I’ve sometimes read ‘llofft’ where (to my understanding of the text!) the context is an upstairs bedroom, rather than a ‘loft’ in the manner I consider synonymous with ‘attic’. What is a ‘llofft’ understood to be in Wales?
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The word llofft has multiple meanings in Welsh, but the common denominator is that whatever it is, it is above the ground-floor. So it is used by itself, just like you said, to mean “upstairs bedroom” (though some people say llofft wely to be unambiguous), and another common usage is to say lan lofft for “upstairs” (synonymous to lan grisiau and lan staer)
Diolch eto!
I think, also, that the ‘en/an’ suffix conveys a diminutive. So for example you’ll hear (informally) “ges i jinsen” (I had a little gin) and similar, and I would understand “awran” to be “about an hour”.
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Shwmae bawb,
Would anybody be able to explain the differences in expressing between the ways of expressing the future. By that I mean using the future of bod + VN, future gwneud + VN and the inflected future e.g using “I won’t lose tomorrow” as an example
Fydda i ddim yn colli yfory
Wna i ddim colli yfory
Cholla i ddim yfory
I understand that future gwneud + VN is used when asking for favours or for somebody to do something for you and for things that you immediately intend to do?
And also that the future of bod + VN is similar to the English of I’ll be doing something e.g
I’ll be seeing her soon
Bydda i’n gweld hi’n fuan
Any insights would be really appreciated.
Diolch!
On one Welsh course the tutor told us that the pattern with “gwneud” was the “near future” while the “bod” future was the “true future”.
An example would be, “Wna i roi’r tegell ymlaen.” (I’ll put the kettle on.) as an example of the near future, i.e. something I’ll do right now or in a minute. “Bydda i ar fy ngwyliau mis nesaf,” (I’ll be on holiday next month.) is a more distant future.
But I’m sure the people who are better at grammar might be able to explain the subtleties of when to use which pattern.
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I’m doing lesson 24 of the old course 2 and have got confused as to when “more” is mwy or yn fwy. When Aaron introduces it he says mwy means more and then goes on to say if we want to say more than it’s yn fwy na. However there seem to be sentences with mwy na and yn fwy without the na. So what causes mwy become yn fwy? Thanks.
I’ve been wondering the same. I keep listening closely, and think I’m getting a feel for it, but I haven’t completely figured out the rule / pattern yet.
Btw, his name is spelled Aran, like the islands. 
Oops, sorry Aran!
The deciding factor here is whether more is used as an adverb or not – one function of yn is turning an adjective to an adverb. Example:
Mae car cyflym gyda fi. – I have a fast car (cyflym is used as an adjective)
Mae’r car yn mynd yn gyflym. – The car is going fast. (yn gyflym, used as an adverb of the verb mynd)
One example of the lesson with an adverbial more:
Doeddwn ni ddim yn ymlacio’n fwy na chdi - We weren’t relaxing more than you. (Here the “more” is an adverb of manner/intensity)
And a “counterexample”:
Ti wedi dysgu mwy na fi. – You have learned more than me. (Here, the “more” is simply the object of learning, not an adverb)
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Thanks for explaining Hendrik, that makes sense.
I don’t think this is grammatically sound (see caveat at the end of the post), but I tend to think of “periphrastic” verbs using “bod” as having and “-ing” formation in English. So your “fydda i ddim yn colli yfory” would be “I won’t be losing tomorrow”.
But those made with “gwneud” or just with the conjugation of the verb itself are more direct: both your “Wna i ddim…” and “Cholla i ddim…” would be “I won’t lose tomorrow”.
This would work for the past as well, so:
Ro’n i ddim yn colli ddoe - I wasn’t losing yesterday
Wnes i ddim colli ddoe - I didn’t lose yesterday
Chollais i ddim ddoe - I didn’t lose yesterday
For those that know about grammar, of course this is to do with the tense rather than its being periphrastic. But as a general rule of thumb for starting out, it helps keep things straight in the head, I find.
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Diolch y ddwy (@margarethall a @sara-peacock-1)!
Seems like I had roughly the right idea then 
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Just to add, be very careful when saying “Isle of Arran”, it sounds too similar to “I love Aran” which has got me in a predicament before now. Just saying. 
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Moriarty: Listen to me while I tell you a tale. In 1296 on the Isle of Ewe…
Seagoon: Where?
Moriarty: Isle of Ewe.
Seagoon: I love you, too. Shall we dance?
Moriarty: I don’t wish to know that.
From “Lurgi Strikes Britain”.
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Cwestiwn cyflym (gobeithio!)
Is there any guidance for buying railway and bus tickets in Welsh anywhere (on the rare occasions when you do need to buy a ticket from a human these days)? What about vocab such as ‘single’ or ‘return’ or ‘day return’?
Diolch
Here’s what I found on Traveline’s Welsh webpage (Pob math o docyn trên | TfW)
Single ticket – tocyn sengl or tocyn unffordd
Return ticket – tocyn dychweld or tocyn dwyffordd
I’m not sure about the Day Return Ticket… Traveline has “Anytime Tickets”, and those are tocyn hyblyg / tocyn unrhyw bryd.
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Go on Transport for Wales website. There is a page about ticket types. If you use two browser windows you can look at English and Welsh side by side. That’s how I recently looked up how to ask for a return ticket.
Edit: woops, that’s exactly what Hendrik already linked you too!
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Bore da
I’m building a Nashville guitar and I want to engrave the words ‘just a country boy’ in Cymraeg on the back.
In my head I would say that as
‘dim ond bachgen gwlad’
Does that seem right?
Diolch.
If you are speaking about a Nashville guitar, I think you want to express “country” as the musical style. In that context, country is canu gwlad (“country singing”). If you want to have “only” in there, dim ond is correct, but I personally would leave that out and say bachgen canu gwlad.
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