Hi there,
I’m brand new here, but have been using Duolingo for a few weeks now, so I know a bit about when we use ‘mae’, but I came across something on social media today that had me scratching my head. “Mae’r amser wedi dod i gynnal cystadleuaeth Nadolig.” (The time has come to hold a Christmas competition?)
I wondered why we need to use mae’r amser instead of just yr amser. Perhaps thats a daft question, but as far as I’ve learned, I thought mae meant it is, there is, are?
Any help would be so greatly appreciated!
Kate. 
It can mean that, but in your example, it is used to create a different construct. ‘mae wedi dod’ literally means ‘is after coming’, in other words ‘has come’. Similarly, ‘I am tired’ is ‘dw i wedi blino’ - ‘I am after tiring’
I’m told that this construct is used in certain English language dialects in Ireland, too
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Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that to me, Louis. That makes so much sense to have it put that way.
Would it be grammatically incorrect simply to say ‘Yr amser wedi dod i’? As far as I’m aware, mae is also used after nouns, and I’m not sure if I’m correct in saying the word ‘time’ is a noun. If it is, I assume this is also why we use it before ‘amser’?
Well, a ‘normal’ grammatically correct sentence in Welsh starts with a verb form, and in your case, ‘mae’ is that verb form. Another question is if you always need grammatically correct sentences in any language, you would be perfectly well understood without the ‘mae’ of course. And yes, ‘amser’ is a noun.
That clear it up for you?
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Yes that definitely clears it up!
Apologies for the daft question but thank you for being so kind as to respond!
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