Hello. In this practice (4) “dylen i fod wedi gofyn” is translated as “I should have asked”. Why “fod”?. Literally it says: “I should have been asking”, I think.
I’m confused: “have been” is “wedi bod/fod”, now the “fod” is in front of “wedi”.
Or stands “fod” for “that”? Then it makes more sense: “I should have asked that”. But still ??
It’s not unusual for a pattern in Welsh to make no sense when translated directly to English - the translation has to be the best match in meaning, not a word-for-word swap.
Literally the phrase in Welsh says I should (dylwn i) + be (fod) + after asking (wedi gofyn), but of course that’s not how we’d say in English.
‘wedi bod’ is indeed ‘have been’ (think of it as a whole rather than the two individual words), but ‘have been’ is not in the sentence.
Thanks. But now the translation from English to Welsh: “I should have asked” I inclined to translate that as: “Dylen i wedi gofyn” So no “fod”! Is this also correct?
Technically it should be “dylwn i fod wedi gofyn”, but if you said “dylwn i wedi gofyn” you’d be understood.