Something that’s been niggling me for a while. It may be my memory is playing me false, but I think I remember “she almost got lost” being translated in the Northern challenges as:
Be bron iddi fynd ar goll.
But I can’t find anything that explains the use of that ‘be’. In fact @garethrking’s grammar implies it should be ‘oedd bron iddi fynd ar goll’.
Have I got it wrong, or is this a type of casual usage the grammar books (even Gareth’s) don’t mention? If so, in what other circumstances might it be used?
(I was having a similar puzzle over ‘ai’ in ‘ai eich plant chi ydy rheina?’ but that one I did track down the answer to in Gareth’s grammar.)
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this too (it’s Bu … rather than Be … though ). Maybe both are correct depending on context, with Bu bron iddi mynd ar goll implying that she almost got lost on a journey which is now finished, and Oedd bron iddi mynd ar goll implying she almost got lost at one point in a journey which might still be going on??
Thankyou, both. Bu makes a lot more sense. Probably should have worked that out for myself, but I had whatever the aural equivalent of a blind spot is!