About the Arddulliadur

The Arddulliadur was developed to provide advice and guidance to those translating general texts, and helps to ensure consistency across the Government’s work. Translators working on behalf of the Welsh Government are asked to follow the guidance given here.

The advice may also be useful for other translators and indeed for anyone who drafts Welsh-language texts.

The articles in the Arddulliadur are grouped under three sections. Below is a short explanation of what is included in each section. Of course, there will be some overlap, and some articles appear under more than one heading.

Correct Welsh

These are mainly points of grammar and orthography. The main reference materials used in deciding on the advice to give are Gramadeg y Gymraeg (1996) Peter Wynn Thomas, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru and Orgraff yr Iaith Gymraeg (1987).

Consistency of style

These are matters that may be dealt with in several, equally valid, ways. This section specifies what we wish translators to use when translating material for the Welsh Government, in order to ensure consistency of style throughout our work. 

Advice on good translation

In this section, we give advice on issues that could be problematic or difficult to translate.

You can browse the Arddulliadur alphabetically or by section, or search it for specific words. You will find more information about searching the Arddulliadur in the link on the right, How to search the Arddulliadur.