Hi I’ve just finished Course 1 in a little over 2 months. I was already familiar with many Welsh words and phrases, as my Dad spoke Welsh as his first language, although he moved to England and we were born and brought up there. Unfortunately, I didn’t start to learn Welsh until it was too late, my Dad died in February 2014…it would have been such fun to practice with him. I still have a lot of family in Ceredigion (Aberaeron) so I hope to get to practice on them in November when I am back in the UK…I live in Greece!
I found the course great…being a languages person, I had always learned languages in the “classical” way, so this was very refreshing. I have to admit I did cheat, as I already knew some written words, so I kept a notebook, but only used it when I was not doing a lesson. As warned, I seemed to steam ahead and then came to a slow bit around lesson 6. I did both parts and the bonus, several times before moving on, but then steamed ahead again until almost the end. I redid the last few lessons many times, for fluency. The one thing that I had difficulty with, all the way through was the sentences with the “old dog” or the “young cat”. Probably it was because I was reverting to the familiar way of learning a language, that I was used to. I was trying to build up the sentence instead of just listening and repeating, but I have this curiosity as to how it is built up and I couldn’t work it out. Yr and mae’r still confuse me a bit but I’m sure it’ll come more easily when I decide to start on Course 2.
Anyway, thanks for a great site and opportunity to get a good grasp on the language, so quickly. Let’s hope my relatives understand me, when I go…I think my Dad would be proud!
S’mae Helen?
Llongyfarchiadau on completing Course 1! 
Regarding your question about y/yr and mae’r, y or yr (before a vowel) is the Welsh word for “the”. Mae on the other hand means “is” when you are talking in the so-called third person (as in, He is…, She is…, A cat is…). When the words mae and y are next to each other, they become mae’r (The … is)
Mae’r gath ar ben y bordd - The cat is on top of the table.
I am sure that someone else can explain it better than me, but I hope that helps a bit!
Hwyl,
Stu
Yeah, mae’r is essentially “mae y”, like how it’s is “it is”.
Many congratulations on flying through Course 1 so quickly 
You’ve had the explanations in here - it only remains to add that this is something Course 1 is a little weak on, and is one of the many changes to the new Level 1 - which you might find worth tackling instead of going on to Course 2, since there’s also a lot of other new stuff in it 
Diolch yn fawr for all your answers and I’ll take a look at the new Level 1 before going on any further.