom, arnoch, and arnynt. Everyday spoken Welsh commonly uses forms such as arna i, arno fo, and arnyn nhw. These are variants within the same prepositional system, not separate vocabulary items.

The pattern with ar extends beyond physical illness. Welsh uses conjugated prepositions in many experiences, needs, emotions, and states. However, the choice of preposition is idiomatic: knowing that annwyd occurs with ar does not let you predict every other expression. As your vocabulary grows, continue recording the preposition with the phrase.

You may also encounter more specific ways to describe pain. Poen means “pain,” while expressions such as cur pen can refer to a headache. Possession and mutation still apply: Mae gen i gur pen contains the soft-mutated form gur. More precise medical Welsh naturally goes beyond this A1 topic, but the same foundations—body-part nouns, possessives, bod, and conjugated prepositions—continue to do much of the grammatical work.

Finally, spoken Welsh may omit or reduce parts that are kept visible in careful learner examples. Full forms such as fy mhen i and dy ben di make the ownership and mutation clear, so they are a sound starting point. Learn reductions from the speech community or course you follow rather than dropping elements at random.

Practice Tips

1. Build a body map. Label a simple outline with pen, braich, llaw, cefn, stumog, coes, and troed. Then say one sentence for each: Mae fy ... i'n brifo. Pay attention to the mutation after fy.
2. Make three symptom cards, not one-word cards. Write pen tost — Mae gen i ben tost / Mae pen tost gyda fi, annwyd — Mae annwyd arna i, and sâl — Dw i'n sâl. This trains the correct construction along with the vocabulary.
3. Practise a short dialogue aloud. Ask Ydych chi'n iawn? and Ble mae'n brifo?; answer with Dw i ddim yn teimlo'n dda and one specific body-part sentence. Repeat with ti forms for an informal conversation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Possession — introduces Mae gen i, Mae ... gyda fi, and possessive forms such as fy ... i that health expressions reuse.