We wouldn't want them any different!

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hi, I’m a bit confused with this phrase, is it the conditional tense, byddwyn i etc? I am muddling it up with dylwn i (I should). Can anyone help to make it clearer? Diolch

#2

I’m very much a beginner, but I would imagine it’s the conditional and that you will need a “bod” in there somewhere (We wouldn’t want them [to be] any different). Maybe:

Fasen ni ddim eisiau nhw bod yn wahanol

I suspect “eisiau” might be “moyn” here, but I learned eisiau as “want”, so I’ve used it.

Hopefully someone will tell me if I’m close or miles away!

#3

As far as I recall, the sentence used in the challenges (at least in the Southern version) is Fyddwn ni ddim yn moyn nhw yn wahanol o gwbl.
So you are right on track, and the mutation at the beginning is because it’s a negative statement.

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#4

Hi Mandy & Stephen
I’d say almost definitely a slightly abbreviated colloquial version of conditional. :slight_smile: (worried smile).

The English version sounds bang on parent talk, if you get my drift. So I’m guessing the Welsh is also.

Edit:
OK thanks, going from the English above, I’m sticking to my story.

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#5

“Sure, they play on the railway, terrorise the old folks at the home and they’re banned from every cornershop between Pwllheli and Pitlochry, but that’s because they’re high spirited and we wouldn’t want them any different!”

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#6

Diolch pawb, thanks everyone that’s helpful

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#7

I’m guessing that sticking a bod in there as @stephenbranley suggested would not be wrong, but is probably optional.

Like in English: “we wouldn’t want them any different”
“we wouldn’t want them to be any different”

Identical meaning really.

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#8

Yup, with some accompanying fine-tuning…

Fyddwn ni ddim isio iddyn nhw fod yn wahanol…

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#9

“Iddyn nhw”, is that “for them”?

#10

Yup, that’s right - ‘i’ operates like that… :slight_smile:

#11

I just finished level 2 and, while I had a sticky patch with the different endings for different persons and tenses, I THOUGHT I had got the hang of it by the end. However, in the final two lessons, there is a bit of a review built into the challenges and the sentence from the OP came up: “We wouldn’t want them any different.”

At the time it was presented (challenge 2), this didn’t cause me any difficulties, but this time it really threw me. I was expecting something like “Fydden ni ddim isio” instead of “Fyddwn ni ddim isio”. I thought the “wn” ending was for “I” in the conditional (and “we” in the past imperfect, future, etc).

So now I’m confused again.

What have I missed?

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#12

I’ve tried listening to the last two challenges quickly. Although I didn’t catch the exact sentence, I did notice fydden ni ddim for other sentences. However, in some southern dialects i’m pretty sure that you can use the “wn” ending for all persons apart from ti and chi if you want. So I’d just go with the flow, especially as you have noticed the fact and in any case they sound very similar at normal speed.

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#13

Thanks for your reply!

So it’s a little bit of southern Welsh thrown into the northern course to keep us on our toes?

I can’t say I’m surprised to learn that TBH. The creators seem to like to occasionally throw in different forms we haven’t learned yet, presumably because this will happen a lot in real conversations with natives.

Thanks again.

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#14

Ah sorry. I assumed you meant the southern course. That’s why I didn’t find it when I looked. I’ll take another look when I get chance unless someone else gets there first :slight_smile:

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#15

I’ve looked around and It seems that the “wn” and “en” type endings tend to get interchanged to a degree in the spoken language. So you’ll probably come across both endings for various tenses (aspects) and persons. As mentioned earlier, they will sound almost the same anyway. So my cop-out is to say go with the flow and be aware that you might here both endings, so context is key :smiley:

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