A few grammar points alongside the audio?

Hi everyone,
I’m on Level 1 Lesson 4 and my grammar questions are mounting up. I wondered if anyone has ever made some additional resources to go with the audio that explore the grammar / explain a few of the unexplained changes that happen to words?

For example, Bod i seems to replace Dw i or Ma in I want / that I want, or I need / that I need, expect when it doesn’t. Theres also an n sound which appears to come and go. Then there’s the bod that appears after wedi sometimes which I think is different but may be the same. Please excuse the spelling there.

My brain is trying to understand what I’m saying rather than just go by sound, and I find having the familiar fragments broken up in new ways without explanation a bit jarring mentally as I try to file the new things I’m learning away. I imagine the answer will be to just keep listening and practising, and it will all (eventually) fall into place, and I know it’s early days… but I thought it was worth asking if anyone’s ever compiled something like that which would supplement the brilliant audio :slight_smile:

If not, I’ll just write out a big list of questions for Dee at the next Q&A on Wednesday!

Diolch in advance
Paul

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Hi Paul
I want to try to answer some questions.
“bod” is the Welsh word for “to be”. If you use it after wedi, it means: have been.
So: Dw i wedi dysgu = I have learnt
Dw i wedi bod yn dysgu = I have been learning
The " yn " or " 'n" comes between a form of “bod” (like Dw i = I am, mae o = he is ) and the verb.
Dw i 'n dysgu = I learn or I am learning
Dw i ddim yn dysgu = I don’t learn or I am not learning
There is no “yn” or " 'n" before “wedi” and some other words, like “isio”, “angen” etc.
If you want to say “that I need” or similar sentences, Welsh uses a different construction. Instead of the English “that” (a word with many meanings) you have to use “bod”. This can’t be translated literally, it is something you have to get used to.
Maybe this helps a bit, I’m sure that someone with more knowledge about grammar will come and explain better than I can.

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Hi Brigitte, that’s really helpful thank you!

I’m going to print that out and sit with it for 10 minutes tomorrow over a cup of tea, and I’ll ask Dee any other questions that need mopping up

Thanks again :smiley:

We’d strongly recommend not side-tracking yourself like this - it really will (particularly at this stage) work as a brake on the process. We know it feels disconcerting to grammar-orientated learners not to try and build this kind of framework-driven control, but so far everyone who has been willing to do it has ended up speaking confidently (even if they go and do some grammar-drilling-down-for-fun stuff later on)… :slight_smile:

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Hi Aran,

I completely get where you’re coming from, and I promise I’m not trying to deconstruct everything down to grammar, just be aware enough of the links between various phrases and words to file them away cleanly in my head (i.e. working out that the “bod” section appears to replace “Dw” when saying “that I” instead of “I” but the rest stays sort of intact. I can worry about why that happens later).

I know that grammar concepts won’t get you anywhere unless you have a body of language to apply them to, and SSI is a really enjoyable and structured way of getting that body of language in the first place :slight_smile: (I did my MA in music education and we looked in some detail at how people learn language as part of that).

I probably didn’t express what I was looking for clearly in the first post… I’m looking to supplement / clean up my understanding of a few points, not go about it a different way, promise!

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Just to say that going with the flow and mainly just learning how to speak, without worrying too much about spelling, grammar niceties, etc. for a while really worked for me.

Now, after completing the challenges, I am looking through @garethrking 's excellent Modern Dictionary and Modern Grammar books as part of the next step on my journey. I am surprised at how many of the grammar conventions had already been bedded in to my understanding through the Challenges, without having studied them as such.

The best way that I can describe this, although it will be an inadequate comparison, is that it is like learning a first language. What I mean is that we all initially learned our first language in a practical way, and then in school, we studied it’s basis.

Arrrgh! *its
Obviously I didn’t study it well enough :frowning:

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I am glad you like them. :slight_smile:

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We strongly recommend going in the Gareth King direction.

Or maybe that should be

The Gareth King Direction.

:slight_smile:

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I’m always happy to answer questions in the online sessions, and what I try to do is explain things in a way that helps you see the pattern but without involving too much in the way of grammar - often just confirming something that the questioner has seen for themselves but just wants reassurance that’s how it works.

If you have questions, it’s highly possible others might want clarification on the same point, so it’s valuable for you to come online and ask, giving others a chance to watch the video later.

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Anything like The Jimi Hendrix Experience or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band?

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Thanks Dee, that’s exactly what I’m looking for really! And Aran, I’ll look forward to the Gareth King Direction™ when the time comes. In the fairly distant future as it may be…

For now I’m enjoying challenge 4 with a fairly large cup of coffee and some knitting. A fine way to spend a Monday morning :slight_smile:

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Almost exactly what I had in mind! :slight_smile:

ooh, do you think there’ll be a bit of reggae?

  • I could bring my triangle and “stand at the back and ting”
    :grin:
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As long as you wear your 'alter back :wink:

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Never mind The Gareth King Direction (though I do like reggae!) - I’m beginning to think I’m now so VERY famous that I should just go by a single name, in the same way as Madonna, Prince, Sting, Bonio et al.

Perhaps I should just be King? Obviously the covers of the books would all have to be changed, to show the single name - but I reckon I can talk the publishers round. After all…it’s none other than King they’re talking to!

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Gosh, I hope not. :smirk:

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I think that’s been done… he had a hit in the 80s with “Love and Pride”.

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O bygar… :confused:

We could go for the ‘the King’, but then you’d be mixed up with Barry John… :wink:

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