I’ve just come across the use of 'i / 'u after wedi (in phrases where the Welsh dw i wedi + VN becomes I am ADJ in English). AFAIUI, this 'i/'u is an reinforcing possessive without a direct equivalent in English.
So, I’ve seen wedi’i colli and wedi’i addysgu, but can you use this with any similar phrase, E.g. mae o wedi’i blino?
Many thanks!
No, that wouldn’t be right and the extra “i” is not wanted there. In the case of wedi’i colli and wedi’i addysgu the “i” is a contraction of “ei” meaning “it”. So in English we’d say, “I have lost it,” but in Welsh the “it” goes before the verb. Literally, “I have it lost.”
Hi Margaret, thanks for the reply!
I wondered about that, but I was looking at expressions like this in this web site: The Rt Hon David Gauke - GOV.UK
Wedi’i eni yn 1971 ac wedi’i addysgu yn Northgate High School yn Ipswich
So I started looking and came across this post: What is the significance of "'u" in "wedi 'u colli".
There, the question is about the phrase Y tristwch bod cymaint o adeiladu wedi’u colli. and the answer was that it’s a Welsh idiom which doesn’t really translate to English, but could be thought of “the buildings had their losing” (or “after their losing”) — it’s a possessive ‘their’, not a direct object ‘it, or them’. That would fit in with the David Gauke phrase, I think, but is it wrong?
I’m sure I’m missing something obvious…
Thanks for you help!
(As an aside it looks to me that there’s something of the French reflexive construction in there — Je me suis perdu, la bouteille s’est cassée but it’s probably nothing of the sort…
)
When wedi is used in the passive as it is in your examples, you need that little ‘reflexive-y’ 3rd person bit, so it becomes wedi’i (for singular 3rd person - he/she/it) or wedi’u (for plural 3rd person - they).
Thanks Siaron!
So far I’ve not really come across the Welsh passive in any detail, so this is very helpful and interesting.
Can this be used with any suitable VN? E.g. Mae’r car wedi’i ddefnyddiol gan y lleidr?
Your help is appreciated as always!
Yes, absolutely. More examples -
roedd y ffenest wedi’i agor
bydd hi angen siec wedi’i llofnodi
The passive isn’t used all that often in everyday speech, but think of news reporting - that often uses passive constructions in both spoken and written forms, so for more practice spotting the passive patterns, listening to or reading news stories in Welsh is one of the best ways.
Excellent – thanks very much!