In Welsh you can say ‘that’ + ‘not’ in the middle of a sentence combined…which is quite a cool thing - and when you’ve mastered it your allowed to wear shades when speaking Welsh
In the southern SSIW course they use ‘nag’ for this although in a text book you’d see ‘nad’.
…nag yw e = that he is not
…nag oedd e = that he wasn’t
And putting the wedi in from above…
…nag oedd e wedi = that he hadn’t…
As you know wedi is often shortened to 'di in the southern courses which could apply to the examples above.
Swap the 'n for a wedi - to get haven’t and hadn’t respectively.
So I guess there is a ‘thing’ there which is that the present tense uses the ydy/yw form - similar to if you were giving a negative response (eg. No I’m not)
Firstly I would say, as usual, that this is a great question…
… i would say that if you were in a situation where the sentence was literally relaying a conversation ie so that effectively there were quotation marks associated with the “he doesn’t want to…” or even 'he wasn’t wanting to…" it would definitely be nag yw e.
Secondly, if you had that here, it would also be fine and/or correct…
…I have heard stories of Iestyn pondering these sentences prior to recording and asking himself ‘how would I say that…’ - personally I’d explain the way it is, as was described to me many, many times by a first language speaker when I was learning, that people just love to drop into the story telling mode and the story telling tense - the ‘was’ tense at any available opportunity -[which sort of relies you not being quoted or having to provide pinpoint accuracy ( eg an expectation of a direct quote or exactly what was said…)]
This was a new idea for me at the time but I have subsequently realised that this exists in English too…we might use the ‘was’ tense for the recent past…then the past tense for something ‘older’ than that…but when we talk about something even older than that - we are relaying history or just ‘telling a story’, blow me down but ‘was’ appears again…(See below - random from Wikipedia).
…I notice time and time again that the was tense is used in Welsh for things in the past where, in English you might not - so ‘even more so’, if you like.
Overall however @diana-allpress I’d say trust your instincts and see how you go! you’ve got it - Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies!
Rich
Guy Fawkes (/fɔːks/; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606),[a] also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who was involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusantCatholic.
Diolch! That does help. Good to know I was technically correct, I just need to learn to go with the flow and not worry too much about getting it absolutely correct every time - I guess however you say it, you would still be understood