Hi,
Can anyone help explain when to use an ‘am gael’ structure for ‘to want’ instead of ‘eisiau’ (moyn)?
E.g
mae hi am gael het newydd
mae hi eisiau het newydd
Thanks!
The two constructions are synonymous, so it’s basically a question of personal preference.
Hi,
I can see in this instance they are synonymous but am I corrent in saying that ‘am gael’ here would be restricted to wanting ‘to get’ something? So you could say:
mae hi eisiau mynd i’r dref
But you wouldn’t say:
mae hi am gael mynd i’r dref
But possibly:
mae hi am mynd i’r dref
So in other words, ‘am’ requires a verbnoun to follow?
Andrew
For the meaning “to want”, yes, it does, but it’s not restricted to getting something. (And the verbnoun takes a soft mutation.)
“Dwi am siarad â hi heddiw”
“Ydy hi am fynd i’r dref?”
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Hi Siaron,
I meant ‘am gael’ is restricted to wanting to get something, rather than just ‘am’?
Andrew
Ah, I see - yes, cael = to have in the sense of to receive (which is where we get ‘get’ from), so you could use am gael when the context is to receive or get something (“dwi am gael soffa newydd yn fuan” - I want to get a new sofa soon)
I was wondering about this exact thing the other day!
In my head I translate am gael to “after”, i.e. get or buy: I’m after a new sofa.
But for more general uses would it be eisiau? eg Dw i isio i ti rhoi fo i mi
Yes, ‘after’ works here, I’ve also actually heard (in English) “I’m after getting…” before now!
And yes again, for other instances where the want isn’t followed by a verbnoun (or an implied verbnoun), then eisiau or moyn (in the South) are the ones to use.
e.g. Pwy sy am gael panad? / Pwy sy am [gael] banad? Pwy sy isio/eisiau/ishe panad? Pwy sy’n moyn panad?
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Thanks all!
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Linked to this, i find that ssiw uses moyn for want rather than eisiau. I have several first languages welsh friends and family who find this odd. Eisiau seems to be the accepted word for want so im left wondering which to use. I dont want to sound ‘odd’.
What do others think?
Use whichever fits in with what’s around you. Whilst moyn is a southern form, it’s by no means used throughout the South, so you’ll be fine using eisiau with your friends and family, just be aware that some constructions differ when doing so e.g. dwi’n moyn (i.e. dwi YN moyn) but dwi eisiau (i.e. no YN). 
I missed this whole conversation before so I’m really glad it’s been resurrected.
I have a question about “am”, even as a (now) confident Welsh speaker. I tend to use “am” and “heb” quite a lot - not quite sure where I picked that up, but I think it was probably when I was at uni about 6 years ago. So I would tend to say “Dw i am fynd” rather than “Dw i eisiau mynd”, and also “Dw i heb glywed oddi wrtho” rather than “Dw i ddim wedi clywed oddi wrtho”.
I have no worries about that, as such. My question is this: is there a difference in “cywair” / formality between those forms? I have picked up such a variety of stuff over the years, and have worked out for a lot of it where it “sits” on my spectrum of usage (ranging from down the pub with my friends, through emails to work colleagues, to reports for work), but that’s one I haven’t quite been able to pin down.
Any thoughts, @siaronjames @garethrking (or anyone else who feels like weighing in)?
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The answer is that both these constructions - dw i am fynd and dw i heb glywed dim - are excellent idiomatic Welsh, appropriate at all registers.
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Oh, well that’s a relief! (I was suspicious that I had been showing myself up and people had been too polite to tell me…) Thanks very much for confirming
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Handi iawn!
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Yn bendant!
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