How to Count in Welsh [Every Number With Phonetic Pronunciation]

Welsh is the local language spoken in Wales. Only 15.7% of people speak Welsh daily, however, it is still taught to all pupils in school with the numbers one of the first things we learn.

The old way of counting in Welsh used a vigesimal counting system (similar to French), which can be very intimidating as it uses multiples of twenty in some cases! For example, you might be charged “nine pennies on four twenties”, instead of "ninety-nine pence".

Luckily, most younger welsh speakers use a decimal system which is more similar to English, using multiples of ten instead.

In this guide, I'll share both the old and new way of counting in Welsh along with some helpful pronunciation tips. We'll also look at fractions, ages, and ordinal numbers (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).

How to Count in Welsh

Below is a table showing you some common numbers along with how to pronounce them.

You may note that some numbers in the table have two possible words – the first ones are vigesimal while the second are decimal. Vigesimal is an old way of counting but is still used for the time, ages, or days of the month. Decimal is used for everything else. I'll share more on the two systems later in this article.

Number	Welsh Word	Phonetic approximation
1	Un	Een / ihn
2	Dau	Die
3	Tri	tree
4	Pedwar	Ped-ooar
5	Pump	Pimp
6	Chwech	Choo-ech
7	Saith	Sithe
8	Wyth	oo-ith
9	Naw	Nah-ooh
10	Deg	Dehg
11	Un ar ddeg / un deg un	Een ar thehg / een deg een
12	Deuddeg / un deg dau	Dei-theg / een deg die
13	Tri ar ddeg / un deg tri	Tree ar thehg / een deg tree
14	Pedwar ar ddeg / un deg pedwar	Ped-ooar ar thehg / een deg ped-ooar
15	Pymtheg / un deg pump	Pum-theg / een deg pimp
16	Un ar bymtheg / un deg chwech	Een ar bum-theg / een deg choo-ech
17	Dau ar bymtheg / un deg saith	Die ar bum-theg / een deg sithe
18	Deunaw / un deg wyth	Day-now / een de oo-ith
19	Pedwar ar bymtheg / un deg naw	Ped-ooar ar bum-theg / een deg nah-ooh
20	Ugain / dau ddeg	Ig-ine / die thehg
21	Un ar hugain / dau ddeg un	Eeh ar hig-ine / die theg een
22	Dau ar hugain / dau ddeg dau	Die ar hig-ine / die theg die
23	Tri ar hugain / dau ddeg tri	Tree ar hig-ine / die theg tree
24	Pedwar ar hugain / dau ddeg pedwar	Ped-ooar ar hig-ine / die theg ped-ooar
25	Pump ar hugain / dau ddeg pump	Pimp ar hig-ine / die theg pimp
26	Chwech ar hugain / dau ddeg chwech	Choo-ech ar hig-ine / die theg choo-ech
27	Saith ar hugain / dau ddeg saith	Sithe ar hig-ine / die theg sithe
28	Wyth ar hugain / dau ddeg wyth	oo-ith ar hig-ine / die the oo-ith
29	Naw ar hugain / dau ddeg naw	Nah-oo ar hig-ine / die theg nah-oo
30	Deg ar hugain / Tri deg	Dehg ar hig-ine / Tree dehg
40	Deugain / Pedwar deg	Day-guy-n / Ped-ooar dehg
50	Hanner cant / pum deg	Han-ar kant / pim dehg
60	Trigain / Chwe deg	Tree guy-n / Choo-eh dehg
70	Deg a thrigan / Saith deg	Dehg ah thrig-ine / Sithe dehg
80	Pedwar ugain / Wyth deg	Ped-ooar ig-ine / oo-ith dehg
90	Deg a phedwar ugain / Naw deg	Dehg ah fed-ooar ig-ine / Na-ooh dehg
100	Cant	Kant
200	Dau gant	Die gant
300	Tri chant	Tree chant
400	Pedwar cant	Ped-ooar kant
500	Pum cant	Pim kant
600	Chwe chant	Choo-eh chant
700	Saith cant	Sithe kant
800	Wyth cant	oo-ith kant
900	Naw cant	Nah-ooh kant
1000	Mil	Meal
10, 000	Deng mil	Deh-ng meal
100, 000	Can mil	Kan meal
1 million	Miliwn	Milly-oon
1 billion	Biliwn	Billy-oon

