Shwmae bawb,
I’m reading a few pages of a book, and I have noticed the following past (?) tenses that I’m not familiar with: safai - for sefyll and cofiai - for cofio. Both were in the context of “She (did something).” Is this like meddai?
Is this a short form we haven’t covered yet? Can anyone shed some golau on this?
Diolch o flaen llaw.
Yes, that is a past tense, mainly used in written Welsh, and it is like meddai. Officially, it is called the perfect tense: “a state of things, a continuous action, a repeated action”. As well as “she did something” it can also mean “she would do something” , e.g. “Ysgrifennai lythyron ati yn llawn angerdd” - “he would write her letters full of passion”. Sorry, quoting from Dylan Thomas’ biography “Mwy na Bardd” by Kate Crockett, reading that right now. 
I thought the “perfect tense” was the one using “wedi”?
Yes, thanks, you’re quite right Mike, it is officially called the imperfect tense, I can never remember the names 
paid a phoeni … except I have another suggestion for the imperfect tense, but we are verging(?) here on grammar, and I know it’s not SSiW’s favourite topic …
This is all in the context of literary Welsh - you’re not thinking of the preterite, are you?
I just came across this treasure trove: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Welsh_morphology Amdani!
It’s the “imperfect” tense, equivalent (though not 100% perfectly) to the English “was doing” something.
in the same way that “eisteddais i” is the same thing as “wnes i eistedd”,
“eisteddai’r hen ddyn wrth y tân” is the same thing as “roedd yr hen ddyn yn eistedd wrth y tân”
[the start of many, many, many children’s stories! 
]
It’s the “imperfect” tense, equivalent (though not perfectly) to the English “was doing” something.
in the same way that “eisteddais i” is the same thing as “wnes i eistedd”,
“eisteddai’r hen ddyn wrth y tân” is the same thing as “roedd yr hen ddyn yn eistedd wrth y tân”
In this meaning, it’s used in writing rather than speaking.
Of all the tenses more common in writing than in speaking, I would say that this is the most common, so it is rather useful to be familiar with it.
[yes, the endings are the same as the conditional, and the meanings bleed into one another.]
[and unfortunately the use of the verb “cofio” complicates things a bit, as Welsh, rather logically, tends to use this tense with “cofio” rather than the simple past* (wnes i/cofiais i etc), so without context I wouldn’t want to guess how it was used there.]
As always, regard what I say as just one person’s opinion, and any suggestions or corrections from people who know more (or from people who don’t!) will be gratefully received!
[*or, as Louis points out, the preterite- but let’s not go there! And let’s leave the aorist right out of it I’ve always thought using the same terms in every language is a bit weird, anyway- they are at least subtly different in every language. ]
please - you are bringing back very painful memories of high school!
Diolch i chi gyd.
Just want to say thanks for this thread today. It has really helped me out with some reading. I love this forum! 