I’ve reached the dreaded Level 1/Challenge 13. Can someone explain why we say ‘sy’n d’nabod ti’ and not ‘sy’n nabod ti’ for ‘who knows you’ ?
It’s because in Welsh we use a possessive pronoun. Although we translate it as “who knows you”, it’s literally saying “who is your knowing”, so the ‘dy’ has to be there because that is the ‘your’ - the echoing ‘ti’ can be left out, but not the ‘dy’. It applies to all the other pronouns too.
2 Likes
Diolch, Siaron. I suppose I’ll get more used to it as the course progresses.
Yes, it’s one of those patterns that just has to sink in over time and overrule your brain when it insists translating it ‘straight’! But it will sink in - it’s a very common construction, so you’ll come across it a lot. 
2 Likes
@siaronjames: Whoa. How did I miss that? (Sy’n dy nabod ti)There you go, something I’ve learnt today. Reminds me of a song for some reason, but with a “di” at the end perhaps.
What about “Who knows her”, “Who knows someone”, “Who knows Fred” or “Who know your sister”. Do I need “Sy’n ei nabod…” Only the first seems to ring a bell with me.
1 Like
No, it doesn’t happen every time - it’s a weird one! In Philip’s example, it’s just the pronoun “you” in English, but in your examples there are nouns (someone, Fred, ‘your sister’), not pronouns (they, he, she, etc), so these don’t use those split possessive pronouns. So you have “Braf i dy weld di” but “Braf i weld Cymru”
1 Like
I have just stumbled through that challenge too…so many twiddly bits!
1 Like