Rules for using present tense to show a past action

Correct! :slight_smile: :+1:

Sorry for raising this thread from the days when we were all young and carefree…

Today i came across the quote below and I’ve been trying to work out the grammar behind a dweud:

Pan ddangosais i’r amlen iddi, a dweud wrthi fod rhywun wedi postio’r[…] Nodiodd yn flinedig, a dweud[…] (Steffan Ros, Manon. Y Stelciwr (Welsh Edition) (p. 45). www.ylolfa.com. Kindle Edition.)

Is this the same reluctance to use inflected verbs twice in the same sentence, and essentially the same use of a ‘tenseless naked verb/noun’? Or is something else going on?

Many thanks!

David

If you have two (or more) VNs that are sort of equal in the way they’re used, then only the first one needs to be inflected. In your example the two actions “dangos” and “dweud” are happening at the same time. Without the bit in the middle ddangosais i a dweud which could just as easily be dwedais i a dangos.

An easier example would be Rhedodd a chanu’r holl ffordd i’r ysgol (She ran and sang the whole way to school). You don’t need to say Rhedodd a chanodd

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Thanks, @Deborah-SSi! That makes it very clear.

I was fairly sure that was what was going on from the context, but wanted to check on the grammar and style behind it.

I’ve been translating this book – for fun only, of course – and it’s been really interesting to see just how differently you sometimes have to treat the tenses to get anywhere near fluent English.

That’s one reason I attached the question to @garethrking’s comment that ‘generally Welsh doesn’t like using two actual verbs with endings in the same sentence’ – I find the ‘relative Welshness’ of various constructions really interesting – matters of style, rather than of strict grammar.

One consequence of the way SSIW works is that you’re often introduced to different ways of saying things, but don’t always get a flavour of why / how / when a fluent speaker would use the different options, so this sort of hint is really useful/interesting.

Thanks again!

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Yes it is :slight_smile:

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