Use of "i" before verbs

Welsh General / Questions
#1

I am coming to play is wi’n dod yn chwarae
I came to play is des i i chwarae
Why is the second i inserted with this tense of dod when chwarae means to play?

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#2

I’d use it before every verb there. Might be short for i’w but not sure.

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#3

Yes, I’d agree with John in this…

…I think it’s another situation where English uses the same word in multiple senses and debatably Welsh is a bit clearer because it doesn’t :smile:…

There is a ‘to’ wrapped up in the sense of the verb - eg to want, to learn, to speak etc - and you can string the verbs together in either language and that sense comes through…

However when you say in English

I’m coming to fix the boiler - this isn’t that sort of ‘to’. This is a different sort of ‘to’ associated with the preceding verb - which could be thought of as a ‘for the purposes of’ - and this is what the Welsh ‘i’ is here…and it’s associated with the preceding verb.

So I would say that the first sentence above isn’t quite saying what is intended.

Rich :slight_smile:

#4

Would help to see the full context but I agree with John and Rich that “wi’n dod yn chwarae” sounds odd to me. As Rich suggests, ‘i’ before verb generally has the sense of “in order to”.

#5

Oh no. This is my first question to this forum.Thanks for the replies so far. I have just realised I have included a silly typo.
The first Welsh sentence should have read WI’N DOD CHWARAE. Sorry if I have wasted people’s time with my useless proof reading.
.

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#6

Certainly no need to apologise, John! Things like this are always good to make you question what you think you know… :slight_smile:

Though even with your corrected version, I’d still say “wi’n dod i chwarae” rather than “wi’n dod chwarae” (if the intended meaning is “I’m coming to play”).

I’m not a first language Welsh speaker, though, so I stand to be corrected.