You can have a look on Quizlet or Memrise - I’m sure people have created vocab lists with Welsh words there. But I agree with @mikeellwood, reading is a great way to learn new vocabulary. You can start with the BBC Cymru Fyw website, that has the vocab tool which will translate every word for you. It has relatively short articles.
Back now, with more time. What I like about Nofelau Nawr:
Relatively short
Has a vocabulary list on most pages
Gives you difficult words but leaves you to work out the easier ones
Interesting stories
If you are a Northern learner,you will probably like the Blodwen Jones trilogy.
But there are at least 2 others written in the southern idiom. One is . .“Beth Nesaf?”
Another is Gwendolin Parry PI" (I think)
Pity the series is not longer.
Advantage of reading stories over vocab lists:
More fun
You tend to experience the words in context, i.e. how they are actually used.
1 Like
The bit i would add, is get a book/s on subject/s you find interesting, that is don’t get a geology book if you are not interested in rocks. (each time i go to Wales, looking in second hand book shops is great fun, i have not found a geology book yet).
Cheers J.P.
2 Likes
The “Blodwen Jones” trilogy is very much recommended and pushed for learners in classes in this, more Southerly part of Wales- being in Welsh and all that 
I know a lot of people who liked them very much, and found them at a good level for learners, well written, funny and interesting.
They are not my cup of tea, but that means nothing- and is to do with the content and story, not the writing or vocabulary or dialect. A lot of learners down 'ere love them. 
1 Like
Syniadau gwych pobl - diolch!
Some great suggestions there folks thanks, much appreciated. I like the idea of reading - can see now how be better to get the words in context, occuring in a particular scenario i.e. a story. As you say, am likely to learn more than just learning vocabulary in list form.
Diolch 
Simeon
Learning vocabulary in a list form is the same as doing grammar exercises where you have to open the brackets - it trains your memory (or your bracket-opening skills) but doesn’t really help speaking, because our minds fail to see the context where the new words can be used, and so, when a possibility occurs in speech to use the words, it can’t naturally remember them… I raised a similar topic here some time ago, and people kindly wrote many wonderful suggestions.
Do, by all means, but have I missed something? Have you tried watching S4C? Where do you live? @tatjana will tell you how to get it in most parts of the world. Personally, I recommend starting with children’s programmes. You can probably get subtitles in English or Welsh to help. Then look for subjects of interest. Iolo Williams is good for “What’s outside”, there is quite a lot of hanes (history) as well as Y Gwyll for detectives, Byw Celwydd for political fiction and Pobl y Cwm and Rownd a Rownd for soap opera!!
Diolch Henddraig - I am a watcher of S4c, but have got a tendancy to be a bit lazy and put the English subtitles on though…to ensure I am following what is going on! I haven’t thought of subtiltes in Cymraeg, so will try to get them switched on.
I am keen to experiment with the reading route: have people found the learning experience through reading a story a more intensive way of learning? I just wonder as having only the written word as the ‘portal’ to the Cymraeg, and the need to then imagine the situation to associate with the language just read could be quite effective.
Anyway - I will have a dabble with both and keep informed.
Diolch!
As far as I know on the net you’re not particularly able to choose the subtiles but have to go with what you get - with or without them.
http://www.s4c.cymru/en/international/ - here’s everything available internationally on S4C, for all those who forgot or didn’t notice the link elswhere. .
Well, I had tried reading “real books” in Welsh and found them simply too hard. What I liked about the “Nofelau Nawr” series was that they were very approachable (at least for someone who has done a fair bit of SSiW). They are less than 100 pages, so seem like a much less steep hill to climb. And there is a vocabulary key at the bottom of each page (or most pages). You don’t have to use it, but it’s there, and saves a lot of dictionary look-up. But you will probably find that not every “difficult” word on the page is given, and you will have the chance to work it out for yourself, or guess it, or look it up if you want to.
After I had read about half a dozen "Nofelau Nawr"s, I then had a bit more confidence to try reading “real books” again (i.e. books not specifically written for learners). It was still a very slow progress, but I kept at it, and it slowly got a bit easier. I’m not saying it’s “easy” now, and I still have to look up a lot of words (or just guess them, or skip them and keep going). But I seem to be able to “get though” books now, eventually. By “books” I mean usually things written in a modern colloquial style usually with lots of dialogue. (I haven’t tried what you might call proper literature yet. ).
