Thanks for the replies. Haha, perhaps I will want to sound affected at some stage. I’ve found dealing with these pronouns and verbs pretty tricky in general, maybe partly because of the word order compared to English.
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Something has just crossed my mind. Yes, you might just hear the “ti” without the wyt (are) in very informal settings. Something like
'ti’n iawn?"
For : 'you OK?
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True. My wife and I do just this.
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Another “poetic” question while making finishing touches of my bigest ever project. I’ve already put that question into the “Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg/I’m learning Welsh” Facebook group and so it might be already familiar to some on here. But, at the moment there are no answers I’d really be able to implement into the whole thing so here’s teh question on here aswell:
It goes like this:
Is there a way to say “There once was a man” in Welsh in more poetic way.
Am I OK with using “Oedd yna un dyn un pryd”?
Also when thinking about the whole thing have in mind this (I’ve copied here my additional comment to the post in the group):
And if I use “un pryd” anyway, has there to be some addition in front like “at”, “ar” or something similar? I didin’t use any but I’m not sure if it’s correct. As I said it has to be more “poetic” and has to go in accordance with the second row of the verse which ends with the word “byd”. So I’ve used “pryd” because of “byd” in the second row.
I also wouldn’t quite like to use the “ancient” thngs like “there was a man a long time ago” “ages ago”. It’s the story of one who still lives so this “long time” forms wouldn’t be that propriate I think.
Any more poetic suggestion I could use or at least know if I’m fine going with my original idea?
Thank you as always. I promisse this is the last of my burdening you with my silly thingys for a (short) while.
Hwyl!
Tatjana 
I think I’d probably say “Oedd dyn ar un pryd” but I’m not certain if that’s correct
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The original original idea was with that “ar” before “un pryd” but all of a sudden I thought if it’s right to be there and omited it. To be honest (since I’m recording that thingy) with “ar” it’s easier to pronunce everything.
Somebody else for that “ar” before “un pryd”? Here are two of us.
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‘pryd’ doesn’t really work in this sense (of ‘once’), and the nearest thing I can get for you that (almost) rhymes with byd is:
Roedd dyn ers llawer dydd
‘ers llawer dydd’ is a way of saying ‘long ago’ or ‘once upon a time’, but I realise that may not be quite what you want.
“some time ago” is, I think, more the kind of thing you’re looking for, and that would be “dro’n ôl” or “beth amser yn ôl” which unfortunately don’t get anywhere close to rhyming with ‘byd’.
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It’s seen you are (once were) a musician, because you’ve grasped what I want immediately.
I know “pryd” is more like a question but I honestly thought that could be a way of playing with the thingy to get some verse out. It’s not high (wchel) poetry I have in mind though but more like “street rap” thingy.
“ers llawer dydd” rhymes perfectly but, yes, I’m not writing an archaic ep although it might be more suitable to do that instead.
Any more suggestions?
Also, getting actually stuck already in the first verse I am starting to thing the whole thing is in so many errors that one who really cherrish grammar and such things could get sick so maybe I’d bury the whole thing and unfamously forget about it … (or I might just stubbornly throw everything out and take the consequences )
One of the Welsh modules I took at university was creative writing, so I had to write poetry in Welsh fairly regularly for a year - so I know exactly what you’re going through! 
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Driving in this morning and a song on the radio reminded me of this post
You’ll also hear things like “Be’ ti’n neud?” where the “beth wyt ti’n” has got squashed and squeezed out the ‘wyt’. Like we hear in English “What you doing?” where the ‘are’ has also got squashed out.
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I’m trying to translate another of the Welsh Romani stories from the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, and I’ve got a bit stuck on one phrase. Sampson’s English version has this:
Here are great carryings-on with the priest’s wife. Now wine is served and food galore. And there were high jinks while her husband was down in the town.The word translated ‘carryings-on’ is in Romani a noun from the verb ‘to do’, so it basically means ‘doing’: the dictionary has meanings including “action, fuss, bother, excitement”.
So I’m looking for a Welsh word that means something fairly neutral like “bustle, activity” but with a possible implication of “shenanigans, misbehaviour” – and then I want it to fit into a sentence like Oedd llawer/digon/lot o X gan wraig yr offeiriad. Things that I’ve found in the GPC include possibilities such as dygiad ymlaen, but I’m not convinced it works at all in that sort of sentence… Any ideas?
Bwrlwm perhaps??
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Or helynt could work too
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OK. One more very basic I believe but it just seams I can’t find quick answer to this. Does word “cwmni” (as firm, company) mutate or not and if yes in which cases this happens. Well, to be more precise, does it mutate before “yr” and “â” (a as and).
Diolch.
Hwyl!
Tatjana
Well, cwmni is male, so it doesn’t mutate with the definite article. In literal welsh, “a” causes aspirate mutation, which gives “a chwmni”.
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y/yr and a/â (and other mutation causing words) only cause mutations to the words which follow them, not to words which precede them.
cwmni is a masculine noun, so it doesn’t mutate after ‘y’ (the) but it will mutate after a (and) and indeed â (with), and in both these it’s an aspirate mutation, so it changes to chwmni.
… and Hendrik beat me to it! 
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Diolch @siaronjames a @Hendrik.
Now I know what I have to do. And I promise I won’t “bother” anymore. I know those are very basic questions which I should be totally familiar with by now but when you start to do something you start to get kind of paranoya upon the basic things like mutations etc …
I knew cwmni is masculine and it actually doesn’t mutate but it still kind of didn’t seam totally right to me so I’ve asked. And, yes, in deed I’d make a major mistake which you’ve just prevented to happen.
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Hwyl!
Tatjana
You’re never a ‘bother’ @tatjana - I’m sure I speak for Hendrik too when I say we’re happy to help! (and neither of us will demand joint song-writing credit either! )
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Just wondering if this SM is a typo:
“Beth ŷch chi’n ddweud, Elen?”
Context: largely colloquial Southern-sounding paperback detective novel, pub. 1970. I was expecting “dweud”.
Dont know much about grammar, and I could be wrong, but that sounds right to me. Probably the implied “ei” in front of the “ddweud”?
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