chdi is a spoken variant equivalent to ti - mostly (but there are always exceptions!) heard in North Wales dialects.
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Diolch, Siaron.
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At some point we are told that for English āandā Welsh speakers say āaā before words starting with a consonant but āacā before a vowelā¦
Now I am sure that I keep hearing āac mae oā¦ā etc., so is the word āmaeā the āinitial consonantā exception to the rule?
Did I hear, also: ac well i mi
or was it: a gwell i miā¦?
ā¦and have any other exceptions been passing me by? (I have an uneasy feeling about a/ac but it keeps me listening hard, I suppose.
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Sometimes in cases like that, an intermediate word has been omitted (dont ask me what it is 
). So the other words tend to remain unchanged as if it is assumed that the omitted word is still there.
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Yes, with āac maeā, this is because the full form is āac y maeā, but the y is commonly dropped, especially in speech.
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Pretty much impossible to hear any difference between these two, Iād suggestā¦
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Hi Iāve just joined today and after doing the first challenge Iām a little confused as Iāve always used āDw i eisiauā¦ā as I want?? Would this still be acceptable/ is it used by others? Diolch
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Hi and welcome, yes no problem to use it or moyn as you please.
Check out another recent thread for more stuff on this, but either will be understood.
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I think this is the thread John is referring to -
Hope that helps
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So that g as in gwella will be ok to have around in other examples, too,
a (g)wrando, a (g)wylio, etc. - its appearance or non-appearance is a matter of choice.
ā¦and, say, a list of names ending āand Wynā
could end in Welsh either āa Wynā or āac Wynā depending on whether you count the W of Wynās name as a vowel or notā¦ mind you, I was once told off by a man named Wyn for accidentally calling him Gwynā¦[ so maybe no āc/gā before W in that case, I realise as I type.]
The dropping or re-instatement of the c and the g is presumably just a matter of personal preference, or a pattern Iāll pick up.
Being encouraged to pose a first question has been good, because I can now stop fixating on (and suffering from āmind gone blankā moments about) āandā as an English prompt word! Diolch yn fawr!
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Thanks, Siaron! The mystery is solved. Diolch yn fawr.
Iāll stop fixating on it now - it was a silly thing to be getting hung up on.
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Diolch John
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Hello everyone.
Itās good to have the chance to ask a first question.
At the moment Iām managing to keep up with the audio side of the course, but falling dreadfully behind with the other exercises. Has anyone else had this experience?
Iām keeping up with the audio by listening whilst cycling to and from work. Iām happily responding to all the sentences in a reasonably time. I find it also gives me confidence to use some Welsh whenever possible at work.
But although Iām at Week 14 in the audio, Iām at Week 2 for everything else. This is largely because there are so many other things that Iām busy with.
So Iām wondering whether anyone else has been in this position and what they did to catch up.
Should I (for example) pause the lessons until Iāve caught up - or possibly accept that Iāll be lagging behind on somethings.
Anyway itās good to have reached the point of asking a question here
Bets wishes to all
'o-Dzin
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Hi Tridral.
I āliked/favouritedā/whatever your post as I will be interested to see the replies.
I take it that you are learning via one of the structured courses. I started before these came into being, so I canāt really comment from experience.
Nevertheless, it sounds great that you are proceeding with the audio sessions, and I will be eagerly watching this spot for other comments.
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Your success with the audio sessions is the single most important element - but the other points are all leading you in the direction of the listening and communicating work that will turn the learnt material into a living language for you, so itās worth broadening your work to include the other stuffā¦
But no need to think about it in too prescriptive a way - Iād suggest that you do the exercises for Week 14, and if they all feel okay and/or easy, then youāre probably good to go - if they feel tough, then Iād recommend that you work back from 14 (while keeping up with new ones from here on in)ā¦
Hello everyone,
I hope that very soon I will be moving to Llangollen from Bedfordshire (where I have lived my whole life so far). Apart from having a phrase book as a small boy holidaying in Beddgelert every year and listening to Cerys on BBC6 I have no experience of speaking Welsh.
I started using Duolingo but soon got frustrated when they started sentences with what looked like the Welsh for Yes and ended the sentence with the answer Yes to find that the first Yes didnāt mean yes, and there wasnāt an explanation. I then found SSIW and got on well with the style, soon getting to grips with the first sentence.
Iām doing the new course and am on challenge 2.
Here is my question, halfway through a challenge my mind goes blank and I forget half the new words. I often even forget what the English sentence is Iām slowly trying to translate word for word! I then get to the point where a short seemingly familiar sentence appears and even that becomes difficult.
I have enjoyed Aranās reassuring messages along the way but should I stop and go back or plough onā¦
Kind regards,
Rowly
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Are you using the pause button to make sure you give yourself enough time? Itās normal to have trouble remembering the longer phrases - and it can take time to be able to do a whole lesson in one sittingā¦ so a combination of breaking it into smaller chunks and using the pause button is probably the right way forward for you hereā¦
Also, by the time you get to challenge 5 and are prompted to revisit challenge 1, youāll find out a lot about how the process is working for you, and if you might need higher levels of repetitionā¦
Thanks for the reply Aran, by the time I got to the end of challenge 2 you tell us to go back again and re-do it. Iām enjoying the lessons very much.
Thanks,
Rowly
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Hi rowly. I find that pausing the lesson reduces the stress and I can remember the words easier. I do this the first couple of times I hear the lesson as needed, or if a stressful traffic situation comes up. I mostly listen to the lessons in traffic on the way to and from work.
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Hi ,I have just started challenge 3,phew my heart is racing now,and my brain is aching.Do most people feel this way when they first start?
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