Direct translation doesn’t always work. Welsh and English highlight some interesting linguistic differences in sentence structure, idioms, and grammar. Understanding these differences is essential for accurate translation and communication. Let’s have a look at some of the key differences…

Mutations: The Changing of Initial Letters

Welsh has three mutations: soft, nasal, and aspirate. Essentially, what this means is that the first letter of a word changes depending on the grammatical context in Welsh. They can affect pronunciation and spelling but not the word’s actual meaning.

Cymru (Wales) > “Croeso i Gymru” (Welcome to Wales)

Pont (Bridge) > “Yr hen bont” (The old bridge)

Mutations are crucial for correct grammar and meaning when writing and speaking Welsh. They can also help indicate grammatical relationships between words. Learning when and where to use mutations can take practice, but they are extremely important in mastering the language.

Word Order

Welsh and English differ in their typical word order. One of the most striking differences is that English usually follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure, while Welsh commonly uses Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) structure in certain sentence constructions.

Here is an example:

English: “The child (Subject) played (Verb) with blocks (Object)”

Welsh: “Chwaraeodd (Verb – played) y plentyn (Subject – the child) gyda blociau (Object – with blocks)”

Welsh word order can vary depending on the type of sentence and the emphasis being placed on different parts of it. This means that translating sentence structure directly from English into Welsh can sometimes produce a sentence that sounds unnatural or incorrect.

The main difference in this example is the placement order of the verb at the beginning of the sentence in Welsh, whereas English follows the familiar SVO pattern. Welsh can be more flexible with word order in some contexts, and different constructions can change the order of the words within a sentence.

No Direct Equivalent for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ Answers

In English, we can answer most questions with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In Welsh, on the other hand, the appropriate response can depend on the verb used in the question.

English: “Are you going on holiday?” > Yes / No

Welsh: “Wyt ti’n mynd ar dy wyliau?” > Ydw / Nac ydw (I am / I am not)

While ‘ie/ia’ (yes) and ‘na’ (no) do exist, they are generally not used when answering questions in the same way that ‘yes’ and ‘no’ are used in English. Because Welsh follows this system, the answer directly confirms or denies the verb or action referred to in the question.

Conclusion

Isn’t Welsh a beautiful and unique language?! There are many distinct differences and parallels when comparing Welsh and English grammar, some of which have been outlined above. Understanding these linguistic differences can help whether you’re learning the Welsh language or simply have an interest in it.

The differences mentioned above also highlight the importance of investing in quality, professional translation services, where translators can consider these linguistic differences and incorporate them naturally into their translations.  

Get in touch for help with your translation needs:

business@bla-translation.co.uk

We all know how important operating bilingually is in Wales – to help businesses reach a wider audience, to help public organisations comply with relevant legislation, to give the public in Wales the opportunity to uphold their right to use their first language in everyday life.

In Wales, those organisations beyond the public sector are not legally required to operate bilingually, therefore translation services may be seen as an additional cost for organisations. As a result, they may opt for cheaper solutions, rather than relying on human translators. We would like to show you why investing in a human translation service is worth every penny.

1. The Expertise of Human Translators

Welsh is a rich language which possesses its own personality, with its own set of grammar rules, the infamous mutations, idioms, and beautiful regional variations. A human translator who has spent years honing their craft and studying the Welsh language brings invaluable expertise to the translation process. These professionals have invested significant time in training that validate their ability to translate with accuracy. As languages are a living ‘being’, a good translator will strive to be at the forefront of new developments to ensure that they continue to be at the top of their game.

2. Conveying the Richness of the Welsh Language

Welsh is a melodic language with poetic expressions, rich metaphors, and unique idiomatic phrases – this is where human translators are truly worth the investment. They understand the emotional and contextual significance of a text, and they can convey this in the target language.

If you want a Welsh translation that stands on its own two feet as an authentic Welsh piece, then you will need a human translator.

3. Awareness of Context

Human translators have the capacity to make informed decisions about context, tone, and cultural significance, using their professional judgement each time to adapt their writing style accordingly. This ensures that the translated text doesn’t just convey the basic meaning but also aligns with the subtleties and complexities of the Welsh language.

Whether you’re translating a press release, a marketing campaign, or a piece of literature, a human translator has the sensitivity to capture the emotional undercurrents and tone of the original text. This helps avoid the robotic, lifeless translations often, which fail to engage readers emotionally.

4. Quality Control and Accuracy

A human translator can spot potential pitfalls and make corrections in real-time, ensuring that the translation is not only accurate but also of high quality.

Moreover, human translators can meet with their clients, discuss their needs, their goals, and, most importantly, convey their organisation’s voice. A professional can ensure that the final product is tailored to the client’s needs and expectations, without compromising on accuracy.

While it may be tempting to opt for cheaper solutions, the value of human translators cannot be overemphasised. You’re not just paying for words; you’re paying for expertise, cultural insight, and a deep understanding of the language’s emotional significance.

Let us show you why we’re worth it.

Entering a new market with your business is such an exciting prospect. But there is a lot more to it than simply shipping your products to the other side of the world. Without clear, correct communication, it can be incredibly challenging to succeed in a new market. Translation services can help you overcome this communication barrier and open the door to a number of benefits.

1. Customer-centred benefits:

First of all, there are customer-centred benefits. Translation services can help you to communicate with your new customers in their preferred or first language. Language is very much connected to the human brain’s emotion processing systems. By targeting your new market in their first language, they will find it easier to trust your brand and make an emotional connection with it. Translation services can also help you in terms of localisation, which means integrating your brand with the culture of the new market by effective use of language, adapting the tone of your messaging, and making cultural references that suit that particular market.

2. Risk management benefits

Secondly, there are risk management benefits. From your legal documents, such as compliance papers, contracts and policies, to your logistical documents, manuals, health and safety information, translation services can help you to convey complex information to a non-expert audience, helping you to avoid fines and protect yourself from reputational damage.

3. Growth benefits

Thirdly, there are growth benefits. To ensure consistent, safe and sustained growth, especially in a new market, a business requires professional use of language to protect it. Using the same translation service, you ensure that your brand’s tone of voice, personality and messaging are consistent to gain the trust of your targeted customer base. In turn, this will help to strengthen your presence in said market. Having implemented these processes once, then entering another new market will be an easier and more streamlined process.

Need specialist support?

So, if you want to communicate effectively with your new customer base, avoid fines and reputational damage and grow consistently into other target markets, then translation services will be an essential investment to ensure success.

Our expert team at Bla can help you do just that, whether you’re targeting European markets or seeking business opportunities further afield, contact us to discuss your requirements:

business@bla-translation.co.uk  

How well do you play the game?

Think about The Traitors, the hit TV programme which we are big fans of dissecting here in the office. To play the game, two players are selected as the Traitors, and the other remaining players (the “Faithfuls”) must catch the Traitors before the ‘end game’, where a huge amount of money hangs in the balance. This psychologically charged game gives a beautiful demonstration of how people foster trust with strangers. To be successful, the Traitors must appear faithful and gain the trust of the other faithful players.

What this game teaches us is how communication, or specifically strategic communication, helps the Traitors to foster trusting relationships with the other players. Having no trust between them will lead to the players being ‘murdered’. Therefore, the only way for the Traitors to make it to the ‘end game’ and claim the prize pot is to understand their audience and strategically and reactively adapt their communication practices throughout the game.

These same principles apply to PR work. Building trust with those targeted by the campaign is something that happens deliberately by the experts. The success of the campaign is, therefore, heavily determined by the extent of trust and respect fostered with the intended audience.

Language makes a significant contribution to this. When designing campaigns, careful consideration is given to the tone of voice, the mood and the wording used to ensure that they feel ‘right’ and that they land perfectly on the ear. If people don’t feel that the message resonates with them, then it will fall on deaf ears.

This brings us to the role that translation plays within PR and campaigning work, and the myriad of benefits it brings. If the role of translation is neglected, the impacts can be serious:

• Trust is diminished/remains unestablished
• Less emotional effect
• Reduced engagement
• Impact suffers
• Reputational damage

Presenting a campaign without respecting the target audience’s native language will no doubt diminish the trusting relationship you wish to forge, have less of an emotional effect on those you are trying to target, meaning reduced engagement and hindering success. In addition, you may also suffer reputational damage by failing to recognise and respecting your target audience’s native language and unique cultural nuances.

Here at Bla, we want to help you to succeed in your PR and campaigning work. By drawing upon our team’s expert language skills, we can support you to make sure your message resonates and achieves the desired impact.

And we have a strong record of doing just that. From environmental, health, business, nature and marketing campaigns, we’ve worked on a myriad of national projects with PR companies. We offer a fast paced, responsive service delivering accurate translations for all your PR and campaigning work.

