Ask your FIRST question about SSiW in here...:-)

Hi Bronwen,

I am having problems with SoundCloud as I am unable to get it onto my mobile due to the fact that the phone is old and isn’t able to download it. How can I speak using this system please?
Thank you for your reply. Therese

I’ve sent you a private message, @therese.danchin!

I am working on the challenges, by doing the full challenge each day. I am slow, but I feel I am getting there, but Is there a way for me to hear Welsh being spoken (slowly) and to try to speak myself?

Even though it will feel much too fast right now, it’s worth having S4C or Radio Cymru on in the background while you do other things if you can - don’t even try to translate or understand it, just let your ears get used to hearing the rhythms and patterns.

One thing you can do that will help enormously with speaking, is to join the WSP group (Welsh Speaking Practice) on Slack. There are lots of people there at all levels and very willing to slow down for you if they are more advanced. To join the group, ask for an invite from admin@saysomethingin.com . I’m going to tag a couple of particularly patient and encouraging people who speak regularly to people in WSP - @BronwenLewis and @AlanP (there are plenty of others, of course, and you’ll soon find other regular chat partners, but Bronwen and Alan are very used to helping people start out on Slack.)

Hi @david-john-jenkins, As Siaron says, I’d be very happy to have an introductory chat or two with you if you join Slack, or even on Skype if you have it. I’m very much a slow rather than advanced learner myself, and know what it’s like to take those first hesitant steps. We can speak very slowly and clearly, and translate where necessary. Either message me here, or maybe see you on Slack.

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Helo, I’m on week 4, the method seems to be working well for me, but I’ve hit my first major brain ache - I can’t work out what the difference is between “I’ve still got to learn more” and “I’ve still got more to learn”! In English, the words have been rearranged, but in welsh they’re completely different words! I’ve even tried google translate for the individual words to see if there’s some hint, and it translated the words to have exactly the same meaning! :slight_smile:

Thanks for any help,

Sara

That’s because you have two different underlying structures at work here, “got” vs. “got to”
The first is the same structure that you would use to indicate ownership:
I’ve got a cat -> Mae gyda fi gath

The other structure is “I’ve got to (do something)”, in the sense that there is a need, or a must:
I’ve got to go -> Mae’n rhaid i fi fynd.

Let’s now look at a shorter example, similar to yours, with the same words in different order, highlighting the different structures:
I’ve got work to do -> Mae gyda fi waith i’w wneud versus
I’ve got to do work -> Mae’n rhaid i fi wneud gwaith

Hope that helps! Pob lwc! (Good luck!)

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Thank you! :slight_smile:

I am on challenge 4 level 1 and I am a bit confused when to use mae gyda fi or rhaid i fi. Any tips. Thanks

This catches a lot of people and fault lies in the English use of the words ‘have got’.
In English we use the same words (have got) for both possessing something (I have got a dog) and having to do something (I have got to work), but in Welsh we don’t use the same words for both these meanings. Gyda fi is what we use for possessing something (Mae gyda fi gi / mae ci gyda fi) and rhaid i fi is what we use for having to do something (mae rhaid i fi weithio).

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thank you.

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Hi I am on Challenge 4 Level one and enjoying the course very much. I WILL be a Welsh speaker one day! However, I find the more I’m trying to learn, I’m forgetting simple things that I already knew. Is this common? Plus I often can’t remember the whole english sentence by the time it’s finished and I get frustrated.

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Welcome @christine-leonard.

This is perfectly normal. Remembering comes eventually after much repetition, and the repetition is built into the challenges. As for the English sentences, some of them are rather long, but if you can work with the bit you remember and make up the rest then that’s fine. Again, it is training your memory.

People find strategies that work for them. Use the pause button a lot, a bit or not at all. Repeat a challenge or press on. Maybe do 5 challenges then revisit challenge 1.

Enjoy!
Sue

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Hi Christine, welcome!
Yes, those things are perfectly normal! The things you ‘seem’ to have forgotten are still in there even if they appear to be in hiding from time to time :wink:
You can use the pause button (but try not to get too reliant on it), but don’t aim for perfection (i.e. getting the full English sentence and then getting it fully correct in Welsh!) - finishing off the sentence any way you can (when you can’t remember what the English asked for) can be just as useful and will help get you over those frustrating ‘freezes’ until you can get closer to the phrase required. Things are repeated at intervals anyway, so it’s not as if you only get one go to get it in :slight_smile:

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Very useful, diolch!

Diolch yn fawr!

Hi Christine I’m a few weeks ahead of you and around challenge 4 i felt the same. But your brain gets used to the longer sentences. And you also get very used to the patterns- i felt like my brain was exploding with the ‘i can’t remember how to say what i wanted to say’ type patterns, but now they feel really natural and i don’t have to think too much about them. Now I’m struggling with new patterns which I’m sure will seem easy in a few weeks :grinning:

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I’m on Level 1 Challenge 13 and am confused with a couple of the sentences - hoping someone can help!

“Someone who works with you wanted to tell me” is “Oedd rhywun sy’n gweithio gyda ti moyn dweud wrth’i” and “Your sister wanted me to tell you what to do” is “Oedd dy chwaer di moyn i fi ddweud wrthot ti beth i wneud” but why is there no ‘yn’ before ‘moyn’? Can’t remember the exact sentence but there was something similar for ‘yr hen ddyn’ and that did have ‘yn’ before ‘moyn’

Am I not hearing it or is there something I’m missing?

Diolch yn fawr!

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Hi @diana-allpress,

You can press the pencil to edit your post…

Rich :slight_smile:

Thanks! It took my half an hour to work out how to start a message :roll_eyes:

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