The Welsh Verbal Noun

Abstract

The verbal noun in the modern, currently spoken p-Celtic language Welsh is of a different nature than any other word class known in Standard Average European Languages (SAEs), to which the Insular Celtic tongues do not belong. This subject has occasionally attracted attention. Welsh language grammars clearly identify a berfenw ‘verb noun’, which Thomas (1996, p. 28) calls a citation form with no specific person or time allocation. However, non-Welsh descriptions of the verbal noun tend to trigger confusion by allocating varied SAE terms to it, like ‘verb noun infinitives’ (Myhill, 1985), ‘verbal noun infinitives’ (Carnie & Guilfoyle, 2000, p. 10), ‘infinitives’ (Borsley et al., 2007, p. 70), and ‘non-finite verb(al) forms’ (Sackmann, 2022, p. 2), most of them belittling the prominent nominal functions of this word class. Coming from a historical perspective, Scherschel et al. (2018) call the Welsh verbal noun an ‘event noun’, which seems more appropriate, as is shown in this paper, in which a detailed analysis of the major features of this Welsh word class is carried out.

1. Introduction

The verbal noun in the modern, currently spoken p-Celtic language Welsh is of a different nature than any other word class known in Standard Average European Languages (SAEs), to which the Insular Celtic tongues do not belong. This subject has occasionally attracted attention. However, all in all, it has not been researched1 fully, so it is not yet well understood. Those who speak the language know how to use it, and those who specialize in linguistic descriptions often tend to compare it with the English ‘Gerund’, the German ‘substantiviertes Verb’,2 or with ‘the Irish verbal noun’. Welsh language grammars clearly include a berfenw ‘verb noun’, which Thomas (1996, p. 28) calls a citation form with no specific allocation of person or time. However, due to the lack a of systematic description thereof,3 non-Welsh descriptions tend to trigger confusion by allocating varied SAE terms to it, like ‘verb noun infinitives’ (Myhill, 1985), ‘verbal noun infinitives’ (Carnie & Guilfoyle, 2000, p. 10), ‘infinitives’ (Borsley et al., 2007, p. 70), and ‘non-finite verb(al) forms’ (Sackmann, 2022, p. 2). All of these suggest ignorance of the prominent nominal functions of this word class. This is rather obvious in Borsley et al. (2007), who refer to the ‘verb stem’ when writing about the formation of the verbal noun, indicating their preference for its interpretation as a verb rather than using the term ‘root morpheme’ in order to allow for a more open approach and to perhaps consider other interpretations or classifications. Awbery’s4 analysis within their transformational study is also problematic in this context; they do not mention the term verbal noun at all, but simply refer to ‘uninflected verbs’ (Awbery, 1976/2009, p. 38f.). Coming from a historical perspective, Scherschel et al. (2018) call the Welsh verbal noun an ‘event noun’,5 which seems more appropriate, as is shown in this paper.

Indeed, whereas some scholars see this word class more in the field of nominals, e.g., Gagnepain (1963) on the basis of Irish, others—even when noticing their ‘wider range of nominal features than might be expected’ (Russell, 2015, p. 1230)—opt for the interpretation as a non-finite verb form, i.e., the interpretation of the verbal noun as a verb form. This debate is further complicated when comparing the Welsh and Irish verbal nouns. Although both these languages belong to the Insular Celtic branch, there are differences between the verbal noun in q-Celtic Irish and the one in Welsh.6 As a result, a detailed look at the major features of this Welsh word class is advocated7 using an eclectic structural–functional approach.

2. Formation of the Welsh Verbal Noun

Contrary to the English ‘Gerund’ (or the Irish verbal noun), no specific suffix for the formation of a Welsh verbal noun is needed. It may form the stem and the base form of a verb, e.g., agor ‘to/the8 open(ing)’ or disgwyl ‘to/the expect(ting)’. Here, Borsley et al. (2007, p. 70) also offer ennill ‘to/the win(ning)’, but this has a different stem, i.e., enill (D.G. Lewis 195: 122, Quizlet (2025) https://quizlet.com/679735376/bon-y-ferf-uwch-uned-1-flash-cards/ (accessed on 31 January 2025)). Some similar cases are dod ‘to/the come/coming’, dal ‘to/the catch(ing)’, and aros ‘to/the wait(ting)’. The verb stems, i.e., deuaf, dali-, and arhos-, are clearly different from the verbal noun (see also S. J. Williams, 1980, p. 139ff.), and some verbal nouns must not be inflected at all (see below), i.e., they neither form a verb stem nor any other potential base form of a verb.

