Like a lot of these words which seem as though they came from English, I notice from GPC that sownd has been known in Welsh for quite a long time (measured in centuries).
In an English context, I’ve been slightly intrigued/amused to notice that the younger generation seem to have re-invented “sound” to describe the character of friends or acquaintances. Intrigued because it sounds a bit old fashioned to me. No doubt they are using it with a subtlety of meaning which escapes me - does not translate across the generations. And the minute we dinosaurs pick up on it and try to emulate it, they will quickly drop it. cf. “wicked”.
Really sound chap! My dad would say that. I can’t imagine teenagêrs using those exact words. But ‘sownd’ surely means stuck, doesn’t it? Like a wreck stuck soundly in a cleft on the beach! Yes/no?
My first reaction was stuck to be honest as well, but it doesn’t fit with the context of the letter . Iestyn’s explanation sounds as “sownd as a pound”.
I have literally just started the 6 month SSIW course which is going ok.
I am sure this question has been asked before but here goes. Why do you say ‘Dw i’n moyn’ for ’ I want’ but ‘Mae eisiau (fi)’ for ‘I need (to)’ rather than ’ Dw i’n eisiau (fi)’. I am sure there is a logical explanation but right now my mind can’t make it out.
And there are plenty of variations on this (as in all languages) - all of which it is a Good Idea not to worry about at this stage… Good luck with the 6 month course!
I’m stuck on what is the best Welsh word to use for ‘meetups’ - of the sort we SSiWers hold. The only word I can come up with is ‘cyfarfodydd’ but it sounds a bit too formal to me. Is there any alternative that would work better?
EDIT: would something like ‘sesiynau cloncan’ or ‘sesiynau sgwrsio’ be better?
It’s a tone thing - personally, I’d go for Sesiynau Siarad - because I like the two ‘sh’ sounds (and I’m just generally not all that fond of ‘sgwrsio’ ).
I happened to be reading about the old “cymorth gwau” and other things the other day, when reading about John Pris, who published the lord’s prayer in Welsh, way back when.
From GPC:
cymorth gwau, cymorth gweu: meeting of a group of women (held in turn at one another’s houses) for knitting and entertainment during the winter (lit. knitting assistance or assembly).
I guess you weren’t totally serious there Aran, but is this because “chat” sounds too trivial or something? I guess “cloncan/cloncian” would be even worse in that sense.
BTW, looking up these words in Gweiadur, I came across:
siarad fel melin bupur - to talk like a pepper mill - explained as: siarad yn ddiddiwedd - to talk endlessly.
(I guess we all know people like that… ).
…
oh, here’s another good one:
siarad siprys - siarad cymysgedd o Gymraeg a Saesneg - to talk a mixture of Welsh and English.
Thanks everyone. What I’m looking for is a general way of describing the meetups, so that someone reading it that knows nothing about SSiW would understand what it was. I’m going to go with ‘Sesiynau Siarad’ as I don’t think anyone can misunderstand that, and it glides off the tongue nicely too
I notice that we’re taught two different ways of saying I can’t: dwi ddim yn medru in the old lesson 1 and fedra 'i ddim in the new one. What’s the difference between them?
They both mean exactly the same thing , it’s just that fedra i ddim is a shorter and easier way of saying it. You will also quite often hear “dwi’n methu” for “I can’t” as well
As Sam said - Welsh has two main different ways of using verbs - the short form and the long form - we’re trying to get you used to both, and recognising the patterns you’ll hear most often
cf. “wicked”. 
).