Definately not although I’ve thought exactly the same - that I’m the only one with such problem - and moaned way too moch about that (to the horror and terror of all forum members here). ![]()
I think Aran would say there’s nothing wrong with that, i.e. jump in at the deep end!
An interesting question.
I suspect you’d have to ask a first language speaker to know how to do this “properly”, but you could probably say something like:
“Wnes i fwyta bara” - “I ate bread” (but you’d probably get away with “ges i fara”).
vs
“Roedd bara gyda fi yn gynharach ond dim nawr” (south) or
“Roedd gen i fara yn gynharach ond dim rŵan” (north).
I think I’m getting it. I seem to want to understand what the phrases mean in Welsh, rather than try and fit them into a translation from English, it feels like I’m at a breakthrough point?
so I’ve really wanted to know, literally, what ‘wnes i’, ‘ges i’ ‘wedi’ ‘cael’ ‘roedd’ means, so I can ‘think in Welsh’, . Occasionally I am saying a sentence 'thinking, naturally in Welsh, rather than constructing the sentences from English, with leanrt rules for doing it, hopefully properly bilingual people understand what I’m trying to say here!
Would I be correct to say that ‘Wnes i’ means =‘I have the ability to do/make something and have done this something’, for example ‘wnes i cerdded i’r adref’ means “'I have the ability to do something and have done/made this something and this something is walking home”, or in “English” ‘I walked home’. or even ‘dw i’n wedi cael canu’ 'I did sing in the past [but perhaps can no longer sing], with ‘dw i’n cael canu’ being somewhat like ‘I have singing in me/my heart’ or “English” ‘I can sing’.
I hope I am on the right track with this: Dw i’n newydd ddechrau yn credu dw i’n cael siarad Cymraeg [hope this fairly correct!]
Great, you are getting into the same as many of us, trying to think in Welsh.
wnes i (i think of more like 'i did)
If it’s any help, save (wedi cael) for those times when English says 'have had '.
wnes i canu - i did sing.
on i’n canu - i was singing.
Cheers J.P.
One thing I feel I should point out. When you use “wedi” to make the construction “I have (done something)” you don’t have the “yn” (or 'n) - which is to say, if you want to say ‘I have sung’ (in the past but perhaps no longer) it would be “Dw i wedi canu.”
Yes, I did know that! However I haven’t updated my brain to do that when I’m writing.
I am still unsure of ‘yn’ in such a context, I was taught that it was simply a ‘link word’ although I need to learn what it’s actual function is in sentences at some point.
Then you’re right on track! Good for you! It still trips me up now and then, but less and less often. Just keep practicing and it will come naturally.
"Yn " links the verb “to be” to another verb.
“Dw i” + “yn” + “bwyta” = “I am” + “yn” +“to eat” = “I am eating”
The “yn” can be “replaced” by various other words, changing the meaning
Eg. “Dw i wedi bwyta” - I have eaten
[A very small handful of unusual verbs (eg eisiau, angen, moyn) can be used without a linking “yn”, but if you come across that, just think of them as a small number of exceptions!]
I am actually surprised you have trouble with ‘wedi’ and didn’t know it was 'after;, as I thought all Classes taught this way of making statements in the past tense very early in the course!!! When did you learn and where?
It could well be that never having understood ‘wedi’ is what held me back in previous learning!
I think I was told is was like ’ with having’, so ‘wedi blino’ seemed to mean ‘having tiredness’, so I based my understanding of ‘wedi’ on that, which has caused me a lot of confusion!
Probably better not to think of “blino” as the noun “tiredness”, but as the verb “to tire”.
Outside of poetry, we probably don’t talk much about “to tire” in modern English; we almost always use it in the form “tired”. And “dw i wedi blino” means literally “I have tired”, or in everyday English “I am tired”.
Now, you may say that “blino” is a verb-noun and not just a verb. However, the noun aspect of the verb noun is (I think) more like “tiring”.
And in fact the English noun “tiredness” in Welsh translates as “blinder” - which looks like it is related to “blino”, but different.
A “-der” ending is a common way of forming an abstract noun in Welsh.
Here it replaces the “-o” ending (which forms a verbnoun) on the stem “blin~”. ![]()
is not dissimilar to ‘wedyn’ (~ then, afterwards), if that helps
I learned ‘wedi blino’ = ‘after tiring’, ‘wedi mynd’ = ‘after going’ etc.. Which, translated to the nearest English is ‘am tired’ or ‘have gone’!! Irish people sometimes say, ‘I’m after going’ to mean they want to go!
Teachers vary and pupils need different things!
I remember having awful trouble with the Laws of Thermodynamics. Then we got a different lecturer who made all clear! Also, my entire Maths group at Uni went to ask, “Please, we are not mathematicians but idiot chemists, Our Ancillary Maths Lecturer is too clever to understand our problems. Do you have a slightly less brilliant Mathematician we could have instead?” This worked!!!
This discussion has helped me so much, to understand how that they way things are said in different languages generally has some equivalence in the other language. Really as individuals we all conceptualise each language differently, sometimes we may have a meaning of a phrase that works 99% of the time, until where it is deficient becomes apparent and we alter our conceptualisation.
After means ‘when something has finished occuring’ this helps us understand ‘wedi’, but ‘after’ also means ‘to want’, as in ‘i’m after a new car’ meaning ‘i want/ am looking for a new car’ rather than ‘dw i’n wedi car newydd’ = I have a new car’
Hello, very glad to find this forum. I hope this is the appropriate place to ask my question.
I’m looking for a translation of “Cerrig Cedny” I’m nearly certain Cerrig means -rock/stone or the like but need some help with “Cedny”.
Many thanks!
Ps. Cerrig Cedny info > http://geodata.us/uk_maps/map.php?id=47897
A plural of “Cadno”, (fox), I would think.
Thank you! Do you know if this Is this a word commonly used today? Or is it an “old welsh” word?
“Cadno” is certainly a word in common usage today. (Also llwynog). If you are asking particularly about the plural form, I don’t know, not bring able to remember it actually popping up in conversation, so I could only repeat what I’ve read in books! So I’ll let someone more familiar with Welsh answer that, if that is what you were asking. (Failing that, my guess is if it is used today, it is a less commonly used plural. Stress guess.)
[The Llwynog/Cadno thing is often spoken of as a north/south thing. Easy way to remember it, but also remember that as with most such things, it’s not as black and white as that!]
Yes, thank you Owainlurch. I’d like to know if modern day Cymru speakers would recognize the word “Cedny” (as “foxes” or anything really!) 