Quick Pattern Question(S)

Welsh
#1

The mae dal eisau and dwi dal yn patterns got me thinking…if I want to say something like ‘I always…’ or ‘I sometimes…’ would it be the same?

Also, to say something like he is clearly running away, would it be mae fe’n amlwg rhedeg bant or mae fe’n rhedeg bant yn amlwg?

(Please forgive and correct my spelling in the above…typing this quickly on a tablet before I amarfer cordd)

#2

The difference is pretty much the same as between ‘he is clearly running away’ and ‘he is running away, clearly’…:smile: Although you’d want ‘mae fe’n amlwg yn rhedeg bant’.

I always - dwi wastad, yup. I sometimes - weithiau dwi would probably sound a bit more normal, but no-one’s going to fail to understand you if you say ‘dwi weithiau’…:smile:

#3

The difference is pretty much the same as between ‘he is clearly running away’ and ‘he is running away, clearly’. Although you’d want ‘mae fe’n amlwg yn rhedeg bant’.

That tricky yn. Dwi’n ofn I gofn but is there a general rule or pattern for where and/or when to place yn?

#4

This is a great example of why we don’t try to teach by explaining things in grammatical terms…:wink:

You’re using ‘yn’ in two different ways just in this one sentence - with the adverb, ‘yn amlwg’, and with the verb, ‘yn rhedeg’. This all works out fine when you say ‘mae fe’n rhedeg bant yn amlwg’, but then when you pull the ‘amlwg’ to the front, you dropped one of them - which would probably not have been noticed in conversation…:smile:

As always, your options boil down to:

  1. Try and build/learn/use rules to get it ‘right’, or

  2. Use and listen to as much Welsh as possible, try again on the rare occasions when you don’t get your meaning across, and trust your brain to figure it out…:smile:

#5

Diolch, Aran.

I will do my level best to stick to option 2…but I can’t promise that my curiousity won’t occasionally lead me to option 1 :-). Unfortunately I’m the type of person that always wonders ‘why’

#6

Wondering ‘why’ is understandable and normal and not a problem (although the answer is almost always ‘because’!) as long as it doesn’t stop you from pushing on with the stuff that will give you the pleasure of speaking…:smile: