Hello everyone,
I am aware that the short form of Gallu is: galla i, galli di, galliff hi/e, gallwn ni, gallwch chi, gallan nhw. In a grammar book I am reading “Gramadeg Cymraeg Cyfoes” it says that for the verbs “gallu” and “medru” the short form conveys the present tense rather than the future tense. However in the online dictionary “Gweiadur.com”, their verb conjugator gives the meaning as both future and present tense.
I am hoping that someone with far more knowledge of Welsh than myself can let me know which of these is correct. I think I have only heard it in the present tense on the SSIW course, but I could be wrong about that.
Any help will be very much appreciated. Thank you! Simon
This confusion is the reason why some other grammar books call that tense the “non-past”, because the meaning can vary depending on context. And in the case of gallu/medru the default understanding is that you are talking about the immediate future if you use the short form. If you want to make it clear that you “will be able to” do something in the future, you can use the long form bydda i’n gallu instead.
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Diolch yn fawr Hendrik! That makes more sense to me now.