Hi
In Lesson 6, “I will” is given as “Bydda i”. However, in the book I’ve bought it is given as “Mi fydda i”. Is there a difference?
Steve
Either one is fine 
The “Mi” is an optional word in front of the verb used when it is a statement rather than a question or whatever. You will also come across “fe” doing the same thing.
(What book is it, by the way? Odd they just give that and don’t mention anything else.)
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As Owain says, although you rarely hear “mi fydda i…” used in speech.
You will notice that many words soften after certain other words, and “mi” (as well as ‘fe’) are such words that cause this mutation, so “bydd” becomes “fydd” after “mi” and so on.
Don’t worry too much about this though, as everything pieces together and starts to make sense as the course goes on.
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Thanks Owain
The book is called Cwrs Mynediad. It doesn’t do a great job of explaining things and also seems to be obsessed with Tom Jones and Catherine Zeta Jones for some reason. I’m glad I found Say Something in Welsh!
Steve
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This book is coupled with a separate CD (which isn’t essential to have I might add, but can be just as useful), and was written with the classroom courses in mind, so to assist you through a Welsh course taught in a classroom.
While it is still very useful without having to attend a course (and is also available in both North and South dialects), it will teach the more formal Welsh you would learn in the classroom, instead of the natural sounding colloquial Welsh you learn with SSiWelsh.
But I also have a copy of this book (South Wales version) and it is quite a good resource.
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I’d say that the “mi” and “fe” particles (are they particles? Things. Words! ) are used in speech rather than being a literary form. Not everyone uses them, but they are certainly used in speech- more often I would say than they are used in a “high literary” or formal style.
Just my impression.
When I did the mynediad course, the teachers and the course seemed to go out of their way to teach the “colloquial”, “spoken” forms, but it could well differ from teacher to teacher.
Yes… I have to agree on this point, unfortunately.
[N.B. This isn’t even necessarily contradicting what Gav (faithless78) said, of course- just further unreliable info from my own experiences!]
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To add my tuppence worth. I’ve never used or been taught Mi/Fe as a starter, but even without them you hear (and see) Bydd and Fydd and many more words that spring from them.
Basically, Bydd and all it’s friends, are positive statements about the future. I will, would, he will, they would, etc.
Fydd, and all it’s friends, are either questions about the future, or negative statements about the future. Will you…? Will we, would you? I won’t, he wouldn’t, etc.
It is of course more complicated than that and I hope it’s not Too Much Information but I have found it to be useful.
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“Bydda i” means “I will be…”.
The future tense.
You may hear
“Mi fydda i…”
Or sometimes
“Fe fydda i…”
meaning exactly the same thing.
These are not thought of as “high literary forms”, but they do occur.
Even if you hear just
“Fydda i…”
As a positive statement,
Just take what people say and roll with it
Following on from @owainlurch, words like Mi and Fe often (very often?) disappear but the changes / mutations they cause in following words remain. Aaargh!!!
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Again following on, similar to the disappearance of the “ni” at the start of a negative sentence or the “a” forming a question, leaving just the soft mutation. (Though unlike “fe/mi”, these words are used in literary Welsh, and again unlike “mi/fi”, they are not used in speech)
So a soft mutation can signify a question. Or a negative. Or sometimes a positive statement.
Differs from person to person, of course.
Everyone please feel free to ignore all the above!
I always seem to recall that ‘wn i’ means ‘I know’, that ‘wn i ddim’ means ‘I don’t know’ and that ‘fe wn i’ also means ‘I know’. I do not remember learning these, like so many of my recollections they are ‘things that I have known for ever’!!
p.s. I have been on the forum all this time and only when I read this from you did I realise that I have been reading ‘owainchurch’ for ‘owainlurch’!!!
p.s. to @aran can you help with my recollections?
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Just my two pence worth - I sometimes hear speakers, especially older ones, on Radio Cymru using the Mi fydd form when they phone in, or in interviews, but I don’t remember hearing the Fe version. Maybe it’s hanging on a bit longer in the north as that’s where the ‘mi’ tends to be used.
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Another penny’s worth- I would say I’ve heard the “mi” version more often than the “fe” version- and that’s round here in the South!
I think this may be one of those many, many things that don’t actually translate to an absolute “North/South” thing- mind you, very few things do!
And it may well be an age thing as well as an individual or area thing- I tend to speak with people who are about my age or older in English or in Welsh!
[Again, this may well fit in with what Dee is saying, as that could well lead to the “mi” firm becoming more common everywhere!]
I toyed with the Northern Level 1 (Course 1? Whichever the newer one is) for a while, and I seem to remember that the ‘Mi …’ affirmative form is used on there. I haven’t heard the ‘fe’ version much either, although I know of its existence through the Gareth King grammar books (where it’s used in some of the exercises).
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Probably a good idea to stress again for anyone without too many chances to use their Welsh “in the wild”, that the use of “mi/fe” is something it’s good to know about in case you come across it, but not something to worry about using!
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