You never know till you try. I went to Shropshire on the train from Manchester to South Wales last month by Arriva Trains Wales. On the way down the ticket collector was obviously English but coming back he was just as clearly Welsh. When he came round he spoke in English, I answered him in Welsh and he replied in English. So even though he spoke no Welsh he must have understood it. Never mind, you win some and you lose some but it’s always worth trying
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Thank you. My only criticism so far is that sometimes the course doesn’t explain things like this. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s brilliant and Aran deserves all the praise we give him.
I think the point is that we learn naturally, the way children learn their native tongue and the questions we ask may be those a child asks Mam, and the Forum/ @aran acts as Mam!!
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Yes very true - I’m now on challenge 3 of level 2 - I felt I needed a little break this weekend - and as usual using eto for yet now feels natural all of a sudden. It amazes me how after struggling through some lessons it then beds it during the next one!
Yfory dwi’n mynd i Landudno. Liciwn i trio siarad bach o gymraeg. Ar ol gwydrad neu ddau yn bosib!!!
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It appears to be globally pinned at the moment - whatever you did, it worked 
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Actually @Kinetic, I think they were talking about globally pinning the topic Really useful ‘How to’ stuff and other great posts which is not currently pinned.
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Oh right oops sorry. Done
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I want to ask a question about asking questions - specifically using ‘gofyn’ with ‘wrth’.
It’s introduced in Challenge 10 of Level 1. (I can’t remember where it comes up on the original courses, but I remember wondering about it at the time.) On the vocab list one of the examples is:
“Mae’n ddrwg gen i ond dw i angen gofyn wrthot ti eto – I’m sorry, but I need to ask you again”.
I have not come across ‘gofyn wrth’ anywhere else, only ‘gofyn i’. Is this a particularly northern thing that doesn’t apply as far south as Machynlleth?
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This isn’t really a question, more a comment. You, @aran and @Iestyn say ‘don’t use the pause button’ too much and I really did try. Then I realised that, due to my medical condition, I can’t actually speak all that quickly. The words were in my head, but not coming out fast enough. I was getting very frustrated and going round in circles repeating Challenges. Today, I paused when I knew I wasn’t going to finish in time and it was blissful! So, I suppose I’m saying, to anyone who has a problem with speech, pause if you need to!!
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I have just watched an episode of ‘Week in Week Out’ on BBC Wales from a couple of weeks ago. One question: Was that our @Iestyn being interviewed ?
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Quite possibly. But apparently the person presenting the programme has gone missing!
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Hmmm… I think ‘gofyn i’ would be the technically correct construction there, and in an ideal world it might be one we should standardise throughout the course - but you will hear ‘gofyn wrth’ from time to time, so there may be some linguistic shifts going on that we can try to claim we’re surfing on…
My question is, “Whatever was this program?”. I thought I had seen all the WIWOs, but it rings no bells and the website tells me this one has been withdrawn ‘for editorial reasons’!! This and the quote above sent by @owainlurch implies it was pretty far-out!! If the whole thing is ultra-sensitive, do PM me!!! In fact, it clearly doesn’t fit in this thread, so PM me even if it isn’t sensitive!!!
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I am wondering about this “Owain Cyfenw” chap more than about the missing person…
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How do you express the idea of “catching up” or “to catch up” in Welsh?
I have a feeling that it is going to be one of those phrases in which the way it is translated it depends on the way it is being used, and so there probably will not just be one simple way of translating it.
Usually just ‘dal i fyny’, I’d expect…
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I believe the German “gesundheit” means “good health.” I know “gesund” is definitely “health.”
Yes…it’s meant to be gofyn i… You do hear gofyn wrth… sometimes, and I imagine that this is by analogy (though wrong) with dweud wrth… since both are verbs of saying. But for gofyn I would advise i. And certainly a command like ‘Ask her!’ in Welsh would definitely be Gofyn iddi!, not Gofyn wrthi.
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Can you say ‘Gofyn iddi!’ just like that, as an imperative, or do you need to say something like ‘Gofyna iddi!’? Thanks!
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Yes netmouse you can…in the colloquial norm there’s a tendency for VNs ending in a consonant to just use the VN on its own for the ti-imperative. Similarly Meddwl! Think! (beside Meddylia!); Aros! Wait! (beside Arhosa!). Grammar 378, I think.
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