Other verbal nouns are derived from nouns or adjectives by a number of suffixes. Some popular ones are -u, -i, -o, and -io, e.g., ysgrifennu ‘to/the write/writing’, poeni ‘to/the worry(ing)’, bwydo ‘to/the eat(ing)’, and disgrifio ‘to/the describe/describing’ (for more, see Thomas, 2006, pp. 468–574).9 However, none of these suffixes forms part of the abstract noun formations as is the rule for Irish verbal nouns (see Bloch-Trojnar, 2006, 2008, and her recent terminology ‘action nominal’ in Bloch-Trojnar, 2020). Here, the base form of a verb is the imperative and this is the reason why, for Irish, the use of the term ‘infinitive’ is also inappropriate.

Whatever the nature of the verbal noun suffix in the two languages, contrary to the English ‘Gerund’ and the German ‘substantiviertes Verb’, the Irish and certainly the Welsh verbal nouns have a morphological link to the verb (Ronan, 2006, p. 20) and tend to form part of their paradigm,10 although some Welsh verbal nouns (VN in the linguistic glossing), e.g., byw ‘to/the live/living, marw ‘to/the die/dying’, and cyd-fynd ‘to/the go(ing) together’, must not be inflected at all. These can only be used in periphrastic constructions, or act as a direct object, as seen in the following examples:

Mae	Llinos	yn	byw		yn	Llanelli.
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.[name]	ASP.PTCL.11	VN.live/living		PREP.in	[name]
It is	Llinos	in	living		in	Llanelli
Idiomatic English: Llinos lives/is living in Llanelli (for further uses of this verbal noun, see feature (I) below).

Bu		farw		Llŷr.
3PSg.PT.to be		VN.die/dying		[name]
It was		(the) dying		(of) Llŷr
Idiomatic English: Llŷr died (for detailed explanations of this construction, see feature (C) below).

When used as a noun, the Welsh verbal noun is normally masculine. Its nominal character is also stressed by Schumacher (2000, p. 18) when stating that “nouns can also be considered verbal nouns if they display certain behavioral traits at the syntactic level”. This statement indicates a largely syntactically based definition of the Welsh verbal noun and advocates for a deeper look into the major syntactic embeddings in which it prominently occurs and performs its various functions.

3. The Syntax of the Welsh Verbal Noun

The following paragraphs show the syntactic interplay of the Welsh verbal noun, starting with its complementation:

(A) 

Contrary to the finite verb, the Welsh verbal noun takes a genitive object as its complement (also see the embeddings given below):

Mae

Gwawr

yn

darllen

llyfr.

As the marking of the genitive is weak in Welsh, the same example is given in Irish to display this construction clearly (translation thereunder):

Tá	Fiachra	ag	léamh	leabhair.
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.	ASP.PTCL.CONT.	VN.12 read(ing)	GEN[i].book
It is	[name]	in	(the) reading	of a book
Idiomatic English: Gwawr/Fiachra is reading a book.

As a consequence, it can also form part of a genitive construction, e.g., yng nghanu’r oes ‘in the singing of the era’

(B) 

Contrary to the finite verb, the Welsh verbal noun can only be regularly fronted in emphatic sentences (but see feature (R) below) because Welsh follows Insular Celtic VSO, which is characterized by commencing an unmarked simple transitive sentence (basic word order) with the finite verb in the third Person Singular13, as is seen in the example below:

Danfonodd	Llywelyn a Gwawr	lythyr.	V-S-dirO
3PSg.PT.sent	SUBJ.[names]	ICM.14 dir.OBJ.letter
Sent	Llywelyn and Gwawr a letter
Idiomatic English: Llywelyn and Gwawr sent a letter.

Such a sentence is regularly negated by a negation particle + initial consonant mutation (ICM):

Ni	ddanfonodd	Llywelyn a Gwawr	lythyr.
Neg.PTCL.	ICM.3PSg.PT.sent	SUBJ.[names]	dir.OBJ.letter
Not	sent	Llywelyn and Gwawr a letter
Idiomatic English: Llywelyn and Gwawr did not send a(ny) letter.

Being in an emphatic position when sentence-initial, the Welsh verbal noun requires relative clause complementation. According to the sentence constituent that the verbal noun represents, the relative subclause starts with either the relative marker a or y (or simply ICM marking in oral communication), followed—as required by Insular Celtic VSO—by the finite verb (see Vogt & Asmus, 2024). The following two sample sentences are extended by a prepositional phrase and an adverb:

Danfon llythyr at fy mrawd a wnaeth Llywelyn a Gwawr ddoe.
Danfon	llythyr	at fy mrawd
VN.send(ing)	GEN.OBJ.letter	PREP.phrase.to my brother
Send(ing)	(of) a letter	to my brother
a	wnaeth	Llywelyn a Gwawr	ddoe
rel.PTCL.	ICM.3PSg.PT.did	SUBJ.[names]	ICM.ADV.yesterday
that	did	Llywelyn and Gwawr	yesterday
Idiomatic English: Sending a letter to my brother that did Llywelyn and Gwawr yesterday.

