Welsh Typing Speed Test
Free Online Welsh Keyboard – Every To Bach Vowel, Including ŵ and ŷ
Welcome to the Welsh keyboard online (bysellfwrdd Cymraeg). It carries all seven circumflex vowels on dedicated keys, so you can write Welsh properly on a machine with no Welsh layout installed. Click the keys on screen, or type on your physical keyboard and watch the matching character appear above.
What sits where. Six of the seven circumflex vowels take spare keys around the alphabet: â and ê are the two keys right of P, with î beside them, while û and ŵ sit right of L and ô at the top left. Shift gives their capitals. The seventh, ŷ, takes the 1 key, so that digit moves to Shift.
The to bach. Welsh calls the circumflex to bach, meaning little roof, and it marks a long vowel. It is not decoration: the difference between tan and tân, or man and mân, rests entirely on that mark. Welsh also uses the acute, grave and diaeresis, but far more rarely; this layout carries the full circumflex set.
Welsh has seven vowels, not five. They are a, e, i, o, u, w and y. Because w and y are genuine vowels they can be long, so Welsh needs ŵ and ŷ — letters that almost no standard keyboard can produce. You need them for everyday words: dŵr for water, tŷ for house, and gŵn for gown against gwn for gun.
This is the main reason the page exists. On a normal UK keyboard there is no obvious route to ŵ and ŷ at all. Writers end up hunting through a character map, memorising numeric codes, or typing plain w and y and losing the distinction. Every circumflex vowel here is one click away.
Eight digraphs count as letters. The Welsh alphabet has 29 letters because ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh and th are each treated as one. That is why a dictionary files Llanelli under Ll, and why ng comes between g and h. You type them as two ordinary keystrokes.
A living official language. Welsh has official status in Wales under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, it is a compulsory school subject up to age 16, and the 2021 census recorded about 538,000 speakers in Wales. The Welsh Government targets a million speakers by 2050.
Your privacy is guaranteed — all typing happens locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, stored or logged. Use Copy to move the finished text to your clipboard, or try the Irish keyboard from the Layout dropdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I type ŵ on this Welsh keyboard?
Click the second key to the right of L, in the apostrophe position, or press that key on your physical keyboard, and you get ŵ. Hold Shift for the capital Ŵ. The key between it and L carries û. Its partner ŷ sits apart from the others, on the 1 key of the number row.
What is a to bach?
To bach means little roof in Welsh and is the everyday name for the circumflex accent. It marks a long vowel, and because vowel length distinguishes words in Welsh, it carries real meaning rather than being ornamental. Tan means until, while tân with the to bach means fire.
Where has the digit 1 gone?
Onto Shift, and only that one. Welsh has seven circumflex vowels but six spare keys around the alphabet, so ŷ takes the 1 key and the digit moves to the shifted position there. Every other key on the number row, 2 through to 0, works exactly as normal.
Can I type capital circumflex letters like  and Ŵ?
Six of the seven, yes. Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û and Ŵ all type on Shift, because those letters sit on spare keys where Shift is free. Ŷ is the exception, since ŷ shares the 1 key with the digit and Shift there gives 1. Type lowercase ŷ and capitalise it in the app you paste into.
Why can't I type ŵ and ŷ on an ordinary keyboard?
Because almost no standard layout includes them. Circumflexed w and y are used by very few languages, so they are missing from the US and UK keyboards, from most mobile keyboards and from many character pickers. Writers often substitute plain w and y, which quietly changes the spelling of common Welsh words.
How is this different from the official Welsh or UK Extended layout?
On Windows the Welsh and UK Extended layouts build circumflexes from an AltGr dead-key sequence, keep every digit on the number row and use UK ISO punctuation. An on-screen keyboard cannot do dead keys, so this layout gives each circumflex vowel a key of its own, six on spare keys and ŷ on the 1 key. The Unicode letters are identical.
Will my Welsh text paste correctly into Word, Gmail or social media?
Yes. Each accented letter here is a single precomposed Unicode character, so ŵ and ŷ paste into word processors, email, messaging apps and websites without breaking apart or showing as boxes. Click Copy, then paste as usual. Any current font covers the full Welsh alphabet.
Are ch, dd and ll really separate letters?
Yes. Welsh treats ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh and th as single letters, giving an alphabet of 29. They affect alphabetical order, so words beginning with Ll are filed after all the L words. You still type them as two keystrokes, exactly as Welsh keyboards have always required.
Is the Welsh keyboard free, private and usable on mobile?
Yes to all three. There is no cost, no account and no usage limit, and advertising keeps it free. All typing is processed locally in your browser and never sent to a server. The layout is responsive, so you can tap out Welsh on an Android or iOS phone, a tablet or a Chromebook.
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