If you’re looking for a translation provider who can keep up with your pace, gets the job done in a timely manner, and ensures that your message is convincing in every language, then contact us today to outline your needs.

You can trust us so that they can trust you.

With the Senedd Election looming, many organisations in Wales have been working on their own sets of policies and manifestos. It’s the ideal time to propose new ideas, evidence and suggestions to Senedd members and political parties to take into consideration prior to the election.

Whether you’re advocating for nature and climate action, health and social care, business and the economy or the Welsh language perhaps, we appreciate how important it is for you to express your priorities and that you feel heard by those at the top.

Ensuring that such compelling documents are available in Welsh is key. By providing bilingual versions of your proposals, you are demonstrating accessibility, understanding of the bilingual context within which you are working, strengthening your influence and promoting inclusivity, as well as upholding your organisation’s credibility.

Over the past few weeks, we have received numerous translation requests from various organisations in Wales who are eager to translate their manifesto ahead of the Senedd Election on 7^th May 2026.

If you too are planning to propose a manifesto and would like support with Welsh translation, please get in touch with our team by clicking here and we will get back to you within 24 hours.

Since joining our team as a Trainee Translator in September 2024, Elin has been following an in-house training programme, specifically tailored to her skills by our Quality Manager, Nerys. Much of her training happens naturally in her day-to-day role, completing various translation tasks for our wide client base here at Bla. Her translation work is mostly reviewed by Nerys, with occasional support from our other Senior Translators, and Elin is given constructive feedback to ensure that she continues to develop and strengthen her natural linguistic capabilities.

Elin started studying a Professional Welsh Translation course at Aberystwyth University in September 2025, giving her a healthy balance between vocational and academic training. This course, combined with her practical experience, helps her to bridge the gap between theory and applying her knowledge in the real world with real life clients. 

Consistently putting in the hard graft to progress within her role, Elin certainly isn’t the type to shy away from an opportunity to learn something new! She recently attended a ‘Correcting a Draft Copy’ workshop delivered through the Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters. This valuable workshop explored various aspects of a Translator’s work, such as:

• Techniques to finalise an accurate draft copy, ensuring that it reads naturally and effortlessly in Welsh
• Taking the perspective of the ‘reader’ when working on translations
• Reviewing pre-translated copies, contributing ways of improving consistency, terminology etc
• Various useful resources
• Practical advice to attendees.

As a Trainee Translator, it is important that Elin takes every opportunity to improve and develop as a professional. Although the training she receives within the company will be key to her success to a large extent, the opportunity to gain information from experts beyond our team is also valuable to bring fresh insights into her practice.

Here’s what Elin had to say about the workshop:

“This was an opportunity to gain practical suggestions on how to create accurate, finished copies that flow naturally. I had the opportunity to jot down some notes on ways to improve pre-completed translations that had been specifically selected for this session, as well as hearing the thoughts of the other attendees. I gained exceptional suggestions, resources, advice and ideas from both the tutor and the group!”

Elin is a fantastic example of a young professional who is continuously striving for improvement, representing the high-quality employment opportunities available for those who are passionate about promoting the Welsh language.

With the Christmas period now behind us and the New Year just beginning, we have all returned to our desks here at Bla, looking forward to a busy year ahead once again!

2025 proved to be one of our busiest years yet. We continued to support our current client base, some of whom have worked with us for many years, and we also welcomed new clients which is always very exciting. We’d like to thank all of our clients, old and new, for continuously putting their trust in us as their translation service providers!

Another noteworthy development during 2025 was the strong increase in translation requests for other languages beyond our traditional offer of English <> Welsh. We experienced over a 100% increase in such requests, which has kept our Bla₂ team nice and busy. Let’s hope for a further increase this year!

The start of a new year is a great time to pause and take stock. It is a time when people commonly reassess their priorities and set themselves some new goals. And it’s not just individuals who can do this; businesses can take part too. If sourcing a (new) translation service provider is one of your New Year’s resolutions, then look no further! Here’s a reminder of what to do in just 3 simple steps:

1. Reach out to us via our contact form which can be accessed here
2. Give us some background information, your translation requirements, and any questions that you may want to ask us
3. You can always attach a document when contacting us via our website contact form should you wish to give us an idea of the type of documents to which you are referring

One of our friendly team will get back to you within 24 hours. Finding a new dependable translation service provider couldn’t be easier!

We can’t wait to hear from you soon!