Pronunciation Tip: Where a “h” is written after a vowel, e.g. dehg, this indicates that the vowel is drawn out – for example, the “ai” in “fair” rather than the “e” in “egg”. “Ch” is also used in the phonetic guide for the Welsh “ch”, similar to the sound in the word “loch”.

Rules for Counting in Welsh

There are two ways to count something in Welsh, and that is either:

Number + singular noun; or
Number + o + plural noun (with soft mutation).

For example, to say “three cats”, you could say:

Tri cath; or
Tri o gathod.

Note that “cathod”, the plural form of “cath” (cat), has mutated to “gathod” because of the soft mutation. For this reason, you may want to start off with the simple rule of using the singular noun after the number.

The number two (dau) also causes a soft mutation, for example :

dau fachgen (two boys, from “bachgen”)
dau gi (two dogs, from “ci”)

Some numbers also change a little before a noun, losing their last letter – specifically, pump (5), chwech (6) and cant (100), e.g.

Pum peth (five things)
Chwe bachgen (six boys)
Can punt (a hundred pounds)

Feminine nouns adopt the soft mutation after “un” (1) and masculine nouns adopt the aspirate mutation after “tri” (3) - although this is not quite as common in everyday speech – while all nouns undergo an aspirate mutation after “chwech”:

Un dyn (one man) but un ferch (one woman, from “merch”)
Tri char (three cars, from “car”)
Chwe phunt (six pounds)

Masculine and Feminine Numbers

The numbers two, three and four have feminine versions which are used only when all things being counted are feminine. They are:

Dwy (two) – doo-ih
Tair (three) – tire
Pedair (four) – ped-ire

Like “dau”, “dwy” also causes the soft mutation: dwy ferch (two women).

These days, many young people are not really aware of which nouns are masculine and which are feminine, meaning that it won’t be a big deal if you mix up your “dau” and “dwy” – the most important time to keep it in mind is when referring to a group of girls or women.

The currency, the British pound, is also feminine – meaning you would pay tair punt, not tri phunt.

Ages in Welsh

The easiest way to say someone’s age in Welsh is to use the number followed by “oed”. The number is always given in the feminine, despite the gender of the person we’re talking about. For example:

Mae o’n ddwy oed heddiw – He’s two years old today.
Dwi’n bedair ugain oed – I’m eighty years old.

Optionally, you can also add the word “blwydd” (short for “blwyddyn”, or “year”) between the number and the word “oed”. Please note the way that it mutates:

Blwydd oed	One year old
Dwy flwydd oed	Two years old
Tair blwydd oed	Three years old
Pedair blwydd oed	Four years old
Pum mlwydd oed	Five years old
Chwe blwydd oed	Six years old
Saith mlwydd oed	Seven years old
Wyth mlwydd oed	Eight years old
Naw mlwydd oed	Nine years old
Deng mlwydd oed	Ten years old

After that, you can generally stick to “mlwydd” – although it’s altogether easier to avoid this word and just say number + “oed”.

Fractions in Welsh

Here are a few of the common fractions in Welsh and how to say them:

Fraction	Welsh translation	Pronunciation
½	Hanner	Han-ar
¼	Chwarter	Choo-ar-tar
¾	Tri chwarter	Tree choo-ar-tar
1/3	Treuan	Treh-i-an
1/8	Wythfed	Oo-ith-ved
1/10	Degfed	Deg-ved
1/6	Chweched	Choo-ech-ed

Decimal vs Vigesimal Numbers in Welsh

After the number 10, there are two counting systems in Welsh – the older one, based on multiples of 20 (the vigesimal system), and a newer – and easier – decimal system.