Here, emphasis of the whole, general action is expressed by the verbal noun, signified itself as an emphasized and complemented direct object that is subsequently specified for number and tense by a VSO subclause introduced by the relative marker a + ICM.15 This is different in the following sentence, which also starts with a verbal noun:

Danfon	llythyr	at fy mrawd	y	bu	Llywelyn a Gwawr	ddoe.
VN.send(ing)	GEN.OBJ.	PREP.phrase	rel.PTCL.	3PSg.PT.	SUBJ.	ICM.ADV.
Send(ing)	(of) a letter	to my brother that		was	[name]	yesterday
Idiomatic English: It was a letter to my brother that Llywelyn and Gwawr sent/were sending16 yesterday.

Here, the emphasis is on the genitive object of the verbal noun, i.e., on its regular complementation. Number and tense are, consequently, allocated by the following relative subclause introduced by the relative particle y.

(C) 

The Welsh verbal noun can itself serve as a direct object in a transitive Welsh sentence, indicated by ICM, as is seen in the following:

Hoffiaf	glywed	yr	adar.
1PSg.17like	ICM.VN.hear(ing)	ART.the	GEN.OBJ.birds
I like	(a) hear(ing)	(of) the	birds
Idiomatic English: I like listening to the birds.

The non-emphatic do-periphrasis, used more often in the North of Wales,18 could also be explained as a direct object, as is seen in the example below:

Mi19	wnes	i	ddarllen.
Aff.PTCL.	ICM.1PSg.PT.did	1PSg.post.PRON.I	ICM.VN.read(ing)
	did	I	reading
Idiomatic English: I did read/I read.

(D) 

The Welsh verbal noun can itself serve as a subject and as such take (E) adjectives like a noun:

Y20	mae	canu	gwael	yn	parhau.
Aff.PTCL.	3PSg.to be	VN.sing(ing)	ADJ.poor	ASP.PTCL.CONT.	VN.continue
	it is	sing(ing)	poor	in	con tinue(ing)
Idiomatic English: Poor singing continues.
Nid	siarad	gwag	yw	hwn	ond	dyfyniad	go iawn.
Neg.PTCL.	VN.talk(ing)	ADJ.empty	3PSg.to be	PRON.	CONJ.	NOUN.	ADV. ADV
Not	talk(ing)	empty	is	this	but	quote	quite well
Idiomatic English: This is not empty talk, but a real quote.

(F) 

The Welsh verbal noun may form genitive attributes also to express modality, which is predominantly formed syntactically in Insular Celtic, in particular in Welsh (also see the chapter Further Issues below):

ystafell fwyta (<- bwyta)	-	room of eating
Y mae	modd	cynnal	nifer y swyddi.
Aff.PTCL.	NOUN.mode	GEN.VN.maintain (ing)	NOUN.number ART.the NOUN.jobs
it is	way/mode	of maintaining	number of the jobs
Idiomatic English: The number of jobs can be maintained (Proceedings of the National Assembly for Wales (2007–2010)).

(G) 

The Welsh verbal noun may take determiners, e.g., articles and pronouns (pre-positioned or post-positioned or both forming a frame construction for reasons of emphasis; see Asmus, 2016). The use of pre- and post-positioned pronouns in the following sample clauses displays their emphatic use:

Nid	wyf	yn	deall	ei	siarad	(ef).
Neg.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ASP.PTCL.CONT.	VN.understand(ing)	pre.PRON.3PSg.	VN.talk(ing)	post.PRON.
Not	I am	in	understand(ing)	(of) GEN.his	speak/talk(ing)	GEN.his
Idiomatic English: I don’t understand his (!) talk(ing).

(H) 

The Welsh verbal noun may be preceded by an adverb that is used as an adjective in emphatic VSO position (hence its lenition; see S. J. Williams, 1980, p. 148):

cyflym

gerdded (<- cerdded)

-

fast run(ning)

(I) 

This adverb verbal noun phrase may itself be used as an adjective (for adjectives proper, see feature (E)), but in the regular VSO position (see S. J. Williams, 1980, p. 149):

dyn cyflym-gerdded (<- cerdded)

-

fast running man

The following examples illustrate how the verbal noun may form an adjective proper and a genitive attribute (see also feature (F) above), both distinguished by ICM only:

Iaith	Fyw	Iaith	Byw
FEM.language	ICM.VN.live/living	FEM.language	(of)VN.live/living
Idiomatic English: A living language, a life’s language; the name of the language strategy of 2010,21 (Language Strategy Iaith Fyw Iaith Byw, 2010) normally referred to as ‘A Living Language: A Language for Living’.

