Hi everyone! First time posting anything on the Forum. Just wanted to say what a great course this is so far! I feel like I’m actually learning Welsh not just memorizing word lists.
Anyways, so I’m on the first course, lesson 13, and just learned the Welsh word for ‘in.’ I’ve noticed that almost all the time it gets preceded with an ‘e’ sound which normally means ‘to.’ There wasn’t an explanation for this in the lesson, and I was wondering if someone would mind explaining it to me? Diolch!
2 Likes
Hi Owen, welcome to the forum.
Not 100% sure what you mean by the ‘e’ sound but ‘in’ in Welsh is ‘yn’ for the definite article or ‘mewn’ with the indefinite.
So …
‘mewn car’ = in a car.
‘yn y car’ = in the car.
I doubt this answers your question but if you could explain a bit more what you mean we can get this sorted for you.
Edited to add … sorry, I read ‘pronounced’ instead of ‘preceded’ rendering my answer totally irrelevant.
2 Likes
Ok, do you mean ‘i mewn’ which is more like ‘inside’ as a fixed phrase.
Could you give us an example sentence in english or Welsh please?
2 Likes
Sure! So the Welsh for ‘in’ as in ‘inside’ is mewn (sorry in advance for my Welsh spelling). For example, the sentence ‘I will stay in tonight’ is ‘Baddyne arros i vewn heno.’
So the first letter of ‘mewn’ is softened to a ‘v’ sound, which is what happens after ‘i.’ For example ‘going to sleep’ is ‘mynd i guske.’
So to clarify, my question is why would you say ‘i vewn’ in a sentence instead of just ‘mewn?’
Again, really sorry about spelling, I figure writing it will come later. Thanks!
1 Like
Actually, ‘mewn’ is better translated as ‘in’ rather than ‘inside’, as Geraint mentioned above, and ‘i mewn/i fewn’ is ‘inside’ - in English, as in your example, ‘in’ can sometimes also mean ‘inside’ 
.
3 Likes
You’d also put the i in if you wanted to say in to : dwi’n mynd i mewn i’r dŵr = I’m going into the water). Which is often kind of the same thing as in side : dwi’n mynd i mewn i’r ty = I’m going into the house i.e. inside the house, but of course you wouldn’t say in English “going inside the water”.
4 Likes
Welcome to the forum, Owen - Croeso!
Please don’t apologise for your spelling. For one thing we don’t teach you spelling, so you’re just paying us the huge compliment of following our rules to get your speaking as well as possible from the off. So on SSiW you get a gold star for not being able to spell early on!
Are you doing the northern course, or the southern? The reason I ask is that I don;t think I use the “i” of “i mewn” often if at all, which makes me think it might be optional, or at least a dialect thing. That being the case, while it’s always great to ask questions, don’t worry if you can’t work out the system. You’ll just get used to one thing “sounding” right and another not. The less you worry, the quicker you develop the instinct.
4 Likes
Mewn is in, with non-specific nouns:
yn yr adeilad
in the building
mewn adeilad
in a building
Then i mewn is an adverb, usually meaning ‘motion in’:
Inside is tu fewn or tu mewn, and if with a following noun, you must insert an i - and this is equally true of i mewn:
tu fewn i’r adeilad
inside the building
i mewn i’r adeilad
into the building
12 Likes
Just offering a suggestion. Could it have been Tu fewn y myneddfa? Inside the entrance. I must admit that I had mistaken the Tu for I. I’ve just realised myself by checking the vocab.
2 Likes
There is also ‘yn’ = in but this involves treigladau
In the house - yn y tŷ
In my aunts house - yn nhŷ fy modryb
In the city centre - yng nghanol y ddinas
In Cardiff - Yng Nghaerdydd - although you may now hear yn Gaerdydd
In Dolgellau - Yn Nolgellau
In Monmouth - Yn Nhrefynwy
In Bangor - Ym Mangor - althpugh you may now hear Yn Fangor
In Pontypool - Ym Mhontypŵl
In Welsh - Yn (y) Gymraeg
4 Likes
Sorry, Tu fewn ir myneddfa?
That makes sense. Though in lesson 13 of the first course it is definitely almost always ‘i fewn’ for the English word ‘in,’ as in ‘he’s going to stay in tonight.’
1 Like
Haha thanks! I’ll eventually work on spelling I’m sure, but that’ll come in time. I’m doing the northern course…that’s interesting, I wonder if there’s a difference between the north and the south in whether to say ‘mewn’ or ‘i fewn.’
I definitely find it helpful the way the course is structured; it’s much simpler to pick it up by familiarity instead of trying to parse out rules first.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply! So would it be correct to say the English phrase “he is staying in tonight” as “my on arros i fewn heno” Ignore the terrible spelling. That seems to be the way lesson 13 in the first course is saying it as.
2 Likes
I don’t think I’m quite there yet in the course yet, but thank you though!
1 Like
The technically correct version is ‘i mewn’ - it’s an exception to the mutation - but you’ll often hear native speakers saying ‘i fewn’… 
1 Like
Yes it would!
And @aran is right with both his observations - the accepted standard and written is i mewn, but squillions of native speakers routinely use i fewn in most circumstances.
3 Likes
I’ve always wondered exactly how many a squillion is. If we’re looking for a million Welsh speakers it must be, by pure deduction, quite a bit less than that. Even further, if squillions say i fewn, that implies that that is a percentage of those native speakers you speak of. Further research is needed.
ETA. Google tells me that it’s an “indefinite very large number.”
Also I found this …
1 Like
so what I thought was dere mewn is perhaps der i mewn? and similarly for cer?
1 Like