Perfect Welsh 'not needed' says Baroness Morgan

Eluned Morgan says there is a lack of confidence among Welsh speakers

Welsh speakers need to be more confident and realise perfect grammar is not important, the Welsh language minister has said.

Baroness Eluned Morgan said it should not matter whether people use mutations - when consonants at the beginning of words change under certain circumstances.

"The lack of confidence among Welsh speakers is incredible," she said.

The Welsh Government aims to get one million people speaking Welsh by 2050.

• 'Encouraging' increase in Welsh speakers

• Can language learning apps replace the classroom?

• Yma O Hyd tops iTunes UK song chart

Speaking on BBC Radio Cymru, Baroness Morgan said: "Part of what we have to do is to get people in Wales to understand that they do speak Welsh.

"We have someone working here [in her office] who was born and brought up in Tregaron, who speaks Welsh completely fluently, and who tells me she doesn't speak Welsh.

"The problem is how we get people to tick the right box and have the confidence to say 'my Welsh is good enough'.

"I think it's important that we make it clear to people that speaking Welsh, any Welsh, is acceptable - I don't mind whether they are mutating correctly or not."

Alongside the target of one million speakers, she emphasised the government had a target to "double the use of Welsh in our communities".

"[It's] an essential part of our strategy... One of the main challenges is that a lot of people go through Welsh medium education and then it falls away, so it's making sure those who are 16 to 18 [years old] continue to speak Welsh - that's one of the biggest challenges we have."