(J) 

The Welsh verbal noun cannot be negated like a finite verb (see feature (B)), but it needs periphrastic negation by the verbal noun peidio â ‘to/the cease/ceasing with’ as is exemplified below.

Paid	â	darllen!
IMPER.Sg.	PREP.with	VN.read(ing)
Cease	with	read(ing)
Idiomatic English: Don‘t read!
Peidiwch	â	chlebran!
IMPER.Pl.	PREP.with	ICM.VN.chatter(ing)
Cease with chatter(ing).
Idiomatic English: Don’t chatter!
Darllen	neu	beidio.
VN.read(ing)	CONJ.or	ICM.VN. cease/ing
Read(ing) or cease(ing).
Idiomatic English: Reading or not.

(K) 

As in the previous example, the Welsh verbal noun may be governed by a conjunction as is displayed in the following examples:

a chan feddwl (<- meddwl)	-	and whilst/upon thinking
cyn	codi	cŵn	Caer
CONJ.before	VN.get/ting up	GEN.dogs	GEN.Chester
before	(the) get(ting) up	of the dogs	of Chester
Idiomatic English: (To rise) Before the Chester dogs rise, i.e., before daylight (Davies, 1987, p. 57).

Wrth	lithro	i lawr	ces	i	ddamwain.
CONJ.whilst	ICM.VN.slide(ing)	PREP.	1PSg.PT.got	post.PRON.	ICM.dir.OBJ.accident
Idiomatic English: Whilst sliding down, I had an accident.

Mae hi’n braf darllen neu wrando ar gerddoriaeth.
Mae	hi	’n	braf
3PSg.to be	post.PRON.3PSg.FEM.	ADV.PTCL.	ADJ.nice
It is	she		nice
darllen	neu	wrando	ar	gerddoriaeth
VN.read(ing)	CONJ.or	ICM.listen(ing)	PREP.on	ICM.music
read(ing)	or	listen(ing)	to	music.
Idiomatic English: It is nice to read or to listen to music.

It needs to be emphasized that this conjunction only and exclusively lenites nouns, verbal nouns, and adjectives, i.e., nominal environments; see D. G. Lewis (1993, p. 278; Gweiadur 2024).

Whereas the former constructions would predominantly qualify for a nominal interpretation of the verbal noun, the following ones—which are fewer in number—focus on verbal functions.

(L) 

The Welsh verbal noun may be governed by a preposition involving ICM as is illustrated below:

math o ddiogi (<- diogi)	-	a kind of being lazy
heb ddweud (<- dweud)	-	without say(ing)
heb ei dweud	-	without her say(ing)
yng nghanu‘r oes hon (<- canu)	-	in the singing of this era
ar22 gau (<- cau, = wedi cau)	-	on/with close/closing ‘closed’
ar agor (=wedi agor)	-	on/with open/opening ‘open(ed)’

The latter two examples display (M) a type of syntactic participle formation in Welsh, which is more frequently formed by using the preposition wedi ‘after’ as is seen in the following:

wedi mynd	-	after go(ing)/gone
wedi eu newydd osod (<- gosod)	-	after their (new/re-) install(ing)

When placed in a whole periphrastic sentence, this construction indicates aspect, as is displayed in the following (also see further below features P and Q):

Y	mae	‘r	athro	wedi	mynd.
Aff.PTCL.	3PSg.to be	ART.the	SUBJ.teacher	ASP.PTCL.PERF.	VN.go(ing)
	it is	the	teacher	after	go(ing) = gone
Idiomatic English: The teacher is gone.

(N) 

The Welsh verbal noun may take an adverb like a verb, which is clear from the following sentence:

Y	mae	gweithio	‘n galed	yn	angenrheidiol.
Aff.PTCL.	3PSg.to be	SUBJ.VN.work(ing)	ADV.PTCL. ADJ.hard	ADV.PTCL.	ADJ.necessary
	it is	work(ing)	hard		necessary
Idiomatic English: Working hard is necessary.

(O) 

The Welsh verbal noun is needed in order to form syntactic passive voice in Welsh by use of periphrastic construction (also see Asmus, 2016) as is illustrated below:

Mae llyfr yn cael ei ddarllen.
Mae	llyfr	yn	cael
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.book	ASP.PTCL.CONT.	VN.get(ting)
It is	book	in	(the) receiving
ei	ddarllen
pre.PRON.3PSg.MASC.his	ICM.VN.read(ing)
(of) his	reading
Idiomatic English: A book is being read.

