That he wanted

Welsh General / Questions
#1

South welsh
Our son told me that he wanted to help

Is it
Dwedodd ein mab ni wrtha’i b’oedd yn moyn helpu
Or
Dwedodd ein mab ni wrtha’i bo f’en moyn helpu

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What are the FAQs?
#2

Option 2 is the correct one. :slight_smile:

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#3

Thanks.
My struggle was due to the tense difference that seems to be there. Past and present hence the attempt with the first option

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#4

Yes, this is a feature of Welsh vs English for reported speech & thought which is probably why it features so heavily…

There are two common alternatives suggested for getting your head around it(!)…

One is that what comes after the bod reflects what was said or thought at the time I.e it was in the present tense at that point…,

…the other, is that because ‘bod’ by itself is tense -less the tense of the sentence is carried through to the second half…

(…and a third which is sort of a continuation of this point which is that this conversation is actually about the English translation and the Welsh is what it is!)

Rich :slight_smile:

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#5

The first option b’oedd could never be right, because you’re trying to use TWO forms of the verb be there at the same time - bod and oedd. As @rich points out, bod is tenseless, which is good news since it means you can use it both for present and past:

Mae’n dweud bo fe’n moyn helpu - He says that he wants to help
Dwedodd bo fe’n moyn helpu - He said that he wanted to help

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