Every industry suffers from misconceptions, especially so our Welsh translation industry which is chronically undervalued. Here, we want to shed light on some of the most common misconceptions about the Welsh translation industry in particular. Hopefully, the below will clarify what really goes on at a professional Welsh translation practice:

“If you can speak Welsh, then you can translate“

Wrong.

The ability to speak Welsh does not mean that you possess the highly-developed linguistic capabilities to translate either to or from Welsh with grammatical accuracy – even if you are a fluent or a first-language Welsh speaker.

We hear of countless cases where organisations ask Welsh-speaking employees to translate texts on their behalf. Not only is this unfair on the individual who is being asked to complete a task they are not qualified to undertake, but it can also lead to a whole host of problems. Please do not rely on a Welsh speaker within your organisation to translate for you under any circumstances.

Translation is a professional service provided by experts who have heavily invested in their craft. Head over to our contact form, outline your needs and one of our advisors will be in touch within 24 hours to discuss how we can support you.

“There’s no point translating into Welsh, everybody understands English”

Unless you are a public body in Wales, you are under no legal obligation to ensure that your correspondence is bilingual. However, we work with a number of organisations who are not required by law to operate bilingually but who choose to do so. This is because they want to work with a translation company who can help them harness the myriads of benefits of operating bilingually in a bilingual nation:

• Consistency in your brand’s voice
• Gaining buy-in and loyalty from Welsh customers
• Increasing awareness of your brand
• High level of accuracy in your written materials by using a professional translation practice
• Demonstrating your brand’s appreciation of cultural differences.

And who knows whether there will be legal compliance on all organisations in future? Best to get a head start on that.

“Don’t you just translate word-for-word?”

No, absolutely not. Translation is an art that requires high level linguistic skills. Our Translators have been training and practising their skills for years and, indeed, they continue to do so to this day.

To become a Translator, you need to master a multitude of skills: in-depth knowledge of grammatical rules, a keen eye for detail, good technical literacy, sensitivity of cultural references, awareness of language legislation, professionalism etc. This takes hard graft and continuous professional development to perfect.

Our aim when translating into Welsh is to ensure that the translation doesn’t sound like a translation. Rather, it should read as an original Welsh document, completely independent from the English. There are many factors that contribute to a successful translation: the target audience and purpose, the nature of the document, grammatical structure, consistency and accuracy etc. and all of these things (and more) will be running through a Translator’s head even before they begin the translation process.

If you believe that translation is just converting word-for-word then you are most definitely setting yourself up to fail.

“Why do you bother translating into Welsh? It’s a dying language”

Take it from us, the Welsh language is definitely not dying. On average here at Bla, we translate around 150,000 words per week from English into Welsh (occasionally Welsh into English), demonstrating that there is a huge demand for Welsh translation services.

Although we recognise that there are challenges facing the language, we are confident in the efforts that are in place to ensure a prosperous future for our mother tongue and we will always advocate for our language.

“Translation is expensive”

The investment you make in translation services is only a small cost when you think of the problems that can arise if you don’t invest in your translation services.

If you don’t invest in a proper translation service, your written materials could be misunderstood, misinterpreted or misleading. All of these things could lead to legal issues, compliance issues, avoidable delays, dissatisfaction amongst your client base and employees, in addition to damaging your brand, which run up a nasty bill.

Translation is a necessary investment to avoid unnecessary expense.

We are pleased to announce that our Business Manager, Anna, has contributed to the most recent edition of the ITI Bulletin, a business newsletter by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.

In her article, Anna reflects on her seven-year journey as part of our team, which has been a period of great change for the business. Offering a little peek behind-the-scenes at Bla, not only does she outline the evolution of the company but also her career in the translation industry.

One of the most notable changes, of course, is the introduction of a new service, launched in early 2024 in the name of Bla₂, offering a translation service into multiple international languages. From Polish, Arabic, French, to Romanian to name only a few, we can now cover most European languages. We are glad to say that Bla₂ is rapidly gaining momentum with a growing portfolio of clients.

This exciting development comes at no detriment to our Welsh language translation offering, which remains a separate service. The demand for our Welsh language expertise seems to have ramped up, keeping our team extremely busy and we cannot be more grateful for all the support.

Our team’s passion towards languages is unrivalled and we hope that the high standards to which we work across all our service offerings demonstrate the pride we take in our work.

Yet to read Anna’s article?

If you haven’t already read Anna’s article titled Taking Care of Business, which offers an insight into how things have developed at Bla in recent times, then you can do so by clicking here.