It is important to point out that the specification of the action by the second verbal noun, i.e., darllen, is itself specified by a pronoun (see feature G) identifying the receiver/ patiens of the action.

(P) 

Subsequently, the Welsh verbal noun is also needed to express syntactic passive voice with aspect, as is seen in the next example:

Mae llyfr wedi cael ei ddarllen.
Mae	llyfr	wedi	cael
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.book	ASP.PTCL.PERF.	VN.get(ting)
It is	book	after	(the) receiving
ei	ddarllen
pre.PRON.3PSg.MASC.his	ICM.VN.read(ing)
(of) his	reading
Idiomatic English: A book has been read.

(Q) 

Indeed, as a common part of periphrastic constructions, the Welsh verbal noun also helps form a whole paradigm of syntactic aspect, as is exemplified in the next sentence:

Y	mae	‘r	aros		wedi		dod i ben.
Aff.PTCL.	3PSg.to be	ART.	VN.		ASP.PTCL.PERF.		VN.finish(ing)
	It is	the	wait(ing)		after		finish(ing)
Idiomatic English: The waiting has come to an end/finished/is over.
Yr	wyf	heb		ddysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	PREP.without		ICM.VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	without		(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I have not (yet) learned a song (inchoative). Further, aspectuality involving the verbal noun is often formed by semantically depleted prepositions of space, now used to relate to time, e.g., am ‘on, at’, ar fin ‘on edge’, ar ‘(up)on’, and yn ‘in’ (see Radden, 2011), as is exemplified in the following sentences:23

Yr	wyf	am	ddysgu	cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	PREP.on	ICM.VN.learn(ing)	NOUN.song
	I am	on	(the) learning	of a song
Idiomatic English: I want to learn a song/I would like…//I am going to learn…24
Yr	wyf	i fod i	ddysgu	cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	PREP.to be to	ICM.VN.learn(ing)	NOUN.song
	I am	urged to	(the) learning	of a song
Idiomatic English: I am to/supposed to/meant to learn a song.

The first two constructions should be understood as potential action, but form also part of syntactic modal expression. The following examples clearly express aspect only.

Yr	wyf	ar fin	dysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	PREP.	VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	on edge	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I am about to learn a song/on the verge of/at the point of learning a song.
Yr	wyf	ar	ddysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	PREP.	ICM.VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	upon	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I am (just) about to learn/start learning…/in the process of…25
Yr	wyf	yn	dysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ASP.PTCL.	VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	in	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I am learning a song/I learn a song.
Yr	wyf	wrthi yn	dysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ASP.PTCL.at it	ICM.VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	at it	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I am engaged with/at it learning a song.
Yr	wyf	newydd	ddysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ADJ.new	ICM.VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	new	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I have just learned a song.
Yr	wyf	wedi	dysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ASP.PTCL.PERF.	VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	after	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I have learned a song.
Yr	wyf	wedi	hen	ddysgu		cân.
Aff.PTCL.	1PSg.to be	ASP.PTCL.PERF.	ADJ.old	ICM.VN.learn(ing)		NOUN.song
	I am	after	old	(the) learning		of a song
Idiomatic English: I have long (since)/already learned a song.

(R) 

The Welsh verbal noun is used instead of a finite verb if the subject remains the same, as is visible in the first example below, or if the subject is known from the wider communicative context, as displayed in the two subsequent sample sentences:

Rhedodd	y	dyn	i	‘r	dref	ac	yna	redeg	yn ôl.
3PSg.PT.ran	ART.	SUBJ.	PREP.	ART.the	ICM.town	CONJ.	ADV.	VN.run(ing)	ADV.
ran	the	man	to	the	town	and	then	run	back
Idiomatic English: The man ran to the town, and then (ran) back.

Gobeithio		eich		bod		yn		dda?
VN.hope/ing		2P.Pl.pre.PRON.you		VN.be(ing)		ADV.PTCL.		ICM.ADJ.good
Hope you be(ing) in good?
Idiomatic English: I hope you are well?
Gobeithio dy fod di a’r teulu’n cadw’n iawn.
Gobeithio	dy		fod		di		a
VN.hope/ing ‘r	2PSg.pre.PRON.you teulu		VN.be(ing) yn		2P.Sg.post.PRON.you cadw		CONJ.and ‘n		iawn
ART.the	NOUN.family		PREP.in		VN.keep(ing)		ADV.PTCL.		ADJ.right
Idiomatic English: I hope you and your family are keeping well.

