Use of "fedra"

Welsh
1

Can anyone help me understand the grammar behind SSIW using “fedra i ddim cofio” in preference to “dw i ddim yn cofio”. I last learned a language 60 odd years ago in school and still like to know how and why structures work.

2

Fedra i ddim cofio = I can’t remember
Dw i ddim yn cofio = I don’t remember

Fedra i = I can
Dw i = I am
Dw i ddim = I am not

I’m not sure of the context in the lesson you’re listening to, but the two sentences mean different things. Note the use of ‘yn’ in the second sentence, which is always used when you’re connecting a part of bod (dw i) with a verbnoun or adjective. Medru does not use yn.

1 Like
3

Thanks for your help in pointing out the subtle difference between “I don’t” and “I can’t”. I was also confused as I identified “fedra” as a future tense of medru whist the statement was in the present tense. I’ve since seen that the future tense ending can also be applied to the present tense in this context.

4

Ah, you might find this page helpful, which shows you how various inflected verbs share the same or similar endings:

So medra i, galla i and bydda i (I can, I can and I will), all share the same set of endings.

Other tenses and auxiliary verbs (helper or periphrastic verbs) also share endings.

5

It’s often said that Welsh has ‘past’ and ‘non-past’, with the ‘non-past’ covering present and future. In everyday speech, there’s a tendency for people to use them for future more than present, but there are certain common words that are often used in the present as well - like fedra

2 Likes
6

I’m skeptical about whether the future is even a genuine tense in Welsh or any other language TBH and I’m absolutely convinced that it’s not a tense in English (except in the loose sense where we talk about English having more than a dozen “tenses”).

I’m also fairly convinced that it isn’t a tense in Spanish or German (I think the so-called future is a mood in Spanish and just a modal verb in English). German seems to me to have a past/non-past system similar to Japanese, but with “werden” sometimes used as an aspectual or modal verb; but I’m less confident about that and won’t be amazed if I turn out to be wrong about what “werden” is.