Dyna and mae hynny

Welsh General / Questions
#1

They both mean that is so can someone explain the difference please?

#2

Helo!

This might hold the answer that you are seeking:

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#3

Dyna fy nghar - That is my car
Dyna fy pitsa - That is my pizza

Dw i’n hoffi hynny - I like that
Mae hynny’n iawn - That is fine.

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#4

So “that is my car” also as opposed to something like “and that is my neigbor’s (car)”?

p.s. I’m glad the pitsa is yours, cause it can’t be good with such a name! :joy:

#5

Oh…well don’t tell us what you thought of cacen, then! :grin:

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#6

Dyna fy nghar - That is my car.
Dyna’r car fy nghymydog - That is my neighbour’s car.

Dyna fy nghar a dyna’r car fy nghymydog - That is my car (points to my car) and that is my neighbours car (points to a nicer car in next door’s driveway).

Mae hynny’n gyflym - That is fast. (Perhaps when talking about a non specific thing. I.E “The car goes 120mph? That’s fast!”)
Mae hynny’n bentwr o sothach - That is a pile of rubbish.

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#7

Dyna car fy nghymydog - slippery little doesn’t-match-to-English thing with the definite article there…:slight_smile:

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#8

And car not gar?

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#9

Oh, yes, after ‘dyna’, no doubt… :slight_smile:

#10

Soft mutation after Dyna, but wouldn’t have been one after “Dyna’r” because of the nice little r. :smiley:

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#11

So for tidiness’ sake:

Dyna fy nghar
Dyna’r car
Dyna gar fy nghymydog

:slight_smile:

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#12

Although the most interesting thing is that the neighbor in Wales is always a dog! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#14

Extra question on this:

My Saes mate freelances in Cardiff sometimes and loves sharing with me bits of Cymraeg that he’s picked up while he’s there.

The other evening at the pub he said he’d learned “dyna’r cwrw siarad” which I understood as “that’s the beer talking”

But in my learner’s head I would want to say something like “mae hwn y cwrw siarad”

What’s the more natural / correct way?

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#15

I think both are OK if you put “yn” before siarad for “talking”.

For some reason the Dyna one sounds more natural to me in S Wales, as it will double up as “There’s the beer talking”. You could add i ti at the end “…for you” :slight_smile:

#16

“Dyna’r cwrw sy’n siarad” or “Y cwrw yn siarad yw hwnna” - both are fine, just different constructs.

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#17

Thanks, that’s helpful.

Is my “mae hwn” construction weird sounding in this context?

#18

Help please, I am still confused about when to use dynna and when to use hynny.

I have read this thread, gone to a dictionary and a grammar book, but still do not understand. Is one used to point or refer to specific, concrete objects and people, while the other used more hypothetically like referring to an idea or a thought?

#19

Dyna only ever starts a sentence and means there is/are… or that is… or those are…
Hynny can start a focused sentence or come later in the sentence and means that (one)

Have you got Gareth King’s “Working Welsh”? They are both explained well in there.

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#20

Thank you Siaron,

This certainly helps. I have four of Gareth’s books, but not that one. However, I will look through them again. Maybe I am just suffering a brain-freeze :roll_eyes:

Correction (3 hours later)—make that five Gareth King books, including ‘Working Welsh’ which I had filed in the wrong place—funny, I thought I had it.
Yes, I see the explanations now. Gwych! Diolch!

I was comparing ‘Dyna oedd yr unig obaith’ with ‘ So hynny yn galon go iawn’. I can see the rule that dyna did begin the first of these—got it, :+1: but in the negative it didn’t hence the swicth to hynny.

#21

Another way of thinking about it is that dyna draws attention to something or points something out whereas hynny is a demonstrative pronoun which refers to non-tangible ideas.

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