Taw or Bod

Welsh General / Questions
#1

In Level 2/15 we seem to be using Taw. I nust of missed an explanation as to when we use Taw and when we use bod.

Thanks

Richard

#2

I’d like to start with two example sentences first:
Owen is a teacher. – Mae Owen yn athro – That is a so-called unfocused, descriptive sentence, with the verb (mae) sitting in the first position.
Owen is a teacher – Athro ydy Owen – this is a focused sentence, starting with the emphasized part

The decision whether to use bod or taw comes when you want to put the above sentences into reported speech:
I think that Owen is a teacher – as an unfocused sentence you get Dw i’n meddwl bod Owen yn athro
But for the focused sentence you need taw:
Dw i’n meddwl taw athro ydy Owen.

So you mainly use taw when the subclause taken by itself is a focused sentence not starting with a verb.

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#3

Hendrik Mae hynny yn glir iawn :grinning: , I live in North Wales and I think we use tai in the same situation instead of taw,

#4

Yes, usually you’ll hear taw in southern Welsh. But the northern version I am familiar with is mai. I must admit that I’ve never heard of “tai” as a variation of taw/mai.

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