I need help with my bad habit of using ‘rili’ and ‘jyst’ in every sentence, sometimes more than once.
I use ‘really’ to mean ‘very/a lot’ rather than ‘truthfully’. I suppose I could say ‘Dw i mor brysur!’ instead of ‘Dw i’n rili brysur!’ But when I want to say that I’m gasping for a cuppa, saying, ‘Dw i angen paned yn fawr iawn’ doesn’t pack half the punch of, ‘Dw i rili angen paned.’ Any other options?
As for ‘just’, I use it all the time in English in a rather defensive way, or to tell little white lies, like ‘I’m just leaving now,’ or ‘I’m just finishing this chapter (then I’ll wash up).’ I can’t think how else to say in Welsh, ‘I just don’t feel right about it.’ ‘That’s just not fair.’ Dw i jyst rili angen ‘jyst’!
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Hi Bronwen, you’re splitting the crowd with this question, there are loads who think that this isn’t a problem and a few that would rather use fewer of these types of anglicised words.
I really want a cuppa … dwi wir isio panad.
Quick exchange between Mathew and Philip on RaR ages ago.
Just asking … 'mond gofyn.
Just saying … 'mond dweud.
Like my dad told me “there’s a Welsh word for everything.” (Ok, popeth is the Welsh word for everything but you know what he meant. )
I have a habit of watching programs on S4C and trying to replace every english word I hear with the Welsh equivalent. I’ve learnt loads.
BTW, you could do away with a lot of the uses of ‘just’ in language. “I’m just leaving now” = “I’m leaving now”. No discernable difference to my ears.
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Fi, jyst, rili rili euog o yn union yr un peth.
It’s lazy, but I’m fundamentally quite a lazy person, so in the end I’ve had to face the fact that I’m probably stuck with sounding like a teenager for the rest of my life.
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That’s just where you’re wrong! But thanks for the other helpful advice. ‘Mond’ sounds fine, whereas ‘dim ond’ doesn’t… So that’s more ‘Rownd a Rownd’ and less improving reading, I think.
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Keep wearing the specs, and you’ll get away with it.
And I only want to tone it down a bit, not do away with the habit altogether.
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Have you considered using “reit” instead of “rili” for a bit of variety?
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Thank you! I love the word ‘reit’, and will now use it in every sentence instead of ‘rili’.
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You could always use some old Welsh words like below, ‘dwi YN lyyyfio paned’.
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‘Get thee behind me, Satan…’
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Well, this is my current online Welsh tutor so I can get a bit confused between English and Welsh…
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Call me triggered if you like but the “to my ears” part of my answer means that’s how I hear it not necessarily how it is. I obviously have a lot to learn.
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I mentioned this thread to a friend on Slack. She said that her friend’s husband hated ‘just’ jobs more than any others. ‘Could you just…’ always meant a really boring, difficult or dirty job, while the question implied it would churlish to refuse. A little word weighted with meaning…
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This whole thread made me laugh out loud, and I learned the useful word 'mond. Going to try to stick that in my next conversation.
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You lot are wonderful Hahahah. Thanks for the laughs! (I’ll sure come back to the really useful advice when I’ll have done a bit more studying)
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