Identification / emphatic sentences and noun phrases

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hi,

I think I’m getting to grips with the idea of identification / emphatic sentences when the complement is a straight noun: ‘Athro ydw i…’.

But I’d just like to check what qualifies as a noun phrase, please. Do verbnouns count as noun phrases or not?

E.g. ‘My job is to drive the car’ (contrasting it with your job).

  • Mae fy ngwaith yn cyrru’r car…
  • Fy ngwaith ydy cyrru’r car…
  • Fy ngwaith sy’n cyrru’r car…

I think the first is fine as a straight unemphasised sentence, but could you use either other two (or something else I’ve missed…)?

Diolch yn fawr…

#2

The first of your sentences to me reads “My work drives the car”, and the third one “My work drives the car”, which I don’t think is quite what you want to say…

I don’t know the ins and outs of the grammar, but I would say “Fy swydd i yw gyrru’r car”. The only alternative to that I can think of is “Gyrru’r car yw fy swydd”, which would be emphasising the driving rather than who’s doing it.

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#3

Thanks, Sara!

I made a mess of the first and third, didn’t I…

But the general principle of the second is sound, ‘drives the car’ counts as a noun phrase for this purpose so you use ‘ydy’ not ‘mae’ or ‘sy’?

Thanks again!

#4

Yes - generally, what’s either side of the ‘ydy’ in these kinds of sentences points to the same thing, so here, ‘driving the car’ and ‘my job’ are referring to the same thing. Just like ‘Deborah ydw i’ - both ‘Deborah’ and ‘i’ refer to me.

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#5

That’s great – thanks, @Deborah-SSi!

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