The double speed listening exercises really help with this. After listening to those, everything on Radio Cymru slows down!
Also, I play other things that I am familiar with at double speed. I download them onto my phone or laptop and change the speed settings. So last thing at night, I listen to children’s stories yn Gymraeg, such as Mog the Forgetful Cat or the Three Little Pigs at double speed. Sometimes I listen to pieces from Welsh classes at double speed too.
As @pollypolly says, it’s useful to know place names in Welsh too. That way, you don’t spend ages trying to work out what the verb ‘to Llangefni’ means. Dw i wedi bod yn Llangefni doesn’t mean I’ve been llangefni’d, although I think it sounds quite plausible to me
I listen to Radio Cymru most days - well it’s on in the background. I find the more I actually try to intentionally listen/translate means that I understand less, because I get stuck on a particular word, by which time I miss the rest of the sentence, which would have given me the gist of what was being said.
Also, it’s handy to know what items are coming up on the news. I used to think that this was ‘cheating’, but now I think it just helps to recognise what the stories are about. This makes them easier to understand - you just have to fill in the words between Theresa May, Carwyn Jones, David Davies and Brexit - and you can probably guess those anyway!
Hehe, just a mild expletive thrown in for good measure! Not sure what the exact translation would be… It would be two words though - ‘Go drapia’ I presume.
With that spelling, I gave it a quick Google and… found a link to the SSiW forum
Starting here ( Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread ), myfanwya asks for a way to say “blast” or “rats”; craigf quotes “Go drapia! = Drat it!” from a book of idioms (and notes that it’s used in Level 1 L 5 listening exercise! though mutated to “Go ddrapia”) - and a little lower down Aran provides “go ddrapia” as an answer to myfanwya.
Northern Vocab 1, which has been causing me much grief this week.
One of the statements is “I want you to give me two answers”. I think Catrin says “Dwi isio ti rhoi dai ateb i mi”, and Aran says “Dwi isio i ti rhoi dai ateb i mi”. Which one is right? Or are both?
There is another example involving “five”, which I think is “i ti rhoi” both times.
I think “… isio i ti rhoi …” is correct, but quite often the “i” will get squished between the other words and almost completely disappear. I haven’t listened to that vocab unit in some time, but I’d bet it is there but just almost not. (Or somthing like that…)
This is just the joy of speech - if you asked Catrin what she’d said, she’d say ‘isio i ti’ - but if you map what she said out as a waveform and drill in, you might well find that there is no separate sound for ‘i’ at all (although that would probably be at the cost of the ‘o’ in ‘isio’ getting a hint of dipthong on it).
But when you use it yourself, use it as ‘isio i ti’ (over time, you’ll end up eliding it yourself, too, but no-one will notice… ).
I have said elsewhere how much I appreciate the diction of you both. Actually, I especially appreciate tiny differences like that. I tend to say every sound, very quickly, but there, and believe it marks me as either a pedantic git or a learner…or both!! It helps to hear the effects that being 1st language has on Catrin!
What is the tag for “is there?” at the end of sentence please? I will try to explain:
When buying fuel on an account card it is normal to be given the option to have the current vehicle mileage shown on the statement. Today, the sales lady asked in English “Any mileage?” followed by something which I assume was Welsh for “is there?” Thanks. John.
Many thanks to you both. I hear “ond y fe” and “y fe” a fair bit and have even seen “yndi” on FB . I’ll go with JP’s “oes 'na” this time. That’s what it sounded like.
On Rownd a Rownd, the word that shows up as wythnos or wythnosau (week(s)) in the Welsh subtitles sometimes sounds quite different – I can’t even make it out as it’s so short!
What are they saying? Something like ws, wsa?
Is this a common abbreviation in speech, in the North or otherwise?
Course 1, Northern Vocab 2. One of the statements is “I have heard the woman singing once”.
The response wasn’t quite what I was expecting (especially after all the “i’r blaid” statements earlier on in the unit). I think I’m hearing Aran and Catrin say “Dwi wedi clywed y ddynes yn canu unwaith”. Am I on the right track?
. I’ll go with JP’s “oes 'na” this time. That’s what it sounded like.