Expressing negatives

I’ve just finished Level 2, and there is an issue that crops up in Lesson 24 that I’ve been wondering about for some time - any help greatly appreciated.

In the past, when there has been a negative component in a sentence, e.g. ‘I heard that you didn’t have time …’, I’ve translated it as ‘Clywais i chest ti ddim amser …’ only to get the translation as ‘Clywais i na chest ti amser…’, so thought (perhaps correctly) that I was wrong.

In lesson 24, though, there are two examples that are translated in two different ways - ‘You’d tell me that she didn’t want to go…’ is translated as ‘Byddet ti’n dweud wrtha i nag oedd hi’n moyn mynd…’ -which is consistent with earlier, similar sentences in the course. But then ‘You’d tell me that she didn’t want to answer …’ is translated as ‘Byddet ti’n dweud wrtha i bod hi ddim yn moyn ateb…’

Am I missing something subtle here or is either form correct?

Sorry for the long post but I hope my issue is clear. Diolch in advance.

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Hello Alun
I hope some people with more knowledge about grammar will answer your questions but I try my best.
As far as I know, you can use both ways of expressing these negatives.
The one : " na chest ti …" is maybe more correct and is what you will find in books. The other way : " bod hi ddim …" is more collequial and more or less a literal translation of " that she doesn’t " . I’ve heard that even a mixture like : " na chest ti ddim …" is used, so don’t worry about it and just say what comes first into your mind.

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Yup, what Brigitte said… :slight_smile:

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Thanks Brigitte and Aran - I can now sleep at night!!

Hwyl fawr

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