Can someone confirm whether I’m in the right sort of ballpark with a couple of words I’m struggling with in my current Welsh book
‘bwrdd pincio’ - is this a dressing table?
‘Isio mynadd!’ - is this something along the lines of ‘give me patience’?
Also, any suggestions for ‘tad’ in the context of “Dach chi’n iawn, Nain?” “Yndw, tad”. I came across it a couple of times in Inc and again in Pluen, but I’ve not yet worked out what it actually means…
You’re spot on for bwrdd pincio and isio mynadd!. The latter is a contraction of Mae isio amynedd.
The tad in such expressions is usually a reference to god (i.e. the father in heaven), the longer form you sometimes hear is Yndw, yn enw’r tad (Yes, in the name of the Father). It serves purely as emphasis.
Helo! I’m new and it’s my first time posting! Anyway…
Level 1 challenge 14
It was said “rhywun oedd e’n moyn helpu" “Someone who wanted to help”. I’m a bit confused as to why there’s no need for “sydd” anywhere here…
Diolch yn fawr! Dwi’n joio dysgu!
The problem here is that sydd is inherently present tense, so rhywun sydd yn moyn helpu means “someone who wants to help”. If you want to express that in the past tense, you just use oedd instead of sydd.
Makes perfect sense! Diolch!!
Helô! Are these both correct?
(An old man who told me that he wants to watch that film today)
Hen ddyn wnaeth ddweud wrtha’i fod e’n moyn gwylio’r ffilm 'na heddiw
and
Hen ddyn ddweudodd wrtha’i fod e’n moyn gwylio’r ffilm 'na heddiw
Diolch yn fawr iawn!
Yes they are the equivalent.
As you have got them so correct you probably know that translated literally one means ‘did say to me/ did tell me’ and the other means ‘said to me/ told me’ - but yes the meaning of the sentence extracts are equivalent.
Rich 
Thank you for pointing out that distinction! I had been saying “ddweudodd wrtha’i…" But heard in the latest challenge it said “wnaeth ddweud wrtha’i…" and it threw me a bit!
Diolch yn fawr iawn!
Just for clarity between the two forms …
Dweud i (rhywun) = to say to (someone).
Dweud wrth (rhywun) = to tell (someone).
Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi gyd.
…dweud wrth is ‘say to’ and ‘tell’ in my world but I’m sure there are all sorts of variations (and the fact they exist in Welsh is one of its lovely features)
Rich
I learned the distinction between the two years ago and took it as gospel and have used then as such ever since. I’ll take it on the chin and learn from my mistakes as is recommended. 
(I’m new to forums and am not sure I’m replying right 
)
I’ve been chewing on what you’ve said here. They seem to be both correct in welsh, but only one seems to sound natural in English. Is there one of the options I gave that sounds more natural in welsh? “Ddweudodd” perhaps?? Diolch
Specifically with dweud I suspect “dwedodd” might win based on frequency. However for past tense verbs in general, the two are exactly equivalent in meaning. In Welsh you can form the preterite by:
These are all equivalent in meaning and all equally natural.
My gut is that in the every day spoken language the driver of whether people use one or the other will be frequency of the verb, and therefore how familiar they are with the stem of the verb that the endings go on in version 1.
So I bet verbs like “experiment”/“arbrofi” gets said with “gwneud” whereas “dweud” is so high frequency that “Dwedodd” will be one of the first words you learn. And in fact “he said” had loads regional pronunciations: “dwedodd”, “diddodd”, “wedodd” etc
In the formal written language the version with endings is preferred (because that’s how Latin worked and nineteenth and twentieth century textbook authors thought that being more like Latin was a good thing, because ???). So I’ll also bet that which version people use depends on whether they’re talking to their mates or being interviewed on a highbrow news programme (with endings more likely in the latter).
Predictive text for the win!
Diolch for such an incredible explanation! Makes perfect sense and I had no idea “wnaeth” was a version of gwneud. (My only exposure (learning-wise) to welsh has been SSI!) Dwi’n joio dysgu Cymraeg yn fawr iawn!
I don’t know how to post this in the right place. Am in a muddle, don’t have a problem remembering or answering in the challenges but if I listen to a few minutes of Welsh radio I’m lucky to understand four words of Welsh in a 10 minute listening session. Am I just incredibly slow? Jill 13
Hi @jill-13.
A few of things to think about which might lessen the muddle.
How far have you progressed through the SSIW courses? If you’ve not got far, the amount you can understand is bound to be limited.
The clue is in the name. SAY SIW, isn’t read, write or even understand Welsh. It doesn’t mean that you won’t understand it, or learn to understand it, but it isn’t the primary focus, in the earlier parts of the course. The exams in the Welsh for Adults course obviously have comprehension sections, but SSIW doesn’t, fortunately, go in for exams!
The amount of vocabulary in any language is going to be much bigger than that in any course. So that which is on Radio Cymru is going to be bigger than that which SSIW introduces.
Listening to the radio, while absolutely helpful and useful, isn’t necessarily the most helpful and useful way. The speakers can’t see your face, slow down for you, explain again in a different way. The programme might also not be of any interest you. I have little interest in rugby(!) so I wouldn’t be trying to understand what was going on during a rugby commentary. If there are more than one or two voices, that too can be difficult to follow. If you search through the archives for “Beti a’i phobl” there are a good number of interview programmes, one to one, which you might find interesting.
Having said that, they do have a good podcast aimed at learners. You can listen again and again, and perhaps undertand things the second or third time round. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrvyj/episodes/downloads
It is very interesting that many people learning Welsh in the traditional way say they understand more than they can say, but the SSIW way is often the other way round!
That’s perfectly normal when you’re starting out, Jill, not slow at all. Remember that on the radio you have different accents and dialects and generally faster speech too (and as Margaret said, wider vocabulary), so it will be a while before you understand more but there is still a purpose to doing the listening session. The idea is to listen but not to concentrate and try to translate - try having the radio on whilst doing something else and just let your ears receive the sound without making sense of it. Patterns and rhythms will absorb by themselves by doing this and gradually you’ll notice more and more words cutting through, then the odd sentence, and eventually what usually happens is you’re doing something else and suddenly it’ll occur to you that there was a whole chunk you understood without even trying and that will feel amazing! But it takes time for that to happen, so don’t be disheartened - everyone goes through this!
Many thanks, I shall listen to Beti a’i phobl and won’t worry too much about understanding at the moment. Anything on I Player TV I can’t get due to living in the US. Am just finishing level one challenge 25.All that has been fun.
Thanks again for your suggestions.
Yes I can get the podcasts -have just tried.Yeah! Jill 13
