Gwych – mae hynny’n swnio’n dda i fi… diolch yn fawr iawn, @siaronjames!
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How to pronounce the word ‘dow’ ?
I know that this handy Welsh word ‘Dow’ is used to convey “oh come on” … or “oh come now” (not necessarily in a negative tone always - but also in a loving persuasive manner)
but I am unsure of pronunciation as I cant tell if I hear it different in north vs south?
I assume its not like the English word “ow” (said in pain) but more like ‘dough’ in English (or doh if you are Homer simpson!).
Can anyone correct? Diolch ymlaen llaw
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Diolch yn dalpiau…
I hear ‘co ni off’ often south of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion- “Lets go/ We are off”
On this same theme…
Ive realised that “gad inni fynd” may sound a bit stilted now… and perhaps ‘Dewch i ni fynd/Dere ni fynd’…may be more natural
What are your thoughts @nia.llywelyn Diolch eto
Just a heads up … in North East Wales … away from the North Wales coast…and east of say Cerrigydrudion on the A5 … you are much more likely to hear the ‘au’ ending softening to ‘e’ … same as mid Wales proper.
Its not important to use the right one because a lot of recent welsh speaking migration comes from Gwynedd around me. -a endings are increasingly common. NE Welsh dialect is disappearing tbh
I even try to use some older dialect but many look at me confused.
Mywion = ants / Sbens = cwtsh dan risiau / Syrcyn = A vest / llidiart I heard for ‘gate’ (garden gates etc) as a boy
Cog = boy originally in the deep east … but bachgen is basically the NE word… hogyn/hogia is increasing in use
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All this discussion about pronunciation details brings to mind a question I have begun thinking about.
I recently memorized the Welsh alphabet (for fun) but realize that I am not at all sure how the letters (including the diagraphs) would be pronounced if you are just trying to rattle off the alphabet. I recently overheard someone doing that, but I wasn’t near enough to catch it. So I’m curious. Any takers?
(I should probably mention that I live in the middle of the US and rarely have opportunities to hear Welsh at all…)
I still struggle with the same thing! This video may help (although somehow I instantly forget whenever I need to try and spell a word or get one spelt to me!)
The only bit I do remember without fail is W Y = ooh er (as in “ooh, er, missus” 
)
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Yes, it’s as dough (or half of Dodo 
) I’m not aware of a N/S difference though.
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I tend to go with the names given as the “adult” version in the video linked to by @siaronjames, although I haven’t often heard them from others outside of acronyms such as “bi bi ec” “'es pedwar ec” or “eg pi ec” (BBC, S4C, GPC). I have heard i and u distinguished (for southerners ) as “i dot” and “u bedol”.
Personally, I had small children at the time I was learning the names of the months and the letters; I used to annoy the kids by singing them just as they would in English, but in Welsh.
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Following on from the coronation I have seen and heard a lot of chatter about anti-monarchy protesters.
Here comes my problem: the BBC (and Google translate!) seem to go with brenhiniaeth for “monarchy”, for eg rheiny sy’n gwrthwynebu’r frenhiniaeth - “those who oppose the monarchy”. But various dictionaries translate brenhiniaeth as “sovreignty” and offer words like teyrnasiaeth or even monarchiaeth for “monarchy”.
Now obviously if you live in a monarchy the two concepts are pretty closely related, but it is possible in English to talk about the sovreignty of a state that isn’t a monarchy. Does this distinction not exist in Welsh?
While brenhiniaeth and teyrnasiaeth could be interpreted as both monarchy and sovereignty (as listed in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru for example), Geiriadur yr Academi gives sofraniaeth and/or penarglwyddiaeth for sovereignty only (and doesn’t list these for monarchy - as neither does the GPC), so these would be the ones to use when talking about the sovereignty of a state that isn’t a monarchy.
@brynle
Awn ni … is what we favour nowadays for ‘let’s go’ / we’ll go’
Gad i ni fynd - yep!
Dere i ni fynd - yep! These are a bit more personal I would say ( sounding a bit more persuasive)
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Diolch @siaronjames. The thing that’s really bugging me is that it seems to be very hard to find an authoritative answer that is nonetheless focused on modern usage (as opposed to listing every possible meaning!)…
Hi all - I have occasionally come across the construction “dim ond” and I think it means “only” or “just” but am unsure how to use it. Is anybody able to explain it, perhaps with some examples please?
Yes, you can use dim ond (sometimes shortened in speech to mond) for both ‘only’ and ‘just’ where the sense is ‘simply/merely’
e.g. I’ve only got £5 - does dim ond pum punt gen i / gyda fi
I was just/only going to say… - O’n i mond yn mynd i dweud…
Who’s there? Only me - Pwy sy na? Dim ond fi
How many times? Just once - Faint o weithiau? Dim ond unwaith
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Diolch!
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Hello everyone. I am on challenge 14 of level 1 and I am struggling so much. I just can’t remember the words or string a sentence with them. Challenge 13 was the first challenge where I really began to struggle. Would anyone have any advice?
Yes - these are notorious and hard for almost everyone (there are lots of threads here about them), and the advice is do them as best you can, don’t keep going over and over them trying to get most of them right, but instead push on. You won’t miss anything because all the material gets repeated later on (in smaller chunks!), and you can always go back to them to check when you’re further along.
Biggest piece of advice - don’t let this get you down, it’s not just you, you’re doing great!
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Bore da pawb,
Two tiny questions, actually, but hopefully with quick answers. I’m busy trying to extent my vocabulary, mainly by reading BBC Cymru Fyw. It’s shocking, just how many new words I am having to learn in order to be able to listen to the news! But anyway…
…in the last couple of days I have come across a couple of words/phrases that I can’t unpick. Here’s one:
Mae’r gwaith glo brig mwyaf yn y Deyrnas Unedig
Okay, I got “the biggest [something] in the UK” but I had to resort to Google Translate (oh, the shame) to unpick gwaith glo brig. Looking up the individual words in a dictionary doesn’t help. Google says it means “open cast mine” but I can’t see how? Can anyone help me?
Second question. I have a wall chart about bees, yn Gymraeg, from The Wildlife Trust. The word cacwn appears rather a lot, and it appears to mean “bumblebee” (as opposed to a honey bee, which is gwenynen.) But all of my reference books say cacwn means “wasp”.
So, does cacwn mean both “wasp” and “bumblebee”?
Ta muchly…
This doesn’t translate in a literal sense, there’s a bit of lateral translation going on, which is why it’s confusing.
Gwaith glo = coal workings
Brig = among other things, this can mean ‘uppermost’
So for gwaith glo brig, it’s saying “uppermost coal workings”, which is basically what open-cast mining is - i.e. it’s not mining as in a pit underground.
Yes, Cacwn can be wasps, bumblebees, hornets or drones. having said that, there are lots of different names for all of these depending on your locality!
For instance, among other names, wasps can be called gwenyn meirch, hornets can be marchgacwn and drones can be gwenyn gormes or the rather lovely cwffis, whilst bumblebees can also be called gwenyn gwyllt, or, wonderfully, hwrli-bwms 
Which one to use? It’s personal/regional preference really. 
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