Problems with 'Wedi'

Can someone explain to me, in the simplest possible terms, when to use ‘wedi’ and how many meanings does it have.
Thanks.

Hi Rob

Someone may jump in later than me with a better response.

I think of the word “wedi” in two ways.

1. Similar to the English word “have” as in “have done”.
E.G
I have eaten already today.
Dw i wedi fwyta yn barod heddiw.

I have played football this week
Dw i wedi chwarae pel-droed wythnos yma.

2. Part of another word to make it a “done” thing.

E.G
Coginio = cooking
Wedi’i coginio = cooked.

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Thanks Nicky, that’s helpful. I get c onfused when I see phrases like wedi blino which seems to translate as I have tiredness.

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I think this is one of those “subtleties” (is that a word?) of the language.

Blino = tired
Wedi blino = have tired.

I don’t know how to describe these subtlities tbh - In French to say “three years ago” we say literally “il y a trois ans” which actually means “there is three years”.

:D:D:D:D:D

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I think it makes more sense if you think of it as to ‘have tired’, as in the past tense of the verb ‘tire’. Wedi doesn’t mean have in the sense of possession - and I’ve read somewhere that it is more accurately translated as ‘after’ - as in ‘I am after tiring.’ Hope that helps a bit. :slight_smile:

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Sometimes it can help to think of ‘wedi’ as ‘after’.

wedi hynny - after that
wedi’r cwbl - after all
wedi blino - after tiring (ok stretching it a bit but you get the idea).

(Edit: oops, @Karla, jinx… )

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Yes, wedi is one of those things that doesn’t really translate all that neatly into English. It always denotes a ‘past’ thing, but as you have found, ‘being tired’ in English is ‘being been tired’ in Welsh! And just to confuse things further, it’s not the only way to say ‘I’m tired’ (plenty of other ways can be found by looking up ‘tired’ in the online Geiriadur Academi), although it is probably the most common. As Karla and Netmouse said, thinking of it as a kind of ‘after’ can help.

While we’re on all things tiring (!) -
blino = to tire
blinder = tiredness
blinedig / wedi blino = tired
blinderus = tiring / tiresome

but they can also overlap (e.g. blinedig can also mean tiring).

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I’m not really adding anything, just saying, in Welsh class many, many moons ago, I learned ‘wedi=after’, so in English, ‘I have eaten’, in Welsh, ‘I am after eating’ ‘dw i wedi bwyta’. Now, ‘I’m tired’ really means, ‘I am after tiring’ so ‘wedi blino’ makes sense! :smile: :wink:

As Siaron said, it doesn’t really map to English - so my initial response to this was ‘Nope, not really’…:wink:

Which means the key thing is not to worry about it too much - don’t worry about how to make ‘wedi blino’ fit into ‘normal’ English grammar - just accept that it’s different, and that it’s what you’re going to need to say when in English you would say that you’re tired… and over time, you’ll collect a range of things you say with ‘wedi’ in them, and your brain will use that information to do a lot of pattern recognition for you, which will eventually lead to you using ‘wedi’ successfully in new contexts… :slight_smile:

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…Which is exactly what they say in Irish English, even speakers who have no Irish. Many years ago my brother heard a news report on the radio about shoot-to-kill allegations in Northern Ireland, and an eyewitness said “they were after going through the checkpoint” - meaning that the people had just gone through the checkpoint when they were shot. My brother had never heard this turn of phrase at the time, and understood it (by analogy with, say, “Are you after anything particular in the sales?”) to mean that they wanted to go through the checkpoint, presumably without stopping, and at first thought that they probably had at least a share of the blame…

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I knew the Irish usage before learning Cymraeg and presumed it came from similarities of Celtic languages. Maybe @garethrking could answer that?

When I was struggling with ‘wedi’ I liked the explanation that it means after and i’ve never been much troubled by wedi since:

wedi blino = after tiring
wedi’r coginio = after cooking = cooked
wedi fwyta = after eating = have eaten

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And similarly wy wedi’i frio “egg after its frying = egg that has been fried = fried egg”.

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And one wedi’i ffraeo is presumably one that’s been fighting. Possibly, though not necessarily, a beaten egg…

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Yes it does. I’ve even heard Welsh people say it on occasion.

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Hi @RobMorgan I’ve PM’d you a video that helps explain it as well :slight_smile:

Post it here @Nicky.

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if you’re sure!!

It’s about half-making sure we’ve got the tenses down in English first, then second half making it Welsh.

I don’t go into complex stuff :smiley:

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“Wedi” confused me too, especially when I started the past tense (I also go to classes). I was putting in willy nilly in all past sentances.

Asked my tutor and also looked up grammar section of “The Welsh Learner’s Dictionary” (yLlofa) which is worth it’s weight in gold.Both said the same.

It seems to be what is grammatically called, the past pluperfect. May not make much sense but similar to “I had eaten” “I had gone” etc.

Hope that is helpful.

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“Wedi” is the perfect tense, at least that’s the term I would use. The pluperfect is the “Roedd wedi” tense.

Dw i’n bwyta – I’m eating
O’n i’n bwyta – I was eating
Dw i wedi bwyta – I have eaten
O’n i wedi bwyta – I had eaten

That’s how it’s always been taught to me on courses where a bit of grammar crept in.

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