Help Understanding Past Tense

Welsh
1

Helo Pawb!

I am writing a monologue yn Gymraeg ond I started it yn Saesneg achos mae’n fy iaith cyntaf so I’m just going through and translating it line by line. I have become stuck on how to translate ‘we would’ and wanted some clarification.

I understand that byddem can mean ‘we will/we would’ but is it strictly for yr amser dyfodol? In the monolog I am recalling something so I’m saying ‘we would use the payphone’ but I don’t want the fersiwn Gymraeg to be understood as ‘we will be using the payphone’. I suppose I could say ‘wnaethon defnyddio’r ffôn talu’ but I am also just curious now whether Cymraeg has an equivalent to ‘would’ as past tense.

I’ve had a look elsewhere and found some things about ‘would’ being a modal verb but can’t seem to get a clear answer about Cymraeg. Any help much appreciated, diolch yn fawr!

2

There is not a specific past tense for this, and it’s the context that would put the statement in the past, so bydden ni’n defnyddio’r ciosg ffôn would be fine. You could, though, clarify further by putting a ‘have’ in there “we would have used the payphone” = bydden ni wedi defnyddio’r ciosg ffôn

1 Like
3

Diolch am fawr fawr iawn am yr ateb hwn!

2 Likes