Hi, this is my first posting to the Forum. I’m working on Lesson 9 of Course 1 and there are a couple of things which are confusing me - can anyone help, please?
The lesson teaches how to say “He is” and “She is”. But then in the middle it asks for the Welsh for “The old dog doesn’t want to go”. The answer is…The first word sounds similar to “dwr” (water) - “Dwr hen ghi ddim yn moyn mynd”. What is that first word, why do we use it, and why is this thrown in with learnlng how to say “he is” and “she is”? (Iestyn’s usual clear explanations are missing here)
Also, the lesson teaches how to say “He does not”. It sounds like “Dooey ddim yn” (I don’t know the spelling of “dooey” so I have spelt it phonetically). When it comes to “She does not” It sounds exactly the same. So, do we say “he does not” and “she does not” in exactly the same way in Welsh?
Hello Gavin, and croeso i’r forum.
I do the Northern course, but I try to help you as much as I can.
You know that " He or she is" is: mae fe, or mae hi,
but if you want to say" he/she is not" you don’t use “mae” but “dyw” so: he is not : dyw e ddim, she is not: dyw hi ddim.
If you use a name or a noun instead of “fe” or “he” it is the same, so the dog wants… mae’r ci yn moyn, but : the dog does not want… dyw’r ci ddim yn moyn.
I hope this helps you a bit until someone, who does the Southern course can explain better.
The negative for “mae fe” and “mae hi” is “dyw e ddim” and “dyw hi ddim”. How you heard them pronounced (and described it phonetically) is correct, although you may hear a subtle difference between the “e” and “hi”.
When talking about something specifically (eg, the old dog) in the negative, it is “dyw’r hen gi ddim…”. You’re right in how it sounds like “dŵr”, like water. This is where “dyw” and “yr” are merged together in speech, and would never be misunderstood or confused if you were to say this to a Welsh speaker in live conversation.
Nothing to add to the previous answers, just to say - yep, you’re pretty close there, and if your doing that well after 9 lessons, then you’re doing very well indeed! Keep at it, and rememebr to use the forum for any confusions!
As has been previously said, the Welsh (or a form of Welsh ) for “he is not”
is
“dyw e ddim”.
The main “to be” verb changes quite a bit in the negative here!
It’s pronounced, if you want an approximation in English spelling,
similar to “you” with a “d” sound in front of it.
“d-you”
“dyou”
(one smooth syllable.)
(Again using English to represent, like “would you”, without the “woo” sound. )
“Dooey ddim” is more of a representation (in English spelling) of “dw i ddim”, “I am not”.
But certainly, and as has been importantly pointed out above, don’t worry about getting the pronunciation exactly correct allow you to slow down your speaking!
“He is not”-
“dyw e ddim”
the “e” is pronounced something like “eh” or even “air” (without the ‘r’ on the end)
“She is not”-
“dyw hi ddim” -
the “hi” is pronounced as the English word “he”, making it easy to remember
But the “h” can often be dropped
) for “he is not”