Sentence order for when a person is something

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hello!
For the life of me I can’t work out how to add something into the “little questions” section, so here goes…

What is the subtle difference between:

Siân yw fy nhiwtor i
and
Fy nhiwtor i yw Siân

??
I am feeling that both are saying that Siân is my tutor, but that one might be the answer to one question and the other one the answer to a different question.
Like “Who is Siân?” and “Who is your tutor?” but I don’t know which way round! I have always found this really, really hard and I don’t know why.

Thank you!

1 Like
#2

The only difference is that the first noun is the one emphasised -

Siân yw fy nhiwtor i = Siân is my tutor (so e.g. you’d give this answer to the question “Who is your tutor?” to emphasise that your tutor is Siân, not someone else)

Fy nhiwtor i yw Siân = My tutor is Siân (so e.g. you’d give this answer to the question “Who is Siân?” to emphasise that Siân is your tutor, not your neighbour)

3 Likes
#3

Thank you so much - you are like lightning!

1 Like