In SSIW C1DeLliwiau (Southern) is says: “Y peth du” means “the black thing”.
Why use “Mae’r” for “the thing is black”? [ Mae’r peth yn ddu.]
When do I use Y for the and when do I use Mae’r?
I am really having fun this these lessons. Your format is the best I have heard so far.
Don
“mae” is the Welsh for “it is” (or he is, she is).and you say “mae’r” instead of "mae y ". so, literally, you say: it is the thing black.
Y (yr before vowels) is always the word for ‘the.’
Mae is one of the words that means ‘is.’
So, you need the ‘mae’ to make a complete sentencr because it’s acting as the verb. Compare:
Y peth du
= the black thing
Mae’r peth yn ddu.
= The thing is black.
Mae’r peth du yn ddu.
= The black thing is black.
Hope that helps! Glad you’re enjoying the course.
Thanks! It does help.
So, is this correct? Google translate says it means: He is not white.
Dyw e ddim yn wyn.
= It isn’t white
Yup, you’re good to go with that - in the north, we’d say ‘Dydi o ddim yn wyn’, but it’s the same thing…
Don Brace wrote: So, is this correct? Google translate says it means: He is not white.
With Google Translate (and other online translators), be aware that the translations may not always given in the correct context as used in spoken Welsh. Translators often tend to translate sentences direct from the English, and most won’t consider the target dialect. They are getting better with this, and translating more popular phrases as they would be spoken in Welsh, but for now I wouldn’t try to rely on the given translations as the gospel.
I only use translators purely as a learning tool to check various words, sentences and phrases, but I always get a second opinion from another source or a 1st language welsh speaker where I can, just to be sure (This forum being the main source!)
One of the experts on how-to-learn-any-language.com recommends using google translate only in target-language to native-language mode, and not the other way around.
The reason is that you will immediately spot and be able to correct errors translating into your native language, but not (if you are a learner) the other way around.
May be ok for single words or short phrases though.
Mike Ellwood: One of the experts on how-to-learn-any-language.com recommends using google translate only in target-language to native-language mode, and not the other way around.
The reason is that you will immediately spot and be able to correct errors translating into your native language, but not (if you are a learner) the other way around.
I completely agree with this, and this is what I was trying to get at in my earlier post in a roundabout sort of way! I would say again that I would never take an online translation as gospel and if it still doesn’t sound right, check with a speaker (I had to do this only yesterday with a birthday message for my nain!)
Diolch ‘Tahl’…I had never thought of it in such simple terms before ‘mae’ acts as the verb,Mae Cymraeg dysgu ‘easy-peasy’.
SSiW (mercifully) hides from us what’s going on, until we get a bit further, and it gradually transpires that “mae” is part of the verb “to be” (bod), and I’m glad they do, because it would not help us at all, certainly not learning the SSiW way.
In conventional old fashioned courses, they present you with verb tables and kind of expect you to get on with it, which in Welsh certainly, would have me running a mile (and which is why my first attempt to learn Welsh back in the 1980s (I think it was) didn’t get very far.
But it turns out that Welsh is essentially a Verb-Subject-Object kind of a language, in so far as that means very much at all. But as it doesn’t mean much in practice, I should forget about it for now.
That was a question on University Challenge a few weeks ago, Mike (the VSO thing)! (And the next answer was that Yoda is famous for using a OSV construction.)
Sara Peacock: Yoda is famous for using a OSV construction
. . . which also turns out to be a totally normal way to structure a Welsh sentence in the situation where you want to stress the object! A conversation might go like:
“So, the party was a success, then?”
“No, a total mess was the party!”
In the New Challenge #3 you introduce “That I” which sounds like borv ee
How do you spell “That I” in Welsh?
It helps me to learn to also see the words.
Thanks!
Don
You can write “bo’ fi” for “that I” . Bo’ is short for “bod”
One of the experts on how-to-learn-any-language.com recommends using google translate only in target-language to native-language mode, and not the other way around.
The reason is that you will immediately spot and be able to correct errors translating into your native language, but not (if you are a learner) the other way around.
The problem with this approach is that the electronic alternatives…both online and mobile app…are few, and all have their shortcomings.
I’ve tried lots of alternatives…you can’t save words with the online services (except Google, but as the original post said, there are shortcomings). Some of the apps allow saving translations, but are missing words. The list goes on.
Right now, to save a translation, I first look it up on the U of W site, then in the Google Translate app. If Google matches U of W, I save the translation in the Google app. If it doesn’t, I go to the Google Translate site, perform the lookup, correct it, hit the “Contribute” button, then save the corrected version there so that it will sync with the Google app on my device.
Since I keep a running list of words I hear in English podcasts that I need to look up, this can be a time consuming process.