Question on Course 2, lesson 9

Welsh
1

I was hoping that someone might have raised this question earlier, but maybe nobody else experienced my confusion.

The English expression was: “Being unable to remember is not useful”
The Welsh is given as: “So ffili cofio’n ddefnyddiol”

My brain struggled with this, even intruding into my sleep. Finally, I reasoned that the way to unravel the Welsh was to construct the English as: " Is not failing to remember useful" = “It’s not useful failing to remember”

Have I made this more difficult than necessary? Have I missed something simpler?

2

Seems ok to me! Whatever helps you understand and remember. Lots of ways of looking at it.
Myself, it looks like-

So [whatever] yn ddefnyddiol = [whatever] is not useful
So [x] yn ddefnyddiol = [x] is not useful

I.e.

So [ffili cofio] yn ddefnyddiol = [failing to remember] is not useful.

[edit- oh, and remember that “ffili” does not quite map onto “fail”. More inclined towards to be unable to. Hope that does not complicate matters for you!]

3

Thank you Owain. That’s a very clear explanation and I like your whatever . I’m sure that is going to help me sort out many more of these in future.

4

This is also a bit of a deliberate curveball from us, just for fun - well, and to try and get you overloaded enough to let go of trying to control the process… :wink: