Welsh language blunders in shops and other businesses in Wales could be a thing of the past with a new service.
The Welsh Language Commissioner is encouraging charities and businesses to take advantage of their offer of free Welsh proofreading.
Charities and businesses can send up to a 1,000 words to the Welsh Language Commissioner to proofread, and the work will be returned within three working days.
It could avoid a repeat of various errors in recent years including Asda mistakenly offering free beer to their Welsh speaking customers.
Liz Morgan from Parkinson’s UK has benefitted from using the proofreading service.
She said: "As a Welsh learner, I can translate some copy, but would not be confident to post it publicly without getting it checked first. The proofreading service has helped me improve my own written Welsh, as I can see where I make mistakes.”
Liz appreciated the free proofreading service, which saved costs for her organisation.
“It can be very expensive to use a professional translator for short documents, even though we still use them for longer documents. This service is great for smaller pieces of work, and it is very valuable to our charity,” said Liz.
The work will be sent to a professional translator, and then returned with constructive comments and suggestions
Gethin Edwards, who leads the Hybu team at the Welsh Language Commissioner, said: "Last year, we proofread nearly 40,000 words for 145 businesses and charities.
"The work was varied, and included signs, websites, menus, posters, slogans, tweet and posts for social media, as well as pamphlets and much more.
“We want to help charities and businesses get the maximum benefit from using Welsh, in order to win over customers, but at the same time we also want to make sure the language they use is correct.
"We encourage anyone who is interested in introducing the Welsh language to their work, or want help to check their Welsh language, to contact us."
