Could somebody please explain why “ydyn nhw” and not “maen nhw” is used in the sentence “dan ni ddim yn gwybod os ydyn nhw eisiau…”? Diolch yn fawr. Gary
Usually in ‘if’ sentences, we are referring to something that will happen in the future, but in this sentence we are referring to something in the present i.e. if they want to right now (we know this because if we wanted to say if they will want to , it would be os byddan nhw eisiau).
When os is used in the present tense like this, the 3rd person singular becomes ydy/yw instead of mae and the 3rd person plural becomes ydyn instead of mae.
So it’s basically because of the tense of the ‘if’.
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That’s interesting. I’d been trying to work out for a while why it’s sometimes phrased as though it’s a question and sometimes not. I hadn’t spotted a pattern.
Hi Siaron, Thanks for your excellent explanation. I had a feeling it was because of os. Are you a fluent Welsh speaker? Gary
I’m pretty much fluent now - it’s my second language though.
Siaron is being very modest!
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Yeah, well, you know - it’s the f-word with learners of all levels! 