While people generally use the decimal system, and it is the primary one taught in schools, the vigesimal system is still in common use when telling the time, talking about ages, or when discussing days of the month. It is good to be aware of both systems, although I would recommend learning the decimal system first!

Here are some examples of the vigesimal system in action, which you will have seen easier in the table:

Number	Decimal version	Vigesimal version	Vigesimal meaning
18	Un deg wyth	Deunaw	Two nines
70	Saith deg	Deg a thrigain	Ten and three twenties
19	Un deg naw	Pedwar ar bymtheg	Four on fifteen
50	Pum deg	Hanner cant	Half a hundred

So, as you can see, you need to be quite good at maths to use the vigesimal system! I would suggest learning the vigesimal numbers up to 31, at least, so that you can understand when somebody tells you the time or date, for example:

Ugain munud wedi chwech = twenty past six
Y pumed ar hugain o fis Mai = the 25^th of May

Scroll back up to the table of numbers and see if you can work out what the other numbers mean!

The decimal system is much easier to understand, as basically once you know the numbers from 1 to 10 you can work out every other number. It basically works like this:

11 = un deg un (literally: one ten one)
22 = dau ddeg dau (literally: two ten two)
33 = tri deg tri (literally: three ten three)
44 = pedwar deg pedwar (literally: four ten four)

Aside from the fact that “deg” is mutated to “ddeg” (because it follows a two, remember?), you can see that we are basically just sliding the word “deg” between the two numbers that we’re using.

Ordinal Numbers in Welsh

As you may have noticed in the earlier example of a date – y pumed ar hugain – it is not simply enough to know the numbers to be able to say what date it is!

Ordinal numbers are used when we rank something – for example: first, second, twenty fifth. The following table will help you gain a clearer idea of how to list things in Welsh. Note that the vigesimal is used for ordinal numbers:

Number	Ordinal Figure	Ordinal Number	Pronunciation
1^st	1af	Cyntaf	Kun-tav
2^nd	2il	Ail	Aisle (eye-l)
3^rd	3ydd	Trydydd	Truh-dith
4^th	4ydd	Pedwerydd	Ped-wer-ith
5^th	5ed	Pumed	Pim-ed
6^th	6ed	Chweched	Choo-ech-ed
7^th	7fed	Seithfed	Say-th-ved
8^th	8fed	Wythfed	oo-ith-ved
9^th	9fed	Nawfed	Na-ooh-ved
10^th	10fed	Degfed	Deg-ved
11^th	11eg	Unfed ar ddeg	In-ved ar thehg
12^th	12eg	Deuddegfed	Day-theg-ved
13^th	13eg	Trydydd ar ddeg	Truh-dith ar thehg
14^th	14eg	Pedwerydd ar ddeg	Ped-wer-ith ar thehg
15^th	15fed	Pymthegfed	Pum-theg-ved
16^th	16eg	Unfed ar bymtheg	In-ved ar bum-theg
17^th	17eg	Ail ar bymtheg	Aisle ar bum-theg
18^th	18fed	Deunawfed	Day-now-ved
19^th	19eg	Pedwerydd ar bymtheg	Ped-wer-ith ar bum-theg
20^th	20fed	Ugeinfed	Ih-gain-ved
21^st	21ain	Unfed ar hugain	In-ved ar hig-ine
22^nd	22ain	Ail ar hugain	Aisle ar hig-ine
30^th	30fed	Degfen ar hugain	Deg-ved ar hig-ine
31^st	31ain	Unfed ar ddeg ar hugain	In-ved ar thehg ar hig-ine
Last		Olaf	Olav

Hopefully, this will give you some idea of how to use numbers and counting in Welsh - but as I said, don't worry too much, because many people these days use the English numbers and you will be heartily forgiven for mixing up your vigesimal system!

What is Zero in Welsh?

Zero in Welsh is “Dim”, although pronounced more like “deem” without the elongated vowel sound, not as in the word ‘dim’ in English. You can also use “sero” (zero).