Words! These are the bricks that build a language, did you know that the Welsh Academy English-Welsh Dictionary has just over 1,700 pages – and that just goes from English to Welsh! How on earth are you going to learn all of those words? Well, you don’t have to learn them all and it doesn’t need to be a burden. Even a child can learn a language and if you remember,
you did! And didn’t you do well!

The trick is to use it as often as you can and take enjoyment while using it. Reading is the most effective way to build your vocabulary and if you read regularly your brain absorbs a few new words every day. You won’t know it because the brain does all this in the background and stores them somewhere pdeep inside your head.
It’s rather clever and it’s totally natural.

These articles have been contributed to The Wennol by learners like yourselves and this first section is for beginners. There will be words that are unfamiliar but don’t let them slow you down. Read the first story to yourself so as to warm up your brain and switch it on to Welsh language mode. Read it from beginning to end without looking anything up in the dictionary, in fact try hard not to use a dictionary at all. You didn’t use a dictionary when you first started your first language did you? You don’t have to fully understand everything, just be happy
getting the gist.

Work on two stories at a time – read the first and sit back and think about it, after a little while read it again and you will find that the second time is easier. If you’re not too tired read the second story in the same way. Leave it all for a while and then read both, one after the other.
Soon you will realise that your brain will guess a meaning because of its context.

Best of luck!