Instances like the last two sentences require a wider communicative context, oral or written, e.g., a conversation or a more substantial piece of writing. Such sentences cannot be used in isolation (see feature (B) above).

(S) 

Further Issues

On the basis of the multitude of syntactic embeddings of the Welsh verbal noun as exemplified here, it is clear that its concept is not in line with any kind of infinitive or—in the sense of SAE languages—normal noun. This is also made clear by Russell (2015, p. 1230), when stating that “They [the verbal nouns] tend to display a wider range of nominal features than might be expected and that makes them less amenable to being absorbed into the standard analytical models”. This quote should allow for a classification outside the SAE verb idea. Indeed, although most verbal nouns may take on verb inflection, they can also simply step in for an inflected verb showing no inflection themselves. They may as well pass the inflection on to the pre- and post-positioned pronouns, inflected prepositions, or auxiliaries in following VSO relative clause complementation. Another means of hinting at their different nature is their word-initial inflection, i.e., verbal nouns undergo mutation (ICM), identifying them as a direct object, or an emphasized phrase constituent, or marking their position after certain noun determiners, prepositions, or conjunctions. The conjunction ‘neu’, which exclusively lenites nominals, is interesting here.

In this context, it must be clearly pointed out that Insular Celtic lacks certain verb morphology and replaces it with various noun constructions in ways and to an extent that are unknown in Indo-European and SAEs. In brief, modern Insular Celtic tongues lack the following verb morphology:

• An infinitive;
• The morphological passive;
• A morphological aspect;
• Morphological present participles (also see Russell (2015, p. 30); Breton features a past participle);
• Verbs of possession (although Breton in particular shows merger forms here);
• Modal verbs, in particular Welsh.

Concerning the infinitive, a quote by Russell (2015, p. 1230) should finalize this discussion, with his statement that “no [Insular] Celtic language has anything like an infinitive in the sense of a nominal form of the verb with tense, mood, aspect, etc., […], though it does have a nominal form, known as the verbal noun”.

Concerning the formation of the Welsh syntactic passive, aspect, and participles, the above given examples illustrate their constructions with verbal nouns well and are in line with Myhill (1985, p. 188) when saying that “verb-initial languages have a tendency to use nominalized forms such as ‘verbal noun[…s’ ] in contexts where SVO languages would have finite verbs”.

What needs more explanations in this context are the modality and possessive constructions in Welsh that—to a varying degree—make use of verbal nouns. The nominal expression of modality is strongest in Welsh and is regularly formed by VS-X constructions, i.e., 3PSg of ‘to be’ + noun phrase + inflected preposition (if actant is needed) + further complementation if need be, which is often a verbal noun, as can be seen from the following examples:

(Mae)	rhaid		i mi		gael		tŷ26		newydd.
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.need		inflect.PREP.		ICM.VN.get(ting)		GEN.OBJ.house		ADJ.new
It is	(a) need		to me		(of) get(ting)		a house		new
Idiomatic English: I need (to get) a new house.
Mae		rhaid		cael		tŷ		newydd.
3PSg.to be		SUBJ.need		GEN.VN.get(ting)		GEN.OBJ.house		ADJ.new
It is		(a) need		(of) get(ting)		a house		new
Idiomatic English: A new house is necessary/Obtaining a new house is needed.

Mae	eisiau	bwyd	arnaf.
3PSg.to be	SUBJ.lack	GEN.food	inflect.PREP.1PSg.on me
It is	(a) lack	(of) get(ting)	on me
Idiomatic English: I lack/want food/I am hungry.

For further modal expressions, the noun eisiau may be used, which needs number and gender allocated by inflected prepositions. In colloquial, and recently also teaching materials for Welsh,27 the phrase below has become popular. It uses the post-positioned pronoun after the finite verb instead of an inflected preposition after the noun as is visible below:

Mae	ef	eisiau	mynd.
3PSg.to be	post.PRON.3PSg.MASC.	NOUN.need	GEN.VN.go(ing)
It is	he	(a) lack	of going
Idiomatic English: He wants to go.
Mae	ef	eisiau	bwyd.
3PSg.to be	post.PRON.3PSg.MASC.	NOUN.need	GEN.NOUN.food
It is	he	(a) lack	of food
He wants food.

