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Guidance for Using the Welsh Flash Cards

Additional Help

What is the resource?

The aim of this digital resource is to promote and develop the use of Welsh across the curriculum with learners in Welsh second language schools. It contains:

25 digital flash cards for each of the curricular subjects
online sound files of the vocabulary to aid pronunciation
English - Welsh vocabulary list
a phonetic version of the vocabulary

On each card there is a picture; the Welsh word or phrase appears at the click of a mouse. You can also download the cards as PowerPoint files so that you can adapt them to your own needs, or they can be printed for use as hard copies.

Using Welsh

Don't worry if you don't know many Welsh words or phrases. Start by using one or two phrases or questions and when you feel confident enough, add more phrases to your repertoire. It doesn't matter if you can't ask a whole question in Welsh. If you don't know the Welsh words, use English, e.g. Ble mae'r 'ruler'? Ysgrifennwch y 'date'.

You might also like to ask the learners to help you, e.g. Beth ydy 'ruler' yn Gymraeg? Beth ydy'r gair Cymraeg am 'date'?

Try using Welsh when using greetings or commands, or when encouraging and praising pupils. A comprehensive list of useful phrases and questions can be found in ' Cymraeg i bawb', pages 7 – 12.

Here are some useful phrases that you could use.

Da iawn	dah / yown	Well done
Ardderchog	arr-their-ch-og	Excellent
Llyfrau allan	ll-uv-rye / all-ann	Books out
Nod y wers	naud / uh / wear-ss	Lesson objective
Gwaith cartref	g-why-th / car-trev	Homework
Pawb mewn grŵp	pow-b / mewn / group	Everybody in groups
Pawb mewn parau	pow-b / mewn / pah-rye	Everybody in pairs
Dw i eisiau i chi …	D-wee / ey-shy / ee / chee …	I want you to …
Beth ydy … yn Gymraeg?	Beth / ud-ee … un / Gum-rye-g?	What is … in Welsh?
Beth ydy … yn Saesneg?	Beth / ud-ee … / un / Say-sneg?	What is … in English?

Pronunciation and intonation

The stress usually falls on the last syllable but one in Welsh words. Putting stress on a syllable means lengthening the sound with more emphasis in the voice. For example, people with a Welsh accent would pronounce the name "Meredith" as Mer-ed-ith, with the last sound but one, 'ed', stressed. People with an English accent would tend to put equal weight on all three syllables – Mer-ed-ith.

Try saying these words:

canol	carreg	melys
canolfan	carregog
canolfannau	melysaf

Note how the stress moves on each time a unit of sound or syllable is added.

How to use this resource

If you haven't used much Welsh before in your classroom, it might be a good idea to introduce the language gradually. Select the vocabulary or phrases you are going to use carefully, choosing a few of the words that are used most frequently in your lessons. Also, try to select words that can be used in more than one context. Often, using words that are similar in Welsh and English can help to boost confidence. You could display the cards you want to focus on around the classroom so that learners are familiar with the images before you introduce the vocabulary and use the phrases.

Before you introduce subject specific vocabulary to the learners, familiarise yourself with the pronunciation by listening to the audio pronunciation guide. Try saying the words out loud. You could also record yourself and compare your pronunciation with the audio guide. However, don't worry about being perfect. Nobody is perfect!

When you introduce the word to the learners for the first time, get them to repeat the word after you or the audio guide several times. They can repeat as a whole class, group or individuals. You could ask the learners to do this as a rap or to devise a tune, a special beat or mime to aid memory. Next, you could show the image and ask the learners as a class, group or individuals to say the word. Now that you have familiarised the learners with the word, try to use it in a sentence or a question. Remember that the whole sentence doesn't have to be in Welsh.

Once you have introduced Welsh into your lessons it is important to continue to use it as the learners will come to expect it of you. Increase the use of Welsh for routine tasks such as taking the register, giving instructions, setting targets etc. Also introduce more subject specific words gradually.

To help you recognise the role of each word or phrase within their subject, each card has a symbol to denote whether it is a noun or a verb.

Noun Symbol Noun
Verb Symbol Verb

Don't forget there are people in school who can help you and they will be delighted that you want to increase your use of Welsh with learners. So, go on, have a go and pob lwc!

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Tech & Troubleshooting

Recommended Browsers for Best Experience

In order to experience this resource at its best, we recommend using the Google Chrome web browser. The following is a full list of browsers officially supported by this resource, with minimum version requirements in brackets:

Images / cards won't load, or take a long time to appear

Due to the size of each of the card images used in this resource, they may take a little while to download — especially if you are using a slow internet connection (< 3mb/s). If all the images for your chosen subject have not loaded after a few seconds, try reloading or refreshing the page. If this does not solve the issue, please ensure you are using an up-to-date browser and have access to a reasonably fast internet connection.

The resource doesn't run smoothly on my phone!

Due to the large amount of high-resolution images and audio files in this resource, we generally recommend using a desktop computer, laptop or high-specification tablet device to view it. More powerful smartphones should be able to run the resource, but older ones may struggle to provide a seamless experience. In order to maximise the experience of viewing this resource on a smartphone or older device, please ensure all images/cards in your chosen subject have been loaded before trying to view them.

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Subject-Specific Pronunciation Guides

A short guide to pronouncing the phonetic words below :

'th' in Welsh is pronounced as in 'think' and 'fourth' (written as 'th' in the middle column)
'dd' is pronounced as in 'this' or 'that' (written as 'th*' in the middle column)
'ch' is pronounced as in 'loch' or 'Bach'
'll' is a cross between an 'l' and an 's' sound. Where you see 'll' in the middle column, it is pronounced the Welsh way, as in 'Llanelli'.
'r' is rolled and can be heard distinctively every time
'rh' is very similar to 'r', but is pronounced with more force, as if you are blowing as you say it.
'g' is always a hard 'g' sound (never pronounced as 'j')
'c' is always a hard 'k' sound (never pronounced as 's')

In Welsh, the emphasis in a word is almost always on the last syllable but one. To help you, the syllable which takes the emphasis is underlined in the middle column.