That comes with practice, don’t worry you’re not missing a fundamental skill, it’s one that everyone develops with practice. Shows up in loads of different ways, for me the “dweud” or “siarad” was and early one and “isio (moyn)” and “licio/hoffi”. I used to get those muddled a lot.
I also muddle ‘dweud’ and ‘siarad’ when speaking. I suppose we give people a laugh, so there is the silver lining!
Well, “ymarfad” means “to practice speaking”. It’s a terrific word I accidentally invented while doing a challenge. Also, “ishad” means “wanting to speak”.
Also, sometimes I’m supposed to say “I can’t remember” in Welsh during the challenges, and I come up with “dwi wedi anghofio” instead of “fedra i ddim cofio”. I mean, close enough, right?
Oh, “deud” and “siarad” are fun. I mix those up occasionally. Also confuse the Welsh for “I’ve got” and “I’ve got to”. And I still hate “bod”; something about it just trips me up.
I guess you have to learn to laugh at yourself and all of your mistakes. It’s the only way to survive the crazy things that happen during the learning process. (says “dwi” instead of “ti” again)
Is it the fact that, at last count, there are exactly 8000 different ways to conjugate it?
DON’T TELL ME THAT!!! I’m still forgetting to use “bod” in sentences where “that” is sometimes dropped in English, getting slowed down as I recall what I’m doing… And that’s when I’ve only gone over a few forms.
heard it at the end of a tv programme: a dyna ni
Pretty sure I’ve heard it right, but…how can it mean that’s it?
Yes, you heard it right. A dyna ni literally means “And there we are”, but it can just as well be said as “That’s all” or “That’s it.”
Yes, Hendrik is spot on again.
It tends to be used to round off a section or discussion or whatever. Ive heard Kate Crocket using it quite often on Post Cyntaf on Radio Cymru.
Also, the English version used to be very common in SW Wales, except with “then” at the end. So: Dyna ni te. Usually at the end of an official phone call or when buying something. i find it pretty cool.
You can also have Dyma ni for here we are, or use it with ti, hi, nhw, etc.
If you want to say “Is that it?” “Is that everything?”…“Is that all?”
… Dyna (i) gyd? can be heard…very often shortened to a quick “na gyd?” but I showed the full spelling Dyna i gyd as I like knowing the origin
Yes, 'na gyd may be hard to catch when someone’s speaking, but it’s quite literal, like a dyna fe.
While when I heard it, a dyna ni translated in my mind with something like “and that’s us” and didn’t seem to make sense!
Yes. Would it be something like “here we go, then” too?
By the way, I didn’t know that te meant “then”.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it as te plis. Possible? But for some reason I assumed it meant you - like would you please (I guess because it does mean to you in Italian, I didn’t even think about it!!!)
colloquially you could say that in English at the end of something and make sense. “And that’s us for today” for example.
Oh really? I didn’t know this.
Just like when in the challenges I kept on hearing “and that’s children for you” which didn’t make sense, so why should I want to learn to say it in Welsh?
(someone here in the forum did explain it to me, by the way - but still sounds weird!)
When it’s used like this as a tag at the end of a sentence, yes it means ‘then’ - it comes from the full form ynteu. Ynteu is very commonly shortened in speech to 'te and can also translate as ‘or’ / ‘or else’ / ‘otherwise’ (for instance, you might hear “wyt ti’n yfed gwin gwyn 'te gwin coch?”
And of course te as a noun is tea!
- neu is also used for ‘or’ but I think it originates from the same ynteu.
I would not guess neu, ne (that I have both heard before) and 'te (that maybe I had heard but not recognized) came from ynteu, thanks.
But if I’m understanding it right, it’s a then like felly but not like wedyn and yna?
While te as noun is easy, that’s luckily really like Italian!
In Irish speech (when speaking English) you’ll often here people use “so” where Welsh or English people would use “then”. At the end of sentences etc. “Alright so” = “ok then”.
yup, that’s it - it’s a ‘then’ that isn’t actually referring to a point in time (which wedyn and yna do), so yes, like felly.
Interestingly enough, because felly can translate as ‘so’ as well as ‘then’, it’s worth noting that in some areas of Ireland (in English), ‘so’ gets used at the end of sentences rather than ‘then’ (e.g. “There we are, so.”). I don’t know whether the Irish version of ‘felly’ can also be both ‘so’ and ‘then’, but I’m guessing it could be a celtic thing!
Ah - I see Anthony beat me to it with the Irish conection!
SNAP!
@AnthonyCusack and @siaronjames - Northern Ireland and Eire is where I learnt a lot of my English in the beginning 'cause I’ve spent about two months there - but I was still struggling with the basics so I don’t remember these kind of details.
As for Irish, all I remember is bruscar (because I saw it all the time and we kinda joked on Bruce’s car) and Sinn Féin (because the family I spent quite some time with was on that side of The Troubles).
But I wasn’t impressed by the sound of it like with Welsh!
Another simple question: how would you say “Welsh spoken here”?
I want to say “Cymraeg wedi’i siarad yma”? but I doubt myself.
“Siaradir Cymraeg Yma” = Welsh is spoken here
It’s quite a formal way of saying it, but much more succinct than its less-formal form “Mae Cymraeg yn cael ei siarad yma”