Mae gen i

Interesting! I thought that I mix these because english isn’t my first language and that native english speakers don’t make mistakes in this. For me this is mostly because I’ve been taught in school “I have (got) something” (as I own) and “I have to” (as I must) and although I know the “I’ve got” and “I’ve got to” forms, they are not dominant in my use of english. And they sound so similar that I always need to use the pause button and think which one it was.

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Yes, I think that you are correct. In that “got” is just emphatic in both of the above-mentioned meanings.

However, the third “got/gotten/had” meaning, for “received” or “obtained” is quite handy, as that’s when we use the “cael” verb as mentioned further above.

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Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one who struggles to get to grips with this! Just when I think I’ve cracked it, I use the wrong one! :roll_eyes:

Talking more “larger” about studying verbs and the way we use it, I was laughing the other day because I realised that after challenge 3, which is almost “just beginning level”, we have been teached :

  • I speak
  • I spoke
  • I have spoken
  • Ihave been speaking
  • I was speaking
  • I’m going to speak
    and finally, at challenge 4 :
  • :I would speak
    (without forgetting “I"ve got to speak”, but here we may consider that we conjugate “get” and not “speak”)

!!! Aran !!! I cry MERCY !!!
:crazy_face: :roll_eyes: :partying_face:
Are ALL those forms absolutely necessary to know at such a beginning level ? ??!!!
I’m sure there is a way to tell a nice welshman or woman something without beeing this precise, at least at the beginning
The same when teaching "for " and “for ABOUT”. : for this "about precision, I would use my hand (waving them in an “about” gesture), and that’s enough to begin !.
So… there are words that for the moment I “let down” because too precise !

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Dont worry. That’s the one that means “I must” in English. So just "Mae rhaid i mi’ in Welsh. You dont need to translate “got,”.

Also the ones in your bottom paragraph are for us to learn, so that we recognise them when er hear them. However, as in any language, you will probably end up with one or two favourite forms of your own for speaking in real life.

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@mcbrittany, this is EXACTLY why SSIW is so excellent. You learn, in a matter of hours, stuff that more traditional courses take months and years to teach. Of course, your brain is frazzled at the same time, but your Welsh first language speaker friends are VERY impressed.

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Well I’m not sure of wihing to impress, really…
This is certainly a very very good method, since every one thinks so, but for my part I really need to mix with another one which contains more “everyday life” and less “technical” vocabulary.

I’m not sure that the first things I’dl like to say to a welsh speaker would be that I am precisely learning (or have been learnig, or was learning, or wishing I would learn…) welsh for (just or about) 1 month, or 2, or 3 : I really need those little words Hello, good bye, how are you, what’s your name, my name is…, please (the most imortant :), thankyou (another most important !), excuse-me (too…) I. I think there was a way to include them into some sentences of the first challenges…Just to give a bit warmness
Beginning with “I want” (wawh !) is a bit hard ! :grinning:

Of course, beeing able to say “for just” and “for about” will be usefull later on, and the conjugating forms we are teached with the verb “to learn” will also be usefull with other verbs more “in the everday life”, but for now I don’t find any fun or even proudness in beeing abble to “impress” a welsh speaker talking to him or her about my level and from howl ong ago I got it…

But II go on with SSIW, mixing with the everyday life challenges of BBC Wales, and it is OK for me : I find there what I don’t find here, and I find here what I don’t find there.
Each one separatly, no, but a combination of both is perfect for me.
And what is excellent with SSIW is this excellent place to askquestions and get answers !

So thankyou !

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English is my first and only language, but since Aran often says “I’ve got” or “I’ve got to”, I forget which Welsh phrase corresponds to which one. It’s not the English I have trouble with, it’s remembering which one is “rhaid i mi” and which is “mae gen i”. I sometimes wonder if they do things like this on purpose to laugh as they watch us struggle make us think more or pay attention more. Sort of like how when they’re saying the Welsh, occasionally the two of them say slightly different things. I’m certain Catrin said “ddiddorol iawn” instead of “ddiddorol rŵan” in Challenge 5.

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