# Welsh: Telling age



## Emrysk

Hello everyone!
I was wondering how to say _How old are you?_ and _I am .... years old. _in Welsh?
From what I remember it should be something like *Faint yw eich oed?* and the response would be: *Dwi'n ... mlwydd oed.* But I am really not sure if this is correct. Now I'm looking for a more informal/Southern way to say it as I live in South Wales. 

Diolch yn fawr eich help!


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## Gavril

Emrysk said:


> Hello everyone!
> I was wondering how to say _How old are you?_ and _I am .... years old. _in Welsh?
> From what I remember it should be something like *Faint yw eich oed?*



I think this is correct, except that you would use _ydy _instead of _yw _in the north.



> and the response would be: *Dwi'n ... mlwydd oed.*



According to this page, the numbers 5 and 7-10 are followed by the form _mlwydd_, the number 2 takes the form _flwydd_, and the remaining numbers take the basic form _blwydd_. "He is one year old" could be translated either as _Mae e'n flwydd oed _or as _Mae e'n un oed_.

It's not mentioned on the linked page, but I think the word _ugain_ "20" is also followed by nasalized _mlwydd_.



> Now I'm looking for a more informal/Southern way to say it as I live in South Wales.



I can't help you too much with the informal part -- hopefully a native speaker will respond.


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## Emrysk

Thank you, Gavril for your response as well as the link! 
May I ask where did you learn Welsh from? Is it online? Because I really want to learn it but the only online site that I found was SaySomethingInWelsh which isn't really useful for me because I want to learn how to write.
Thanks again.


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## Tegs

Hi Emrysk, 

_Faint yw eich oed?_ is correct, although a bit too formal for conversation.

If you are asking someone using "ti", the informal "you", then ask _Beth yw dy oed di? _This is much more frequently used.

 If you are asking someone and addressing them as the formal "chi" (e.g. because they are quite a bit older than you and you want to be respectful), then you would ask _Beth yw eich oed chi? _

The question is exactly the same in both northern and southern dialects. 

To reply, in the north you would begin with _Dwi'n _but in the south that isn't the case. To sound like a southerner, you could say one of the following:

_Rwy'n ugain _- I'm twenty (this is neither formal nor informal)
_Fi'n ugain_ - I'm twenty (using "fi" like this is really informal and technically it's grammatically incorrect, but lots of people say it)

You could also say _Rwy'n ugain mlwydd oed. _This means "I'm twenty years old". Although it's correct, not many people would bother to add the "mlwydd oed" at the end. Like in English, if someone asks _What age are you? _you're more likely to say _I'm twenty _than _I'm twenty years old. _

There was a thread about age and numbers a while back, but it might be too complicated for you right now. I'll give you the link anyway in case you find it useful  Welsh: numerals

If you want a useful website for beginners, check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learning/learnwelsh/

Pob lwc!


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## Gavril

Tegs said:


> The question is exactly the same in both northern and southern dialects.



So, both northern and southern speakers would say _Beth/faint yw dy oed_? I thought that the difference between _ydy_ and _yw_ more or less corresponded to the north/south divide.


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## Tegs

Good point, I forgot about that. Northerners would use ydi/ydy, although in conversation they tend to shorten it to _Be di _dy oed di?


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## Stoggler

And the Southern formal _Beth yw eich oed (chi)? _would often be contracted to _Beth yw'ch oed (chi)?_


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