Thanks for your replies folks, but i wasnt too worried about the ‘mewn’ pronunciation if that was what I thought Aran was saying…but after introducing the word as that, it seems to be used all the time with an ‘i’ in front and v sound?? Cant get why?? Sorry to be a pest about it, but with everything else I have understood the ‘pattern’ of how the words are used but I’m actually not understanding. Nor that use of ‘mae o’n’ i mentioned?
I will have a go at this with the hope someone will correct any mistakes i make.
Mewn sounding like (noun) in pronunciation ,yep.
Hearing ee voun. It’s i fewn. (the (i) is for to and the (f) sounds like english v.
Mae o’n, the (mae) it’s, (o’n) short for (o yn), the (o) is just letting us know the subject is masculine.
If it was feminine you would have. Mae hi’n.
Hope that helps.
Cheers J.P.
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Thanks John. I’m sorry but i must’nt be explaining v well what I’m not understanding. I do understand that what I’m hearing must be i fewn ( i wrote how it sounded) but i don’t understand why? I don’t understand why the ‘i’ is there? In the sentences, we are told ‘allan’ means ‘out’ and ‘mewn’ means ‘in’. The following sentences with the word ‘allan’ are straightforward, as in ‘Dw i’n mynd allan heno’, but the sentence about staying in, has this ‘i fewn’ and i dont understand the composition of the sentence with the word ‘to’ in it?
The same with the sentence starting ‘mae o’n’ that im struggling with. I know it’s masculine, and ‘mae h’in’ feminine, but im not understanding why THAT particular sentence begins with those words. Im really sorry, i mustnt be v clear, it’s hard in text to explain…im just really struggling, because so far I have understand the construction of everything, the rules and patterns, but Im not getting this.
So basically im saying it’s the grammatical structure im not understanding, not the words themselves?
Ruth,
I have always followed Aran’s advice, which is that one shouldn’t get too anxious about grammatical structures in the early stages. Just keep practising and it will come naturally after a while. This applies particularly to mutations, where the rues are fiendishly complex. Don’t worry about it, just press on, get plenty of practice and remember that subsequent lessons will go over the same words and structures again. There have been times when I have asked myself why I have voluntarily undergone this torture but, believe me, it gets better!
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Just to introduce a cat or gath among some pigeons, I learned “Dewch i mewn” for “Come in”, no mutation of the ‘m’!!!
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You’re getting caught up on this because it’s not a neat match with English, if that’s any consolation…
‘Mewn’ is ‘in’, yes, but sometimes it’s ‘i mewn’ (the ‘i fewn’ is pretty common in speech, but slangy and not technically correct).
Now, I could try to think of examples so that I could build a grammatical rule for you (maybe something to do with implication of movement?!) - but you’ll find that the easiest approach is just to get use to the structures - so you’ll start to say ‘aros i mewn’ (or ‘aros i fewn’!) naturally, and then (in due course, when you’ve had enough exposure) things like ‘Trafferth mewn tafarn’ or ‘Traed mewn cyffion’ etc etc… 
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Thanks everyone!! I realised after reading John’s reply earlier that I needed to just accept it and move on! As you all have said, if you just do as you are told it becomes natural!! Thanks also Aran for the reinforcement. I pressed on regardless when dog walking earlier and have finished 13!! YAY! I can’t believe im half way through Course 1, and on the whole, really comfortable with it, if still rather slow at times. LOVE this course and feeling quite obsessed!
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Good heavens! You’re rattling along at a terrific rate! 
It’s inevitable, when you’re acquiring so much so quickly, that there will be gaps - but the less you worry about them, the less they’ll matter - because once you start getting yourself into enough conversations, you’ll iron them all out without really needing to think about it
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Diolch!!
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Update on my progress…can’t believe this…just finished lesson 18 (Course 1, Northern)! Looking back on this thread I was downloading lesson 7 on April 3rd. This means I have completed 11 lessons in 18 days!! Hope you don’t think I’m showing off…I’m just sooo excited by it! What I’m finding is that I just don’t need as many listens to a lesson as at the beginning. Usually 2 listens at the most, I just seem to be picking up how new patterns work so much quicker. I am somebody who literally got ‘U’ at ‘O’ level French. So I wanted to post this amazing progress report for encouragement to newer learners and to thank the SSiW team for their utterly brilliant method of language teaching. If I can do it then anyone can! # THRILLED
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Now you know how well you can learn, how about a date with a boot camp? Are there any spaces left at the end of the year? And do you think you can answer your own question which started this thread? Well done though, and keep up the very good work you are doing.
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Ah, one of those slow people who is much faster than me.
da iawn, dal ati.
Cheers J.P.
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Hi Margaret
I think I’ve really surprised myself with how I am doing on this course; yes, my question at the beginning was really wondering how people my age and older get on with learning a new language, as I tended to think it would be such a hugely difficult thing to do and that people who are ‘good’ at languages discover that skill young at school or are brought up with more than one language in their family. This course has shattered those preconceptions well and truly. Bootcamp sounds amazing and I’m sure it must be a fantastic experience…I might get there one day? In the meantime I have a week booked on my beloved Ynys Mon in June, I will definitely try my Cymraeg on some poor unsuspecting locals!
- sorry. Atrocious spelling of Cymraeg corrected…thought it didn’t look right!
I’m sure you will give them a run for their money. 
I guess with age, we may lose some of the advantages of youth when it comes to learning, but we gain others, e.g. experience, judgement, and perhaps “stickability”.
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This is truly superb, Ruth - keep going at this rate and you’ll have finished all our material before the end of the year… 
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Wow! That’s brilliant! I could feel the excitement in your message - how wonderful.
I just wanted to add about the age thing: learning a language later on in life can only help, IMO, keep the dementia at bay further on down the line. You’re doing great things for your brain. I was going to say (when reading the beginning of the thread) that if you keep at it you’ll find that it comes more smoothly (not ‘gets easier’, exactly) - but now I’ve reached the end I can see that you’ve found that out for yourself!
I am sure that you will find people willing to chat to you in Welsh when you go to Ynys Mon - I have found that people in the north-west have always been really supportive to learners whenever I’ve been there.
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Thanks folks for all your kind comments, they are so encouraging. I have to say the wind in my sails has been slightly deflated today by the ‘toughie’ that is Lesson 20 (I skipped through 19!). This will perhaps be more than two listens…but on the positive side I have now done enough lessons to realise that if something is devilishly hard now…it will seem not too bad at all in 4 lessons time!!
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And very patient with folk from de Cymru who can’t understand their accent, never mind Cymraeg gog!!!
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It might be a good idea for you not to do more than two listens on it - just as a test, if you like to think of it that way? Everyone finds some lessons tougher than others - sometimes because they haven’t been written as well (sorry!), sometimes for a range of other reasons - but if you move on and trust the process, the spaced repetition will help everything bed in. It’s the moving on, more than the repetition of a single lessons, which really gets everything lined up
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