If “pe taswn i” is the long version of “'swn i”, why have I just read “petai’n i”? Also, “petaet ti’n” in place of “pe tastet ti’n” etc. Is there a different way of saying each one (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they)??
Unfortunately it’s not as simple as “one long form, one short form” with the conditional/hypothetical ‘if’.
In the most formal construction, the forms of bod used after pe are byddwn, byddit, byddai, byddem, byddech, byddent.
As I understand it (I may have wires crossed here though - long time since I did this in Uni!), the originally spoken forms petaswn, petaset, etc came from those forms but are now also used perfectly legitimately as a written form, and yes, these get contracted to 'swn i, 'set ti, etc
But just to complicate things, both of these also have alternative contractions -
pe bawn, pe baet, pe bai, pe baem, pe baech, pe baent, as well as petawn, petaet, petae/petai, petaem, petaech, petaent.
It isn’t unusual, particularly in written Welsh, to come across these instead of the more familiar forms.
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This thread does a good job of explaining:
And just know you’re not the only one baffled by it!!
Yes, that helps with when to use it. Thanks. I’m still a little confused as to when I would choose to use the pe bawn/petawn, pe baet/petaet forms though. Are they more formal uses for writing only?
Yes, very formal forms - you wouldn’t usually hear them in everyday speech.