Yeah, I’ve realised I’ve got the yn in the wrong place for a negative… oops!
Does infinite play just go through everything randomly?
Yes, that’s the idea - random practice phrases from anywhere in the course.
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I really started to struggle, so much was introduced so quickly at the end of level 3. Nice to know it will all be around again.
In this sentence could you use all of the following (and plural/formal equivalents)?
(there are 2 girls)…you don’t know
“So ti’n nabod”
“Nag wyt ti’n nabod”
“Dwyt ti ddim yn nabod”
I must admit the “nag…” always catches me out. Is this possibly a “that” type clause which is missing in the English?
Thank you
Yes, those would all be acceptable in conversation, though the first one more so in the south.
Note that strictly speaking there’s a little eu missing before nabod in all of those, e.g. nag wyt ti’n eu nabod BUT you rarely hear it in everyday speech. I’ve just mentioned it so it will ring a bell if you come across it. Welsh needs to say the equivalent of “you don’t know them” referring back to the “girls”.
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Many thanks again
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Good day everyone.
Can I have some help please on yet another thing that’s confusing me?
What the difference in usage between “dros” and (ar) draws? I’m sure (but may be wrong) that I’ve seen both used to mean “over” or “across” etc e.g. “dros y mor” “draw fanco” and so on. Are they interchangeable?
Thank you
They are pretty much interchangeable when meaning ‘across’, but in the case of ‘over’ then dros is the more common with ar draws/draw more restricted to certain phrases (such as the draw fanco you mentioned).
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Thanks you very much
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Bore da pawb
I’ve seen some instances recently where a sentence like “so that I can…” (Usually the second part of a sentence) is translated as “er mwyn I fi allu” .
Also seen “iddi” used the same way.
I was expecting to use the “dw i’n…” or “mae hi’n…”
form.
What are the rules for using “I fi” etc?
Diolch
I’d be grateful if someone could have a look at the above question I asked a few days back.
Thanks
er mwyn is a conjunction that uses an i-clause when the subject is specified.
er mwyn i fi allu is literally “in order for me to be able”.
This i-clause (i+person+verbnoun) is pretty common and you’ll find it a lot (too often to list every occasion here), so the best way to ‘learn’ it is not to think of a rule, but just get used to which words it goes together with. That takes time and practise and a fair bit of getting it wrong, but it does click eventually.
But if you really can’t do without the full list of ‘rules’, I highly recommend investing in a copy of Gareth King’s Working Welsh, if not his more comprehensive Modern Welsh .
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Thank you very much. I remember now that the “ar ol I” and “cyn I” conjunctions use the “I” form and see how it works here. Missed that “er mwyn” and probably many others use it as well. So thanks for the reminder.
I was further confused by it’s use in “Agor y drws I fi peidio colli’r ail hanner” where there seems to be an implied “so that” missing in the Welsh (it’s in the English)
English often uses words that aren’t in the Welsh to avoid having a clunky-sounding (in English) literal translation.
If you can start to get a feel for the use of the “i fi” etc construction in Welsh, you’ll really be speaking Welsh, and not just translating what you would say in English. It’s quite different to the way English says it, and it does take time to get used to, so as Siaron says, it’s better not to try to “learn” a lot of rules as to when to use it, but just take note when you come across it, and try to practise it in the phrases it appears. It will start to feel natural with time.
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Sorry to prolong the agony🥺
I’m now ok with the “I” form after certain prepositions (especially when I remember which ones).
The “I fi beidio” remains a mystery but I will remember to use it in that circumstance.
But this one came up yesterday and I really can’t work out why it uses the “I fi” construction instead of, for example, “bo’fi wedi gwneud” (for “to believe THAT I made”) or even “wnes I”. Without knowing why I will find it difficult to apply it in future cases. Sorry, that’s the way my brain is wired!
“It’s hard to believe I made exactly the same excuse”
“Mae’n anodd credu I fi wneud gwmws y un esgus’”
I really appreciate your help.
The preposition i is very versatile, so it crops up in all manner of constructions, and one of those is to introduce a clause of reported speech, where it is implicitly understood that the subclause is in the past. You can express the same thing just as well with bo’fi wedi or (y) wnes i, so it’s more a matter of personal taste and style.
It’s just one more weapon in your liguistic arsenal, so to say, and especially in “nested reported speech” using the i-construction makes the resulting sentence shorter and more elegant.
Thanks again for your reply.
I’m reassured that my first guesses were not wildly wrong then 
I’ll look out for these alternative reported speech examples and see if I can “get” the I form.
It had confused me as the next example to crop up was
“I believe they listen to every word”
“dw i’n credu bo’ nhw’n gwrando ar bob hair”
Where the “bod” appeared.
Thanks again
I’m working my way slowly through Gareth King’s Intermediate Welsh. A Grammar and Workbook and failing the exercises quite spectacularly now I have reached conjunctions. However, I am (perhaps somewhat masochistically) still enjoying my attempts. Usually, I only need to do a little bit of extra pondering to understand why I have erred, but one of the translation exercises at 31.2 has me flummoxed.
Number 18: He may get the job after all, though he doesn’t know yet.
Translation : Efallai geith e’r swydd wedi’r cwbwl, er nad yw e’n gwybod ‘to.
The second clause appears to me to be negative present tense of ‘bod’ so I thought it would be a ‘fod o ddim’ construction rather than use ‘na’, which latter (from my understanding of Units 11-13) is used for a negative when the original thought/statement is neither the present nor perfect tense of ‘bod’. Is the original thought here considered to be something like ‘he will not know yet’ rather than ‘he does not know/is not knowing yet’? Or..? Diolch pawb!
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