He Had, She Had

Welsh
#1

I have seen a number of variations for “He Had” and “She Had” - as follows:

CAS E - He had
GAS E - He had
CAFODD E - He had

CAS HI - She had
GAS HI - She had
CAFODD - She had

To add to my confusion I have a good friend - a first language Welsh speaker, born and brought up in Llanelli, who has told me OEDD GANDDO (for he had) and OEDD GANDDI (for she had)

I have also read CAFWYD for “was had”

Can someone please enlighten me

Diolch

#2

I’m not sure where cas/gas e/hi have come from unless it’s a dialect thing. Where have you come across them?

Cafodd e/hi is he/she had (in the sense of received)
Oedd ganddo/ganddi is he/she had (in the sense of possessed)

Cafwyd is indeed ‘was had’ - it’s the passive form of cael (which is also where cafodd comes from) and is really only used as a written form or very formal speech e.g news reporting, official announcements.

Hope that helps.

#3

Diolch Siaron

I came across Cas e/hi in a little publication that I have always found quite useful.

The publication is : STREET WELSH phrase book by Heini Guffudd

Cas e/hi can be found on Page 73

David

#4

Heini Gruffudd

#5

Ah, in that case, it sounds like it’s a very colloquial thing - used in fast native speech in some areas so completely acceptable in speech but not technically grammatically correct. (Like “she’s gonna go” in English - acceptable but not ‘proper’!)

#6

A rather more common variation you’re likely to hear in the south is:

Gaeth e/hi

Which is what the SSiW course uses

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#7

Diolch Siaron

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#8

Diolch Deborah

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#9

Cas e (for caeth e or cafodd e)is an example of a feature in some SE areas - it’s called the S-preterite, and it’s a very old survival. I’ve seen and heard, for example, atebws e for atebodd e.

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#10

Iestyn naturally uses cas e in everyday speech, but decided it was a little too restricted to teach it in our southern course, as tempting as it might be to have it introduced to a new generation of Welsh speakers :smile:

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