That he wants

Welsh
#1

I know that the welsh for "that he wants’ is EI FOD E’N MOYN. How does one say “that he wanted”?

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#2

A topic much discussed!

Welsh doesn’t make the distinction between the two with this structure.

An emphatic sentence with a quote would be one way to convey a critical meaning…

“I wanted to go home’ - that was what he said to me.”

…English is ambiguous in this area also - for example - in the sentence:

‘He said that he wanted to go home’

…it is not clear whether ‘he’ used the past tense or the present tense at the time,

Rich :slightly_smiling_face:

#3

Thanks Rich. I am still a little bit confused. Would I be right in saying that if I write EI FOD E’N MOYN - it could mean "That he wants"or “that he wanted”

#4

In theory, yes, just that fragment could mean either. But in practise the fragment would be preceded by a verb that would tell you the tense -
Mae e’n dweud fod e’n moyn = He says that he wants
Dwedodd e fod e’n moyn = He said that he wanted

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#5

Diolch Siaron

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#6

That sounds to me like a very clear, credible and helpful explanation. I only started doing the SSIW course a few weeks ago and was wondering about this very point myself. Diolch!:+1:t2:

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