Another series that people recommend is the “Stori Sydyn” series, but I don’t have much experience with those. The only ones I could find were non-fiction which wasn’t really what I was looking for, and I didn’t much like the subject matter.
Anyway, I haver found that by reading I do seem to pick up a lot of words, and even if I don’t necessarily remember their meaning, I often find that a word I picked up reading one day will come up on Radio Cymru or S4C another day, and just noticing it feels like progress. If I can remember the meaning as well, I feel I’m getting somewhere. Welsh being a relatively phonetic language helps.
2 Likes
Well, I have to correct myself about this one as I found out that S4C on the net has subtitles option too, but I think only English ones are available.
It depends on the program. Most shows only have English subtitles, but “Rownd a Rownd” has both Welsh and English.
1 Like
Well, I’ve watched “Cymoedd Roy Noble” yesterday and I’ve choosen to do so without subtitles. I somehow feel I’ve decided well. Actually whatever I once watched I did it without subtitles and mostly I found myself I understand at least the gist of it perfectly. Maybe it’s easier to watch something that way because you don’t burden yourself with what did they say but just go with the flow.
The documentary was about Welsh Whiskey, Welsh school and Opera and at the end about sad story about the Aberfan disaster in 1966 when their youth school was literally burried into the mud and water slide. …
I remember I once watched the documentary about Jonathan Davies (senior if I may say so) - the rugby player who is now comentator of rugby games on BBC very often and I say for him he’s my third eye because he explains everything so clearly and fine with so much passion and enthusiasm. The documentary was after one Welsh rugby match and if you leave stream flowing further it doesn’t stop when the match is over but broadcast further program so I had a chance to practically watch this broadcast live as it happened. I wish I’d be able to watch this documentary again. I bet I’d understand more now and it would be great to compare my ability to understand from that time and now.
4 Likes
I will probably never be so angry again as I was in '66 when an English.er…person at work made a sick joke about Aberfan!! 
No one should ever make any joke about this. So many young lives were lost … In the documentary a man was reciting a poem. Didn’t understand it in whole but enough to cry … Might search for it on the net when I feel ready for it to read it once … not out of language knowledge but out of … eh … never mind. 
I watched that episode on Friday - but with subtitles, I would not have understood enough without them. I was just about crying during the part about the Aberfan disaster.
On the subject of comparing ability over time: Last week I listened to a Beti a Phobol podcast (downloaded from the Radio Cymru site) that I had first listened to about 6 months ago. This particular one was an interview with Lowri Morgan, and I enjoyed it because I found her to speak quite clearly, and she seems to have a more southern dialect. I was surprised at how much more I could pick out (which isn’t nearly enough to follow the whole thing, but I can get the gist of small sections of it now). So you might like to try something like that - you can’t save a documentary to listen to again later, but you can save something like a podcast.
1 Like
Yes I agree but actually it isn’t about comparing that I want to see that documentary about Jonathan Davies once again but more about seing it. He’s kind of special rugby person to me and since I’ve seen that documentary I hold him even more special. The documentary was partly subtitled although almost entirely spoken in Cymraeg so I could understand the whole thing much better but since I don’t read so quick I just have to relay on my understanding abilities much more then on my reading ones …
Even without subtitles it was a lot of tears in my eyes. That poem … the man almost cried while interviewed …
1 Like
I agree about the ‘real books’ comment. I tried reading quite early on, but found it very frustrating as there are some grammatical forms that aren’t used in speech - only in writing. So I kept coming across lots of verbs I couldn’t process, and it was tying me up in knots. The specialist beginners’ readers stick to the spoken forms, which is great for confidence and for building vocabulary.
Later on, I learnt the written forms too (not too complicated, really) and then I was off with ‘proper’ books, newspapers etc.
Another great resource for learners is ‘Lingo Newydd’, a monthly magazine. It has different sets of writing about the same subject colour coded for different language levels, with useful vocabulary lists. If you can’t find a stockist locally you can order it online.
1 Like
Ohh … and you wouldn’t provide a link for us “lazy ones” - hehe?
I think you’ll find that I was was the one being lazy here, not going to look it up in the first place
2 Likes