Sorry, I’ve got another one, also in Challenge 14:
dwedodd hi bod hi vs. dwedodd e fod e
Why do the mutations differ here? I’m aware that the answer might very well be “they just do”, but in case there is a particular reason could someone tell me?
The reason is a bit technical… the “correct” form of bod varies from person to person, and bod is mutated according to the same mutations that occur when forming possessives (nasal for “my”, soft for “your” and “his”, aspirate for her). So you get
fy mod i, dy fod ti, ei bod hi, ei fod e.
In colloquial speech these correct forms are often replaced by “bo’fi, bo’ti, bod e, bod hi”, without the mutations.
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Yes, I think, as you say, that It’s a case of “they just do”. It could perhaps be simply just because it’s a little bit easier to pronounce fod quickly than bod after the open vowel ‘e’?
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@Hendrik Really really interesting! So the content clause structure is in fact something like He said his being … whatever, like you could do with some verbs in English as well (I mentioned my having been at Mainz university etc.)
Dankeschön!
So does that mean it would be okay to say dwedodd e bod e … rather than fod e? After all, in the first challenges it was Mae fe’n meddwl bo’ fi’n siarad … and not mod i’n siarad, right?
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Yes, that would be okay to say, but don’t be surprised if you hear “mod i”, or even the full “fy mod i” (although this is quite rare in natural unaffected speech).
If memory serves correctly, the older “courses” (rather than the newer levels) use “mod i” instead of bo’fi.
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Thanks everyone, you’re stars!
Qwestwn byr / quick question.
How would I say something like: when I do X, Y doesn’t happen?
Basically I wanna say “when I enter my postcode, the house number does not appear”.
Would it be something like:
“Pan dwi’n rhoi fy nghod post mewn, nid yw’r rhif ty yn ymdangos”?
I have to say that forming negative statements in the middle of sentences after a conditional bit is quite difficult for me!
Diolch.
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Sounds OK. Possibly “i mewn”. Also the trick in natural sounding speech is generally to avoid “nid” unless there’s a noun or pronoun after it, like Nid John. I think the SSiW pattern would be something like Dyw 'r rhif ty (ddim) yn ymddangos.
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"If memory serves correctly, the older “courses” (rather than the newer levels) use “mod i” instead of bo’fi."
They use both and, in spite of the general superiority of the new courses, the first two levels of the old course definitely made the mutations (especially the nasal and spirant ones) far clearer to me than all 3 levels of the new course.
For anyone interested, the relevant lessons are Course 2 lessons 20 - 22 or 23 inclusive.
Oh yea of course! Thanks!!
I’m writing a story for the eisteddfod so I’m trying to write nicely 
When I use verb forms in the past like collais, bwytais, etc is it best to include the pronoun e.g. “collais i’r bws” or to leave it out e.g. “collais y bws”?
On Duolingo, I learned ei fod e and ei bod hi ; however, the trailing pronoun is often omitted. In a sentence without further context, the mutation may be the only way to determine if you are saying “he” versus “she”.
I am very much a beginner, and Duolingo teaches a slightly different (and fairly standardized) form, so take this with a grain of salt (does that English idiom work in Welsh?).
I’d say ‘pinch’ rather than ‘grain’ in English, and have heard the same on the radio from Tudur Owen - pinsiad o halen.
Both options are valid, but I guess you don’t want to sound like a formal letter… keeping the pronoun definitely sounds more like natural spoken Welsh. Pob lwc!
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Sorry to ask a few questions at once, but hopefully someone can shed some light, please. I’ve just returned to the course after a long break due to some personal stuff, and I’m v pleased to say that I’ve almost caught up with myself (I had got to L2 Ch 6), but there are a few little things bugging me -
1, Level 2 Challenge 2
“The boy told me that he wants to go now” - I thought that would be “dwedodd yr bachgen wrth a’i fod en moyn mynd nawr.” But, it sounds like the correct answer is ‘bod en’ or bydd en’ , rather than fod en - can’t quite make out what they are saying! Why would that be? Or am I just hearing that incorrectly?
- “We wouldn’t want to ask them” - I thought would be “ddydden i ddim yn moyn gofyn i nhw” . But, it sounds like “ddydden i ddim yn moyn gofyn iddyn nhw.” Which reminds me of iddo fe/iddi hi (he’d /she’d better) from Level 1, but I don’t understand what the “iddyn” is or why it is there.
3, In the old course, we were taught
mae (whatever) gyda fi.
However, in the new course, it is always (at least, so far…)
mae gyda fi (whatever).
Are there different contexts in one or other would be more correct/appropriate? Or does in not matter which sentence structure is used?
Thank you - and apologies for any spelling errors.
Don’t worry!
1 Although technically it’s “fod e”, “bod e” is also used in speech. Both are fine.
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The preposition “i” changes depending on the pronoun it’s with. As you’ve spotted, with “fe”, “i” changes to “iddo”, and with “hi”, it changes to “iddi”. “iddyn” is the form of “i” that pairs with “nhw”.
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The ‘standardised’ form is “mae xxx gyda fi”, but people also use “mae gyda fi xxx” (which is more like the Northern way, “mae gen i xxx”) - both are commonly used and are fine. Just go with the one you prefer.
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Hi - just one thing (as @siaronjames covered most of it) - and I promise it’s not just a spelling mistake: it’s really hard to hear the difference between -dd- and -f- on the audio sometimes, but what you’ve got as ddydden i is actually fydden ni - softened from bydden, which is related to bod. (I spent the beginning of Level 1 North saying “bodd i - no, dammit! - bo’ fi” and running out of time to finish my answers.)
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“Dawns y Glaw” by Anweledig was on the radio this morning and I ended up wondering what “pedol” means in the context of the song. The full line is “fel defaid yng nghysgod y bedol”. I think “pedol” usually means “horseshoe”, so my first thought was that it might be one of those hollows that sheep lie in, or perhaps a geographical feature.
You’re right, the line literally means “like sheep in the horseshoe’s shadow”. There is a formation of hills and crags in Eryri (Snowdonia) called Y Bedol, so it might be related to that. Are Anweledig based in North Wales?