Anyone watching ‘Tipyn o Stad’ on S4C? it’s gritty! Does anyone know what the “da” is short for, as in “be’ ti’n 'da 'ma?” They keep saying it, would love to know what the ‘da’ means 
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Is there a Welsh equivalent to the order of adjectives in English, like how we always say “big red house” as opposed to “red big house”?
I ran across the phrase “cath Bersia fach bert” while reading an article about noun gender and it made me wonder.
That makes so much sense! Thank you. I’ll be listening out for that in English as well as welsh now
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According to Gareth King’s “Modern Welsh A Comprehensive Grammar”
“Sequences of adjectives usually appear in the reverse order to English.”
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Mmm, tricky one. Was it a sub title written like that?
Looks like gyda but doesn’t make sense.
there’s no chance it could be be’ ti’n neud yma with a bit of letter carry over?
Otherwise could be a verb with a “da” at the end or pronounced as “da” . something like gwranda - still looks wrong with yma after it 
Shwmae Sionned, someone said ‘pob bendith’ to me when I sneezed some time ago. Don’t know if its correct but it sounded nice. I’ve used it since.
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OK, my Welsh isn’t very good. But I often try to get the gist of sentences, and as part of a TV drama, that sentence makes a sort of sense. (Or I can imagine it to…)
Assuming chrome_angel heard it correctly, “be’ ti’n da 'ma?” (beth ti’n da yma) is literally “what are you good here?”
I can totally imagine it being used rather like the English “so you’re good, right?”, as a tag at the end of a conversation, especially when someone is giving instructions to someone else.
Of course, John’s suggestion “be’ ti’n neud 'ma” = “what are you doing here” - is probably less of a stretch and certainly more grammatical… 
I’ve also been watching Tipyn o Stad, and, based on context, am almost certain that it can only mean “what are you doing here?”. I’ve just googled it with quotation marks and found another example from “Hi Oedd fy Ffrind” by Bethan Gwanas, where it is used in the same context and written as “Be ti’n da 'ma”. I would guess it’s just an idiom and “da” does just mean good, but was hoping someone more authoritative would turn up…
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Can you help me distinguish between the senses of deall and dirnad?
Which would I use if I want to say that I understand the language, or the words someone is saying?
Which, if I want to say that I understand what someone is going through?
PS if there’s a hip abbreviation for “diolch”, like “thx” for “thanks”, wouldn’t mind knowing that either
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I must admit that that’s the first time I’d heard “dirnad” but it seems to be a noun for “understanding”. So, sgen i ddim dirnad (I have no understanding/idea). Deall/dallt is to understand. Dwin dallt (I understand).
According to this list in 2009, dyfi was diolch yn fawr iawn.
https://pressreleases.responsesource.com/news/49674/as-welsh-predictive-text-messaging-begins-a-handy-guide-to/
I had never hear of the word either, but according to my “Y Geiriadur Mawr” the word dirnad means “to comprehend” - which is almost the same as “to understand” but not quite. Both deall and dirnad are found in YGM as an alternate for the other.
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DYFI pawb
Sounds like I’m safe just reaching for “deall” then.
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I’m getting some responses to this on the FB group Dwi’n dysgu Cymraeg. You’ll see them there or I could perhaps summarise here at the end of the night.
Edited:
OK, as expected, the word “da” seems to be meaning “doing” or “Neud”.
Also on Rownd a Rownd.
Be ti’n da 'ma? / What are you doing here?
Is that right @beca-brown, pretty please?
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Hello,
I have a tiny question about grammar.
In Challenge 15 (North) at about the 27:10 mark there’s the phrase ‘ac mi ddudodd o fod o isio dysgu Cymraeg’ (or at least that’s what I hear).
Why is it ‘ac’ before ‘mi’ and not ‘a’? Is this like ‘mae’ where it’s just one of those random words that uses ‘ac’ instead?
yup.
ac is used before a number of words that don’t begin with vowels:
ac fe - fe as in the particle (little word) that comes before verbs e.g. ac fe welais i “and I saw”
ac fel “and like/as”
ac felly “and so/therefore”
ac mae “and is/are”
ac maen “and are”
ac mai “and that”
ac meddaf “and I say” - the other persons and tenses too e.g. ac meddai hi “and she said”
ac megis “and like/as”
ac mewn “and in”
ac mi - the particle as in your question e.g. ac mi welais i “and I saw”
ac mor “and so/as”
ac mwyach “and anymore”
ac na/nac “and nor/not/than”
ac na/nad “and not”
ac ni/nid “and not”
ac roedd “and was/were” - the other persons too e.g. ac roeddwn i “and I was”
ac sy/sydd “and which/who is”
I don’t know why ac is used before all of these but some take ac because there used to be a vowel or word beginning with a vowel in between the ac and the next word which has subsequently been dropped:
hafal “equal” > afal giving ac afal “and equal/like” > ac fel
ac y mae > ac mae
ac yr oedd > ac roedd
ac ys ydd > ac sydd
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In writing I think (?) its meant to be better to start the past tense with “r” - so “roedd” rather than “oedd”, “ro n’i” rather than “on i”, but I’ve noticed when reading recently that sometimes there’s an “r” and sometimes there isn’t, especially when not at the beginning of a sentence. Is there a rule or pattern for this, please, for when to write the “r” and when not? Many thanks!
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I think the short answer is “yes”. I suppose it depends on what level of formality you are aiming for, though.
Even “ro’n” is a contraction, of roeddwn. However, I’ve just checked the Elin Meek’s learner book Cmon Ref (adaption of Nigel Owens’ autobiographical book) that some of us are reading, and “ro’n i” is the form that is used in the narrative.
Here’s an example from the book I’m reading:
Roedd hi’n oedolyn. Os oedd hi am rhedeg yn wirion a thorri ei choes neu ei braich, yna ei chyfrifoldeb hi oedd hynny.
Do you know why its Roedd at the start, but then Oedd everywhere else, please? or why it isn’t Roedd everywhere in the paragraph, please?
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I’m not sure about this, so can someone confirm this or correct me please? This came up in another post about Gallu and allu. I think the reason was that when the phrase is based on a question type formation (although not actually a question) then the question type word is used (no R)
So in your paragraph if the tense is changed to present tense - You could have “Mae” for the first “Roedd” , but you would have “Ydy/yw” for the others. So they are “oedd”.
I think that’s right. Perhaps someone can help.
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Ooo that’s very interesting - thanks John! I will have to pay more attention to this I think!
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