Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Yes, I know what you mean! Diolch! :+1:

Many thanks, Gareth. That makes sense to me now, as it matches Ble/Lle mae etc

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Technically, yes - but it’s a pretty common ‘mistake’ from first language speakers too (which is one of the things that can help make it tricky for learners to get it nailed down!)… :slight_smile:

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thank you for this!

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I’m probably going to regret this, but… huh? SM on a berfenw after yn because…?

Yes, it is wrong.

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Exactly. And then with Beth and Pwy (which are pronouns) you also need to choose between mae and sy if there is a following linked verb. They use sy if they’re the subject, and mae if they’re the object.

Beth sy’n digwydd? - What’s happening?
Beth mae Sioned yn (ei) ddweud? - What is Sioned saying?

Pwy sy’n aros fan hyn? - Who’s waiting here?
Pwy mae SIoned yn (ei) wahodd i’r parti heno? - Who is Sioned inviting to the party tonight?

And then they take ydy when there is no other verb - i.e. when it’s just an identification sentence:

Beth ydy hwn? - What’s this?
Pwy ydy Sioned? - Who is Sioned?

This is fun. :slight_smile:

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Because of the object antecedent - i.e. object of the VN preposed to the front of the sentence.

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Ooh. All those familiar words.

You’d think I’d understand what they build when they’re put together. :scream: :wink:

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See, if I’d waited until after you’d posted all the Beth mae Sioned yn ei ddweud? examples I might have remembered previous relevantly-similar conversations and not bothered asking – and then @aran would have felt so much happier… :slight_smile:

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Undue haste is so often the cause of unnecessary pain and anguish, isn’t it @RichardBuck? :slight_smile:

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Well, as it wasn’t my pain and anguish I’m sure I don’t really mind :smile:

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Can someone explain the use of “mae” in this sentence:

“Ydy’r rhaw ar ben y sied o hyd? Nac ydy, o flaen y garej mae hi.”?

What’s confusing me, is that that second part looks to me like a focused sentence so I was expecting “ydy” not “mae”, or simply (unfocused) “Mae hi o flaen y garej”. I think this distinction between mae and ydy is something I don’t fully understand yet.

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You’re dead right, @stephenbranley - that is indeed a focused sentence. The focused bit is the O flaen y garej, so this is shoved to the front of the sentence displacing (but otherwise not altering) the mae that would have started the non-focused sentence: Mae hi o flaen y garej.

Ydy is used in a specific type of focused sentence, namely the identification sentence, which this isn’t. Identification sentences have to have the same thing referred to on either side of the verb (which in present tense will be ydy or yw). But in your sentence, Hi and O flaen a garej do NOT refer to the same thing, so no identification sentence.

There’ll be a short written test on this next period.

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So in this instance would changing the second sentence to Nac ydy, o flaen y garej ydy’r lle make it OK to use ydy here?

No - the answer is Nac ydy, o flaen y garej mae’r lle.

The ydy in nac ydy is simply the response yes/no formula, and has nothing to do with the structure of the following bit, which is a complete sentence in itself, simply tagged on.

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I was thinking o flaen y garej and y lle were the same thing, but thinking a bit more (often a good idea! :slight_smile:) I realise it’s an answer to an implied “where is …?” question rather than to a “what is …?” question.

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Yes - for it to count as the ‘same thing’ (for these purposes), we really have to be dealing with two labels for the same object or person. So, for example Garej ydy’r lle = The place is a garage is indeed an identification sentence, because both garej and y lle refer to the same thing. But o flaen y garej is a whole phrase, and is therefore not a label referring to y lle, so mae is correct rather than ydy.

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Sorry to interrupt. I won’t catch up with you as I’d have to read approx 1000 posts but I’ve got a question to ask. Is there any other way to say “at all” in Welsh than just “o gwbl”? In the context of the sentence “Nid oedd yn siarad Cymraeg o gwbl.” and as it’s song in question to rhyme better with ending of previous sentence which is “yn ôl”.

The whole two sentences now look like this:
“Pan oedd e’n dod yr gatref yn ôl
nid oedd yn siarad Cymraeg o gwbl.”

And in the last row of the verse, do I need to “repeat” that “fe” again. Sorry Slovene grammar rules prevail in thinking so I’d say I can leave that out but of course Welsh is in question here and I’m not sure if this is possible in Welsh also.

Thx for potential answers/help.

I have a few common words that I just can’t develop an instinctive feel for. One of these that keeps cropping up is the word “dwyn”. I hear it being used (down south) for things like earings and the card on the wi-fi router that has the password on. I read it in contexts where it means the badge or emblem on a car. The news will use it for steal, where local people I know would generally use the related form of the word dwgyd.
It feels like a word for a nice “thingummyjig”, but I can’t add it to my speaking repertoire until I somehow manage to get it nailed down in terms of its general sense.

Any help here?