And absolutely not applicable to you (because as Baruch points out your question is extremely sensible), but my favourite idiom for “idiot” is “twmffat” (which is literally a funnel).
I shall pass that on to my wife who feels she has great need of that word! Thanks!
4 Likes
How would I say “a wing” in reference to a building - “the west wing of the building”? Gareth King’s Dictionary translates “wing” as adain, asgell or asgellwr depending on context, but I don’t know which translation fits a building.
For that kind of wing, you can use asgell or adain, though I think asgell may be the more common one for that use.
1 Like
Quickie on lefel 2 her 17, and how to use taswn, etc (I’m in the northern version). There’s a lot of examples like “mi driwn i esbonio tasech chdi’n arafu”. Tasech suggests a “formal/plural” conversation, but I thought “chdi” was a northern form of “ti”, so informal\singular. So why isn’t it “…tasech chi’n arafu”, or is it actually the informal “chdi” and it’s “tasech” for some other reason (like I can’t say “taset chdi” without swallowing my tongue)?
I think it is actually taset chdi’n, with a swallowed ‘t’. The vocabulary gives both taset ti’n and tase chdi’in - they actually spell it without the final ‘t’ but I think grammatically it’s still in there somewhere…
Thanks, but tbe notes for tbe unit definitely say “tasech chdi’n…”
This is really just a matter or written convention. You could just as easily write tase ti’n or tase chi’n and it would sound exactly the same, since only one consonant is pronounced when you get the same consonant at the beginning of one word and the start of the next, unlike in English. Likewise, tasech chdi’n and tase chdi’n also sound exactly the same, and obviously this is how it’s said, rather than tasechd chdi’n.
The only reason I can think of to write the consonant at the end of the verb in these kind of things is that in some circumstances the pronoun gets left off, but the ending remains, something like “fysat ti’n deutha i, bysat?” for you’d tell me, wouldn’t you. Writing the ending in both cases means you can just leave the verb as it is. This obviously falls down for the chdi version as it becomes “fysa chdi’n deutha i, bysachd?” and not “fysa chdi’n deutha i, bysach?” or “fysa chdi’n deutha i, bysa”. Since it’s colloquial anyway, there’s no set convention on how to write it, so people tend to go for whichever works best for them.
OK, so: talking to a group of revered grammar experts who I deeply respect and honour (the most “chi” situation I can think of) it’s “tasech chi” because that’s the right form of the verb for chi, but in the example in the unit it’s “tasech chdi” because we’re reflecting in writing what would probably actually be said, at least north of Borth?
Thank you for slowing down and letting me explain my question!
Where are you seeing those Notes, @phil-23?
If you look at the vocab on the web site for Challenge 17, Level 2, Northern version, it definitely has tase chi not tasech chi:
That’s odd: I wonder if the app has an older vocab list, which has since been corrected?
Ah yes, I’ve just checked: the app vocab is different from the website for this level - does have the errant ‘ch’ at the end of taset…
(But, obviously, take @garethrking’s advice of why this sort of variant spelling of verbal contractions happens, not mine… 
)
That explains it - yes, I was looking at the notes on the iPhone app. Thanks again to you and Gareth.
2 Likes
I’m pretty much always OK with these contractions. Although I would say that if you’re (quite rightly) going to contract tasai (for example), you might just as well go straight to tasa.
1 Like
Shwmae bawb,
I know that in lots of areas in South Wales the -wn and -en of the conditional endings are both pronounced as en/ɛn.
Does this apply to the future first person plural ending too e.g:
“Os yw Gareth fan’na, dwedwn ni wrtho”
Would you pronounce dwedwn ni as en/ɛn also too? Or is this pronounced as written like oon/ʊn?
Diolch!
@Tintin , no, not really.
“sdim eise bod fel’na” - no need to be like so/ that, this is what I’d say.
We have names for people who are arsey! I won’t repeat them here, but bot as an adjective.
someone might disagree with me 
4 Likes
@gregory-3
Difficult one this question
bydden i’n dweud - I would say
bydden ni’n dweud - We would say,
When using ‘ni’ we tend to put it in some sort of context
‘Bydden ni gyd yn dweud ‘
( when I hear ‘wn’ I always think of the future tense of will as in ‘we will’)
Byddwn ni gyd yn mynd ar streic - We will all be going on strike.
Bydden ni gyd wedi mynd ar streic - We would all have gone on strike
2 Likes
Tag me in this thread @nia.llywelyn please , because I don’t come on here often, too much to do on slack.
I like to answer quick questions, but will hold my hands up If I need to ‘phone a friend’ 
( it’s usually my father - also my ex Welsh teacher in High School)
4 Likes
Aw thank you for the reply @nia.llywelyn! Yes I’ve had a chat with a few other Welsh speakers and they are of the same opinion, that the ‘en’ sounding ‘wn’ is confined to the conditional.
I just had it in my head that any word ending in -wn was colloquially pronounced as ‘en’
Diolch eto!
I have heard two words for that (hwnna/hynny) and two words for this (hwn/hyn) - What is the difference? Is there a general rule on when you would use one or the other? Are they the fem/masc versions of the words? Thanks!
1 Like
Yes, they are versions of this and that according to grammatical gender. hwn and hwnnw are for masculine, hon and honno for female.
Although Welsh only has two grammatical genders, there is a third form, when speaking about something unknown or indeterminate, or simply if you’re not sure of the grammatical gender: hyn and hynny.
(And in the north you may hear the words for that as hwnna, honna and hynna, respectively)
6 Likes
Shwmae bawb eto,
I know how to deal with identification for 3rd person i.e Athrawes yw hi but I know if you want to ‘label’ or identify yourself you use the following Pobydd (y)dw i and not Pobydd yw fi…
So how does identification work with the 2nd person, which ones are correct
Fy ffrind wyt ti / Fy ffrind oeddet ti
or
Fy ffrind yw ti / Fy ffrind oedd ti
I know this can be said also as ti’n ffrind i fi but I just wanted to know about this type of construction
edit: Anghofiais i am gynnwys @nia.llywelyn, wps!
Diolch!