In these constructions, the verbal noun mynd fulfills the same function as the noun bwyd. Eisiau remains a noun because the aspect particle/marker is missing. New learners are rightfully puzzled by this colloquial use introduced into learning, and hence use eisiau and other nouns employed for expressions of modality, e.g., angen ‘need’, creatively and incorrectly in adverts, although they would be much more catchy when used correctly as shown here:

Money is needed	-	(mae)28 angen arian ‘need of money’
Help is needed	-	(mae) angen cymorth ‘need of help’
Students are wanted	-	Eisiau myfyrwyr ‘lack of students’

Not understanding the function of nominal constructions, learners try to use eisiau and other nouns as verbal nouns, assuming that these are verbs and would be a better equivalent for English expressions.29

The standard modality constructions with eisiau overlap with the concept of abstract possession, which includes emotions in Insular Celtic. This fact allows for the assumption that modality may—to some degree—be interpreted as abstract possession, as can be inferred from the following examples:

Mae	annwyd	arnaf.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.cold	inflect.PREP.1PSg.on me
It is	a cold	on me.
Idiomatic English: I have a cold.
The following sentences are similar:
Mae	ofn	arni	hi.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.fear	inflect.PREP.3PSg.on her	post.PRON.3PSg.on her
It is	fear	on her	her.
Idiomatic English: She is afraid.
Mae	hiraeth	arnaf.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.longing	inflect.PREP.1PSg.on me
It is	longing	on me
Idiomatic English: I’m homesick/nostalgic.
Mae	cywilydd	arnaf.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.shame	inflect.PREP.1PSg.on
It is	shame	on me
Idiomatic English: I feel ashamed.

Such constructions may contain a verbal noun as is seen below:

Beth	sy	’n	bod	arni?
ICM.NOUN.thing	rel.PTCL.PRES.	ASP.PTCL.C.	VN.be(ing)	inflect.PREP.3PSg.FEM.on her
What thing	that is	in	be(ing)	on her
Idiomatic English: What is wrong with her?

However, the eisiau-type construction above is also used when indicating temporal concrete possession, making use of the preposition ar ‘on’ (as opposed to gan/gyda ‘with’ for permanent possession; see below)30 as expressed in the following sentence:

Mae	arian	arnaf.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.money	inflect.PREP.1PSg.on
It is money on me.
Idiomatic English: It is money on me (just now).

Apart from the constructions of modality/abstract possession/temporal concrete possession above, there are further nominal expressions denoting general likes/emotions/ideas in Insular Celtic, i.e., abstract possession, making use of adjectives. These seem to indicate general assessments. Their immediate complementation is normally a verbal noun as is illustrated below:

(Y)	Mae	’n gas	ganddi	hi	lenwi ffurflenni.
(Y)	Mae	’n gas	ganddi
Aff.PTCL.	3PSg.to be	ADV.PTCL. ICM.ADJ.nasty	infl.PREP.3PSg.FEM.with
	It is	nasty	with her

hi	lenwi	ffurflenni
post.PRON.3PSg.FEM.she	ICM.VN.fill(ing)	GEN.OBJ.forms
she	fill	forms
Idiomatic English: She hates filling in forms.

Further examples are given below.
Mae	‘n	dda	gennyf	glywed.
3PSg.to be	ADV.PCTL.	ICM.ADJ.good	inflect.PREP.1PSg.with	ICM.VN.hear(ing)
It is good with me hear(ing)
Idiomatic English: It is good to hear.31

Mae	‘n	ddrwg	gennyf	ddweud.
3PSg.to be	ADV.PCTL.	ICM.ADJ.good	inflect.PREP.1PSg.with	ICM.VN.say(ing)
It is bad with me say(ing)
Idiomatic English: I am sorry to say.

These constructions overlap with expressions of permanent possession in the use of inflected prepositions as is displayed below:

Mae	ganddi	hi	wallt	du.
3.PSg.be	inflect.PREP.	post.PRON.	ICM.hair	ADJ.schwarz
It is	with her	her	hair	black
Idiomatic English: She has black hair.
Mae	arian	gyda fi.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.money	PREP.1PSg.with
It is money with me (generally).
Idiomatic English: I have money.

Mae	llyfr	gyda fi.
3PSg.to be	NOUN.book	PREP.1PSg.with
It is a book with me.
Idiomatic English: I own a book.32

Before drawing the final conclusions, a brief look at the word formation potentials of the Welsh verbal noun follows.

