You don't have to know how to say the alphabet in Welsh. It's more important to know how the letters are pronounced. One thing, to remember - Welsh pronunciation is very consistent, so once you've learnt how these letters sound, they will nearly always be pronounced in the same way. Never mind what these words mean for now, they're just for practice. Click on any letter to listen to the pronunciation.

a - mam, tad - Vowels can be long or short. It's short in 'mam' but long in 'tad'.

b - mab

c - cam - Always hard as in the English 'could', never as in the English 'cerise'.

ch - chi - This is a gargling sound, like the Scottish 'loch' or the German 'Aachen'.

d - da

dd - dda - Just like the 'th' sound in 'the' and 'heather'.

e - de, del - Vowels can be long or short . It's long in 'de' but short in 'del'

f - saf - Just like v in very, never like the 'f' in 'fun'.

ff - saff - Said as the 'ff' in 'fun', or 'different'.

g - gan - Always a hard 'g', as in 'gone', never as in 'general'.

ng - ing - As in 'sing'.

h - hon - A 'h' is never silent.

i - ci - Can be short as in 'sink' or long like the English 'ee' in 'meek'. but never as in slime

j - garej -

l - lan -

ll - llan - You often see place names beginning with this. Prepare to say l, then blow really hard making a sound like a dentist's suction pipe, but blowing out!

m - mam -

n - ni -

o - to, toc - Vowels can be long or short. It's long in 'to' but short in 'toc'

p - pen -

ph - phen - As in physics.

r - car - Rolled much more than in English, and never a silent 'r' - think of lawn mowers and old-fashioned phones.

rh - rhif - a more breathy 'r', without the voice.

s - saff

t - ti

th - beth - As in 'things', not as in 'heather'.

u - du, pump - It's long in 'du' but short in 'pump'. When it's short, it sounds like the English 'i' in the word 'pimp' but when it's longer there is a noticeable difference. Compare the English 'ee' in the name of the river Dee with this word 'du'. However you say this 'u' don't get caught out by saying 'w'.

w - pwl, sŵn - This is a vowel and can be short as in 'pwl' (like English 'pull') or long as in swn (like English 'soon')

y - dyn, tyn - This is also a vowel and can be long or short: 'dyn' is long as in the English Dean and 'tyn' is short as in the English 'tin'. In North Wales it's pronounced 'y' But also, y can be an 'uh' or a 'schwa' sound, especially in short common words like 'y', 'yr', 'yn' and when the 'y' is not in the last syllable of the word. 'Cymru' 'ysbyty'