Hello, i think your courses are lying to me, i am at my desk learning to speak welsh and in challenge 1 it says that the word “how” in the south is spoken phonetically as “shud” rather than “sit”…
are you sure that this is the case because i am in the south and my “other” course is telling me to say it as “sit”…
so somebody has got some explaining to do…
Yes, in general, “sut” is pronounced “shud” in the south. The pronunciation “sit” is used predominantly in the north. Your course might be in the south, but maybe your teacher comes from the north?
That being said, it’s always useful to know both variants, and regional dialects happen in any language, don’t they? Both forms are correct, so feel free to use whichever comes naturally to you, you will be understood either way, whether you are in the north or the south.
Diolch yn fawr, i think this might be the case, the teacher probably comes from the north. luckily i like the sound of “shud”, so it fits right in to where i am…
to save me from creating another thread, i have a separate question…
how do write, not pronounce but write the actual words “i need to”, it sounds phonetically as something like " mya shavi"…but what is the correct cymraeg spelling?
Diolch
The spelling is Mae eisiau i fi, literally “There is a need for me”.
And we do have a post for exactly these small miscellaneous questions, let me dig up the link for you, I’ll edit it in shortly…
Dyna ti: Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread
Mae eisiau i fi
It’s worth adding that, although ‘shwd’ is the common southern pronunciation, ‘sit’ is also heard and is commonly taught (in an attempt, I think, to minimise the minor differences between north and south).
Diolch yn fawr Hendrik,
so does this make sense to you?
Mae eisiau i fi dysgu siarad cymreag
dioch for the link
That’s fine!
Yes, that makes sense, when you want to say that you need to learn to speak welsh (need, for example, to qualify for a job). If you want to express that you want to learn to speak welsh (just because you like it, for the fun of it, or whatever), you’re better off using
Dw i’n moyn dysgu siarad Cymraeg. (in the south) or
Dw i eisiau dysgu siarad Cymraeg. (in the north).
ok good… so the spelling doesn’t change even with softening on the “dysgu”?
You only asked if it made sense, you didn’t ask if it was 100% by-the-book correct 
The correct spelling is of course Mae eisiau i fi ddysgu siarad Cymraeg., but you’d be understood without the mutation, and no-one would bat an eyelash for the missing mutation.
ahhh well spotted Hendrik, it’s a good thing i asked because such a little thing would drive my ocd crazy!
I actually heard someone (else) from the south saying “sit”. Since it seems everybody’s going to understand that anyway, maybe some people just use the one they like best!
And I suppose we can do the same, no matter which version of SSiW we choose and/or where any other teachers of ours come from…?
why does “mae” replace “dw i’n”?
They are different constructions. “Mae” is the third person of “bod” (to be), “Dw i” is first person.
So Dw i’n moyn siarad Cymraeg. - I want to speak Welsh. but
Mae Sionned yn moyn siarad Cymraeg. - Sionned wants to speak welsh.
(Like I said before, the construction “Mae eisiau i fi” literally means “There is a need for me”.)
diolch, if somebody says to me “why do you drink tea?”…i can just say “mae eisiau i fi”…and that would make sense?
if somebody says, what’s the purpose of life?, i can say “mae eisiau i fi” and that would still make sense?
and finally, if somebody says why are you apart of this company?, i can say “mae eisiau i fi”…and it WOULD STILL make sense??
Diolch yn fawr
No, not really - in the same way that ‘What’s the purpose of life? I need to’ doesn’t work on its own in English.
Usually, it will feel easier and smoother for you if you start with the simple map - ‘to say ‘I need to’ in Welsh I’m going to use ‘Mae eisiau i fi’’ - and then to get used to producing ‘Mae eisiau i fi…’ with a range of different things.
If, instead, you go looking for all the different ways and different contexts in which you might use ‘I need to’ in English, you’ll almost always end up finding things that don’t map. Keep it simple while you get the simple stuff fully under control, and then you’ll learn the fine tuning later on from getting into enough conversations… 
Hi Markie,
Can very much confirm that you will hear “sit”, “shwt” and “shwd” in different parts of the country. I started learning way back when in the Rhondda so used a bit of a “shwd”, but since moving up to Mid Wales this has sort of naturally moved into a sort of “sit” sound.
You will come across a few regional variances as you discover more Welsh. Things like Eisiau/Angen, Llath/Llaeth/Llefrith etc. However once you’ve got more experience under your belt you will get a feeling for not only the versions of the words you prefer to use, but also what everyone else uses across the country.
“Mae isie i fi / Mae eisiau i fi” is a very common way of saying “I need”, and I tend to hear it everywhere from about Llanelli in the south right up to about Aberystwyth in the middle. Iestyn who is the voice of the sourthen course uses it and he originally comes from the Newport/Caerphilly valleys - so it definitely has a wide spread.
Across other parts of Wales, you will hear “Dw i angen” - which is a bit more popular up North, but does spread about a bit.
I suppose the best way to look at it is that Welsh has two ways of saying the same thing, which gives you natural variety in your language 
I saw you had a question with “Mae”. I made a video a couple of weeks ago which might help.
Diolch everybody, very much appreciate all the help, it would be very difficult without your aid. Challenge 1 is now complete, however i need to definitely go over it continuously maybe for an entire day or two before i move on to challenge 2.
There’s no need to repeat challenge 1 until you “get everything right”. The magic of the SSiW course is that everything is repeated from time to time. So even if you feel that there are a few things that didn’t “sink in”, the usual recommendation is to just carry on. Trust the process, work your way through the first challenges, and let your subconscious mind do the rest. It works, really!
That sounds as though you’re making the mistake of thinking that you need to get it all correct before you move on - which will slow you down and be quite disheartening. You’d be much better off going up to challenge 5 without any repeats, and THEN seeing how you feel about challenge 1…