Hi, I’ve never come across the word ‘ai’ before! Can anyone tell me where it comes from? Diolch
Can you give us some context?
There’s a word ai that’s equivalent to a “whether” in indirect questions, but is also used on the beginning of what would otherwise be a statement in order to turn it into a direct question. On the quiz show Celwydd Noeth (Bare-faced lie) the contestants have to identify one untrue statement from amongst a number of other, true ones; when they’ve settled on their answer, the host repeats it, and then instead of saying Dyna’r celwydd noeth (“There’s - or That’s - the bare-faced lie”) she says Ai dyna’r celwydd noeth? (“Is that…?”).
Ai dyna beth oeddet ti’n feddwl?
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Are those children yours?
Diolch
Yes, that’s it. We usually put the verb first in Welsh, but for “identification sentences” - where you’re identifying something/someone rather than merely describing them - the verb goes in the middle, like an = sign. (So “Fred is my brother,” works differently from “Fred is friendly.”) Eich plant chi ydy rheina “Those are your children” - but Ai eich plant chi…? = “Are those…?”
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It’s worth searching the forum on that particular sentence (“Ai eich plant chi ydy rheina?”).
There are a few threads on it, with some useful information.
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Good call - it turns out that there’s a lot of them (and some more good examples and explanation), and I’ve even taken part in some that I had forgotten all about 
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