4. Word Formation with the Verbal Noun

The Welsh verbal noun is itself a base form for productive Welsh word formation by derivation and composition, whereby derivation seems to dominate, as can be inferred from the following examples:

darllen	-	verbal noun ‘(to/the) read(ing)’
darllenfa	-	darllen + -fa (<- man ‘place’) => reading place/reading room
darllenadwy	-	darllen + -adwy ‘possible’ => readable, legible
darllenadwyaeth	-	darllen + -adwy + -aeth (abstract noun) => legibility
darllengar	-	darllen + -gar (<- ‘love’) => reading loving/fond of reading
darlleniad	-	darllen + -iad (abstract noun) => (e.g., public) reading
darllenwr	-	darllen + -wr (<- gwr ‘man’) => reader
ail-ddarllen	-	ail- (second/re-‘) + darllen => ‘to/the re-read(ing)’
camddarllen	-	crooked + darllen => ‘to/the misread(ing)’

The latter is probably a border case. Cam- can be found as a constituent of place name compounds referring to rivers (hydronym), deriving from *kambo- ‘crooked, twisted’ (Matasović, 2009, p. 186)33 like the still productive Welsh adjective cam ‘crooked, distorted’, e.g., ar gam ‘in error’ (GPC, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online, 2014). However, this word seems to be recognized largely as a prefix in current Welsh lexicography; see, for instance, D. G. Lewis https://www.gweiadur.com/welsh-dictionary/cam- (accessed on 31 January 2025).

The word prawf-ddarllen ‘proof + read’ (to/the proofread(ing)) seems to not follow proper Welsh word formation, but is in use currently.

5. Conclusions

S. J. Williams (1980, p. 193) calls the Welsh verbal noun a blend of a noun and a verb fulfilling the functions of both when stating “Gan mai cyfuniad o ferf ac enw yw berfenw y mae iddo ddwy swydd, fel berf ac fel enw”. This view is strongly contested by Borsley et al. (2007, p. 70ff.).

Looking at the arguments presented here, a plea should be made for a separate word class called the ‘verbal noun’ rather than arguing about its potential allocation to nouns or verbs or something in between or a blend of them.

The Welsh verbal noun should be identified as a separate word class, whose basic feature consists in its flexibility to act like certain word classes and sentence constituents known in SAE languages, but that accomplishes its functions partially with linguistic properties that are unknown in SAE tongues. Whereas verbal inflection is well known to SAEs and picked out, other grammatical features performing similar functions, i.e., Insular Celtic VSO, ICM, pre- and post-positioned pronouns, inflected prepositions, and VSO relative clause complementation, are sidelined or not understood. These linguistic properties, however, are linked to different conceptualization processes and concepts of reality in Insular Celtic like possession and modality.

Such an approach towards the Welsh verbal noun is in line with classifying Welsh (and all Insular Celtic) as VSO languages. It is shown in this analysis that the verbal noun leans towards noun functions and that finite verb-initial language types favor nominal expressions (see Myhill, 1985, p. 188). Indeed, Welsh verbal nouns should be seen as potentially nominal constituents that form part of an extent range of noun constructions in Insular Celtic, which establish grammatical properties that are largely expressed morphologically, in particular by verb morphology, in SAEs.

Consequently, the default complementation of the verbal noun is a genitive object. All in all, the verbal noun covers more nominal functions than those for verbs, and when stepping in for finite verbs, it may do so uninflected (see feature (R) above), so that the term ‘event noun’ as suggested by Scherschel et al. (2018) seems to be suitable too.

As said previously, verbal nouns are also used in order to cover grammatical concepts that are normally expressed by verb morphology in SAE languages, like passive voice, participles, possession, aspect, and modality. In this capacity, number and gender inflection is of course required, but often covered by pre- and post-positioned pronouns or by inflected prepositions, another VSO feature (see Vogt & Asmus, 2024), allowing us to avoid the use of (specific) proper verbs like modal verbs.

In line with the analysis offered in this investigation, it is logically suggested that we alter the dictionary entries for verbal nouns similarly to how they are rendered here, i.e., like aros ‘to/the wait(ing)’. In the same way, it is suggested that we do not to interpret the Welsh verbal noun as a verb because (a) such equalization disguises its full range of functions and their understanding and (b) it undermines the understanding of the Welsh language system and its appropriate use, as is exemplified—amongst others—for the concept of modality (above).

In brief, on the basis of their syntax and actual use, as well as their function in the whole of the Welsh language system, verbal nouns should be seen as a specific word class in Welsh that is linked to verb morphology. However, the verbal noun allows for a number of language-type focal constructions that have number and tense allocated periphrastically, i.e., by inflected prepositions, do-periphrasis, or by an auxiliary in any following VSO relative subclause. In the latter two cases, the verbal noun acts as various kinds of objects, but it may also perform subject and attribute functions.

The noun properties of the Welsh verbal noun therefore add to the noun focus of the Welsh language. It follows that its simplified display in dictionaries, according to the pattern aros ‘to wait’, is inappropriate because it only allows for its perception, and hence use as a verb. Depicting only one aspect of this word class undermines the understanding of the full range of the functions of the Welsh verbal noun, and subsequently the acquisition thereof when learning the language.34