25 Colours in Welsh

Welsh Colours: More Than Just a Shade

Ever wondered how the Welsh language paints the world? The colours of the rainbow (enfys) in Welsh have a unique depth to them. Unlike English, the Welsh words for colours change depending on whether they're describing a masculine, feminine, or plural noun. These variations are a vibrant part of the language and are still widely used today.

The Curious Case of Blue and Green

In Welsh, glas means blue and gwyrdd means green. Pretty simple, right? Not always.

For example, a "blue car" is a car glas. But if you're talking about a "green field," it's a maes glas! This is because when describing vegetation like fields, grass, leaves, or pastures, glas takes on the meaning of green.

Here are a few examples:

• tir glas - our name!! means green land.
• maes glas - green field.
• Ynyslas - green island.
• dail glas - green leaves.

Plurals and Feminine Colours

The Welsh language also has special forms for plurals and feminine nouns, which are still very common.

Plurals: Some Welsh colours have a plural version when describing multiple things.

• Y Gleision - the Blues
• Crysau Duon - Black shirts (also used to refer to the famous All Blacks rugby team)
• Drysau Gwyrddion - Green doors

Masculine and Feminine: Certain colours have a different form depending on if the noun they describe is masculine or feminine.

• Het werdd - a green hat (het is a feminine noun)
• Car gwyrdd - a green car (car is a masculine noun)
• Pel wen - a white ball (pel is a feminine noun)
• Ty gwyn - a white house (ty is a masculine noun)

A Rainbow of Colours

25 Colours in Welsh

1. Arian, silver
2. Aur, gold
3. Beis, beige
4. Brown, brown
5. Coch, red
6. Du, black
7. Efydd, bronze
8. Fioled, violet
9. Fflamgoch, crimson
10. Glas, blue
11. Glasgoch, violet
12. Gwinau, auburn
13. Gwyn, white
14. Gwyrdd, green
15. Hufen, cream
16. Llwyd, grey
17. Llwydfelyn, beige
18. Melyn, yellow
19. Melyngoch, orange
20. Oren, orange
21. Pinc, pick
22. Piws, purple
23. Piwswyn, purple
24. Porffor, purple
25. Rhudd, crimson

Want to learn a fun way to remember them? Here's a popular Welsh children's song about the colours of the rainbow:

Lliwiau Enfys (Rainbow Colours) Coch a melyn a fioled a glas, Porffor ac oren a gwyrdd. Dyma lliwiau enfys, Lliwiau enfys, Lliwiau enfys hardd.

Translation: Red and yellow and violet and blue, Purple and orange and green. Here are the colours of the rainbow, Colours of the rainbow, Colours of the beautiful rainbow.