Help please! - birthday card greetings in Welsh

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hi all, some help please!

My wife and I want to send a birthday card to a friend who has some knowledge of the Welsh language. The front of the card shows a lone sheep (made of real wool) and the simple words PENBLWYDD HAPUS.

On the inside, we would like to write the following in Welsh:

Best wishes from Gavin, Mary and the sheep

I’ve come up with the following:
Dymuniadau gorau o Gavin, Mary (and the??) dafad

My questions:

  1. “Dymuniadau gorau” sounds a bit of a mouthful. Is there a simpler and less formal way of saying “best wishes”?
  2. How do you say “and the” in Welsh?
  3. Does the “d” of “Dafad” mutate to “dd”?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Diolch yn fawr!
Gavin (and the sheep)

#2

Dymuniadau Gorau oddi wrth Gavin, Mary a’r ddafad

  1. not really! Dymuniadau Gorau is fine.
  2. a’r - this is a contraction of a (and) and yr (the). Because a is obviously a vowel, the yr becomes 'r
  3. yes because sheep is a feminine noun

:slight_smile:

PS - “from” - when something comes from a person, the o becomes oddi wrth

6 Likes
#3

Diolch yn fawr, @siaronjames , for your very helpful reply!

Gavin

2 Likes
#4

But is it one sheep, or a flock of sheep? A single sheep is ‘dafad’, but a flock is ‘defaid’.

#5

Just one sheep, all on its lonesome!

#6

So does ‘dafad’ mean ‘ewe’ and what is ‘ram’ should Gavin’s sheep happen to be one? Or are we in the confusing territory I have with my little poodle-dog Toffi, who is female and my cats of long ago who were toms robbed, by the vet, of their essentials

#7

Yes, dafad is ewe, but is also the generic term for either gender (but as a word, is always feminine). ‘Ram’ would be maharen (North) or hwrdd (South) - both of which are male nouns.