What is the meaning of TAW?

Welsh General / Questions
#1

I am working on challenge 15 of course two. We are working through things around “the best thing” Er paith gore and “that is the best thing” De na paith gore.

At 10:51 is the question: Are you sure that is the best way? (or thing?) Oyteen sure TAU de na paith gore?

What is the meaning of “TAU” in this sentence?

I have encountered it before in things like" I think that she is to blame" Dween maithle TAU he seeth are vi.

But I don’t know what TAU is, or how it is appropriate in this particular sentence.

Bod and Taw
#2

taw is the ‘that’ that we often leave out in English -

Wyt ti’n siwr (are you sure) taw (that) dyna’r peth gorau (that is the best thing)

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#3

Sorry for butting in @siaronjames, I don’t like to answer a question already answered but I thought it might be beneficial to others to mention that the nothern version to use with emphatic phrases like this is “mai”. So, using the other sentence as the example … “dwi’n meddwl mai hi sydd ar fai.”

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#4

Thanks @gruntius, you have just explained something that was confusing me.

I heard “Wyt ti’n siwr MAE dyna ydy’r peth gorau …” and was trying to reconcile what I heard as the verb ‘bod’ in two forms with one subject. Now that you’ve explained that it’s ‘mai’ and not ‘mae’ it makes so much more sense. :+1:

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#5

That makes sense now. Diolch!

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#6

And there is also the NW na, same as mai and taw:

Siwr iawn na breuddwydio o’n i
It is very probable that I was dreaming

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#7

I spent a long time wilfully ignoring the ydy my ears could hear, because my brain was convinced it was …mae dyna’r peth gorau i wneud. Took forever to disentangle, and it’s still not become a real part of active usage, for me.

#8

So in the vocab lessons I heard two sentences, one with bod and one with taw. However, I can’t see what the difference is… could someone please enlighten me!?

I suppose that the girl is feeling uncertain
Dw i’n tybio bod y ferch yn teimlo yn ansicr

I claim that she is to blaim
Dw i’n honni taw hi sydd ar fai

Thanks

Andrew

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#9

If we break these down into two parts (i.e. before and after the ‘that’), it will help…

In this one, the second part (after the ‘that’) is a straightforward positive statement - we still need a form of bod though, so “Mae’r ferch yn teimlo’n ansicr”. There is no emphasis here.

In this one, however, we still have a positive statement but we also have emphasis in the second part - “hi sydd ar fai” (sydd is the form of bod here, so we don’t need to change that) - putting the ‘hi’ first emphasises it.

So, it’s ‘bod’ when there is no emphasis (*and the ‘that’ is not followed by a verb - that’s a whole other ball-game!), and ‘taw’ (or ‘mai’ in the south) when there is emphasis (*and again, no verb straight after 'that).

Hope that makes sense.

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#10

Hi Siaron

Very helpful as always so thank you. That does make sense so how would the latter look if the girl was considered at fault I.e.

I claim that the girl is to blaim
Dw i’n honni taw’r ferch sydd ar fai?
Dw i’n honni mai’r ferch sydd ar fai?

Andrew

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#11

Yup, both of those are saying “that the girl is to blame” (i.e. the girl, rather than the boy for example).
Mai and taw are just regional variations of each other, so either is fine when you have this type of emphasised sentence (the clue to it containing an emphasised clause is the ‘sydd’ :wink: )

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#12

Brilliant. Thanks

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#13

Can anyone explain when to use taw instead of bod. I understand it has something to do with the fact that you can’t use the word ‘is’ twice in the same sentence

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#14

Hi @RobMorgan,

There is a summary of the types of that on this post here…

…but specifically the version of ‘that’ to choose depends on the tense of ‘second half’ of the sentence and - as in the case of taw - whether the second half of the sentence has been rearranged for emphasis ie doesn’t have a verb at the front, as per normal.

Let me know if that clears up the question.

Rich :slight_smile:

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