Growing up it was the only time I addressed people as Mr Williams, Dr Hughes, Madame Jones etc. It all felt a bit artificial and if anything made us respect them less.
I dn’t think things goign back the other way is a good thing at all. School uniform was always about how much individuality you could get away with while remaining within the letter of the rules. Which for the boys was usually about how daft you could make your tie look and I don’t think my school was that unusual. I always much prefer ‘normal clothes day’ at work, which we do every Friday. We only use first names.
Yet I like the ‘chi’ formal thing, i think it’s a better system than hierarchical first name / last nameness
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There is definitely a distance that is created. I did have a couple of teachers who managed to get past that and had a great connection to their students, but for the most part the attitude was ‘I am your teacher not your friend.’
@cat-1, that’s very interesting - I didn’t know about that! I don’t see ‘chi’ as an equivalent to addressing someone by their last name in English (granted this is coming from a learner, so I might be misinterpreting). I don’t think it creates quite as much social distance. I can see the use of polite ‘chi’ as something that could still be useful, in certain situations. 
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Thanks that is reassuring and useful to know.
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Yes, but they DO know you Anthony 
I think @aran is right when it’s strangers like in the situation being discussed here - chi unless it’s
a) children, or
b) you strongly suspect the individual concerned to actually be a writer of grammar books that you know, operating undercover and heavily disguised in the frozen veg aisle for some reason…
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I think that’s more to do with structure. Your first example would be “… mae rhaid iddo fo …” and the second would be “mae rhaid fod o’n …”. I think.
I don’t think it would be possible to “gorfodise” the second example but is possible for the first.
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This one is a continual matter of concern for me…
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I learned this last night and it got me thinking how to use the sentence in more situations…
can I swap the “hoffi” for something else in:
“dyw hi ddim yn hoffi” to something like “dyw hi ddim yn moyn/dweud” etc?
Thank you
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You absolutely can… 
Yeees, thank you Aran! I love it when I work out new ways to say something, it makes the process more fun!
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The first was my try at a ‘gorfod’ so thanks!!! Pressing into service, the call-up in time of war and sending to prison, community service etc. were the only examples I could think of where I might use it, but likely I’d have said ‘rhaid’ before even thinking of ‘gorfod’!
And rightly so - one can NEVER be too careful these days… 
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Interestingly the situation is the same here in Welsh and English. ‘Must’ and ‘have got to’ are usually interchangeable when it is about obligation (ditto rhaid and gorfod in Welsh), but ONLY ‘must’ is allowed when it’s about supposition (and only rhaid in Welsh). So:
(obligation)
She must go = She’s got to go
Rhaid iddi fynd = Mae hi’n gorfod mynd
(supposition)
She must be late - (NOT: She’s got to be late)
Rhaid bod hi’n hwyr - (NOT: Mae hi’n gorfod bod yn hwyr)
And note the different construction with rhaid in the two types: obligation uses i, supposition uses a ‘that’ clause.
351 in the Grammar!
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Yr Wyddfa derivation? One source tells me it means the tomb. But I can’t find any reference to that meaning.
So does it mean tomb? Or?
Yes, legend has it that it is the tomb of Rhita Gawr - I’ve found this link that tells the story (although they’ve spelt Rhita with 2 t’s! http://legendsofwales.com/home/rhita-gawr/
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I have to click on the reply button in order to write. Is that normal? I thought you could just start writing normally too.
Anyway I do also have a welsh question: why is England “Lloegr” and english “saesneg”?
Yes you have to click reply to start a comment to an existing post. And then reply again to send.
Lloegr is England. I think it means the lost lands.
Saesneg is the word for the English language.
Saes or saeson refer to an English person.
Related to the word Saxon.
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I am fascinated! Yr wladau golli or y tiroedd golli? Can anyone explain? I understand why it should mean that, since it is an accurate description, just not sure how it means that!
Never thought about this before – just had a bit of a hunt around and found a nice article (in principle here but for some reason that isn’t working for me right now so I had to look at a cached version here).
Take home message:
- it has long been understood by Welsh speakers to mean “the lost lands”, but there’s no plausible way it could have meant that originally.
- the etymology is unclear, but a few have been proposed.
- it might have originally been a way of referring to the Anglo-Saxons as “warriors” – possibly even when they were settled as foederati under the Empire, and not yet the enemy, or possibly in relation to them as “enemy warriors” fighting (in particular) against the Old North.
- it might, although with slightly less likelihood, have originally referred to the same territory that later became most of England even before the Roman conquest.
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what if the actual root was really boring and came from the Latin “locus or Loca, Loci” and was just a really generic name for the geographical area? It wouldn’t be a very exciting root, but its funny that its such a mystery.
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In the U.S., a lemon is anything that doesn’t work properly or breaks for no reason, especially if it’s new. It’s a universal expression in this country, in every state. Unfortunately, my very first (brand new!) car was a dangerous lemon, which I discovered on a hill when the transmission slipped, made horrible grinding noises, and sent me sliding backwards, narrowly missing both the car behind me and a steep drop-off into nothingness on my left. It kept happening, and it turned out I wasn’t the only one to have the same slipping-transmission problem. The manufacturer should have recalled the cars; instead, it ignored the whole thing and I had to pay for multiple repairs to sort-of fix it. The very definition of a lemon.
