You’ll quite often hear “dim ond” as just 'mond - which might be more appropriate for a country style (if you want to keep it in)?
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Hiya. While learning with SSI is it worth getting the ‘Dysgu cymraeg mynediad’ book? Or will that likely just confuse matters?
If you’re just starting, I would suggest not getting the book straight away, but put it off for a bit. The reason for that is that SSiW concentrates on spoken forms and you learn the sounds before you seen them written down. Seeing words written down - especially when they don’t match the colloquial forms that SSiW uses, can tempt you into wrong pronunciations. Also, the sentences introduced in SSiW won’t follow the order of those introduced in the book, so it might be frustrating if you’re trying to synchronise the two.
However, once you’re a bit further in, and have got more used to the sounds and structures, you may feel you want to explore the grammar side of things a bit more, so that’s when the book might help (although of course there are several excellent grammar guides available - especially the ones by Gareth King)
Thank you, that makes perfect sense. I will hold off as I’m happy with the sentences I’m learning through SSI just wasn’t sure if people were doing additional study.
Some do and find it useful, some do and find it confusing - there’s nothing wrong with extra study, it’s totally up to the individual, but I think it’s best to point out that SSiW’s method is so different to the course books that some people struggle to use them in tandem to begin with - and it’s much better to go to the books when you’re hungry for more Welsh than to go to them too early and feel disillusioned or frustrated! 
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Shwmae bawb,
Quick one hopefully… how is ‘to be good at’ usually expressed e.g ‘He’s good at driving’?
Diolch!
One possible expression I’ve seen is bod yn un da am + verb-noun - “to be a good one at (doing something)”. E.g., from Golwg: Mae Shane Williams yn dweud y byddai’n “caru’r cyfle” i fod yn wleidydd ryw ddiwrnod, ond yn cyfaddef - â’i dafod yn ei foch - nad yw’n un da am “siarad rybish”. Shane Williams says that he would “love the opportunity” to be a politician some day, but admits - tongue in cheek - that he’s not very good at “talking rubbish”.
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Ah that’s great, will keep this in mind, diolch yn fawr!
How do you say “lilypad” in Welsh? or pond lily – those plants that put up big round leaves from the bottom of a pond that frogs are often depicted sitting on.
According to the Geiriadu’r Academi it is “deilen lili” (lit: lily leaf), which is a bit prosaic, but there you go…
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Prosaic is fine! I just want to make myself understood…!
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Sara’s right about lilypad, but if you wanted the whole plant - water lily - that would be lili’r dŵr (although there are alternatives for some particular types)
Shwmae bawb eto,
How would you go about translating that in the following context:
It’s not that bad!
Diolch!
Dydy hi ddim mor ddrwg maybe?
â hynny/hynna I think, although possibly that bit’s optional.
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Another sentence example Ive seen is:
mae’ch plaid yn dda am weiddi’n groch!
your party is good at shouting loudly!
Yes, Ive seen that sentence before.
Also ‘cynddrwg’ can be used instead of mor ddrwg … but mor ddrwg more common in speech nowadays it seems
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Wondering if a more focused sentence is also a suitable translation
“Dim mor ddrwg yw/ydy hynny/hynna” (ar lafar/in speech)
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I’m reading (and very much enjoying) the Welsh version of Yr Hobyd, but have come across a construction that I can’t easily make sense of, and am wondering if it’s the author’s problem or mine. The book is professionally produced, but as always there are one or two occasional slips that a copy editor hasn’t caught (an â that should have just been an a, an ‘n’ missing once from the name of Rivendell Gly(n)hafn, etc.) and I’m wondering if this is one, or if it’s something more complicated that I’ve failed to understand.
The narrator has just introduced the first mention of the Eagles, and is explaining their continuing hostility towards the goblins. He explains that the goblins likewise hate and fear the Eagles, but can’t reach their eyries, ac felly doedd nid oedd gobaith ganddynt eu gyrru o’r mynyddoedd. “And so they had no hope of driving them from the mountains,” clearly, but why doedd nid oedd? Is it repetition for emphasis, an editorial hesitation between the two (with both left in by mistake), or something else that I’m missing?
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I’m plumping for that one, unless someone more knowledgeable thinks otherwise. I would drop the doedd.
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