I keep coming across the word “befo” in the book I am reading (Tir Dial, gan Dyfed Edwards). Is this some slang word that hasn’t made it into the dictionary? He does use a lot of slang, non-standard spellings and abbreviated forms, which is great as it approximates real speech.
1 Like
I’ve now discovered it is part of a set phrase, “Hidia befo”, meaning “never mind”, but I still don’t get the individual words
1 Like
Could you give us a bit more context? One possibility would be that it’s a contraction of heb efo (fo), for example in the idiom Hidia 'befo, which loosely translates as “never mind”.
Edit: Ah, you found the idiom yourself, so hidia befo 
2 Likes
Heb efo (fo) does help with the parsing - thank you Hendrik
1 Like
I’ve only seen it appear in books using very north Walian casual language, but I don’t know how widespread it is. Maybe @siaronjames will have an idea?
2 Likes
I learned the idiom “hidia befo” on a Welsh course based in Rhuthun. I’ll try to remember to ask whether it’s used here in South Gwynedd.
I think with idioms it’s best to accept them as a set phrase and not worry about the individual words too much.
2 Likes
This is very common in Gwynedd, don’t know about other places - I think I’ve only ever heard ‘befo’ as part of ‘hidia befo’, though, where it’s really just doing the fairly usual Welsh thing of saving the speaker from having to put two vowels together, we seem not to be overly fond of that for some reason
1 Like
I know Hidia Befo from here
I didn’t know what it meant and Dave had said it was a Gogs thing 
1 Like
I don’t think I’ve ever heard it to be honest - or just not noticed it when I have.
You’ll probably hear it all the time now - that’s what usually happens!
3 Likes