Hitting the wall

I was feeling highly chuffed with myself for completing Level 1 until I tried Challenge 2 Level 2 yesterday and could only think, ‘whoah, what happened?’ I’ve been completely trusting the method and not looking at grammar textbooks but now, with the sudden appearance of ‘gynnoch’ and ‘gaethach’ and ‘fyddwn’ I’m wondering if it’s textbook time? And if so, which book? I want to be able to adapt the phrases I learn on SSiW to other situations and to do that I need (I think) to understand how the structures work. I would greatly appreciate some advice. All that said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Say Something. Mondays have never been so exciting…

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Hi Laurie, congratulations for finishing level 1! :slight_smile:

you must be doing the Northern course cause I’ve never met gynnoch and gaethnach, but I’m sure they have an equivalent in the Southern version.
And I remember feeling lost myself when at the beginning of Level 2 cause I could’t figure out what was going on.

I just repeated Challenge 1 and 2 once, and then carried on. Just repeating the sounds I was hearing the best I could, and not worrying too much not to have any idea of what each syllable meant. :sweat_smile:

I did ask a few questions in the Forum when I felt I really stuck and needed to understand, but tnothing else.
And now one year later I went through those Challenges again for the first time and was amazed to realize I can understand what’s going on!
And I can use those structures to build my own sentences, too! :slight_smile:

However, if you think it may help you, or you just enjoy reading and understanding more about structures right away, I’m sure you can’t go wrong with “Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar” by Gareth King.

p.s. at first the price was a bit of a shock, but there’s also a digital version and a few second hand ones around from time to time.
p.p.s. I didn’t feel the need of a Grammar book so far. Just recently I’ve started to get a bit curious to find out more, but rumours are that the same author (who often answer to questions himself in this forum, by the way) is making a new book…so I’ll wait to see that one!

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Hi @laurie-1

Just to echo @gisella-albertini, well done on completing level one!

For a grammar guide that gives you the different conjugations of words is the BBC has a free PDF called “Welsh Grammar”. Really handy when you can’t remember the right ending.

Rest assured, you already can form different structures with the Welsh you’ve got! Don’t worry about being a bit blown away, it’s just a sign you’re learning new things and pushing your boundaries.

Gynnoch chi is just the chi version of gan. Gan we’ve had before with “gen i” “gent ti” etc. As you start to read more you’ll see other forms like “gynnaf” which is a fancy version of “gen”. However, said all that, if you said “mae gen chi” you’d be perfectly understood and the conversation would carry on flowing :slight_smile:

Gaethoch then is a form of “cael” - (ges i, gest ti). The handy bit about what you’ve learnt there is -aethoch forms all the part tense versions of verbs:

Aethoch - you went (same as es i - i went)
Naethoch - you did (nes i)
Ddudoch - you said (ddudes i)

So now, you’ve got loads at your finger tips :slight_smile:

I hope that helps?

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I forgot to mention fyddwn, sorry! This is really handy too.

Byddwn - i would
Fyddwn i ddim - i wouldn’t

This ending we’ve had before - medrwn (i could) and have you met dylwn? I can’t remember. If you haven’t it’s - i should.
We’ve had liciwn too - i would like.
So -wn on the end is the same as “ould” in English, the conditional tense.

Welsh has some lovely patterns in it, which I found helped me remember and build other structures.

Pob lwc and we’re always happy to help on the forum :slight_smile:

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A lot of people feel the need for the sense of control that conscious understanding of patterns gives you - but it’s very much optional - if you keep on moving forward, your brain will spot the patterns for you, and you’ll start to extrapolate from your existing material - often enough without even realising that’s what you’re doing… :slight_smile:

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Thanks, Gisella. Yes, I’d heard the rumour about a new Gareth King book as well, so that seems like a good reason to stop panicking and wait. Pob hwyl!

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Diolch, diolch, Anthony, for two very helpful messages. Panic over :slightly_smiling_face:

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Got it. It’s my control freak tendency rearing its head. But anyway, thank you. I’ve now stopped hyperventilating.

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