isio – to want dw i isio – I want siarad – to speak Cymraeg – Welsh (the language) dysgu – to learn trio – to try mynd – to go dw i’n mynd i – I am going to ymarfer – to practice fedra’ i ddim – I can’t cofio – to remember sut – how angen – to need dw i angen – I need dal – still gwella – to improve
Examples:
Dw i isio siarad Cymraeg – I want to speak Welsh. Dw i’n mynd i siarad Cymraeg – I am going to speak Welsh. Dw i’n trio ymarfer siarad Cymraeg – I am trying to speak Welsh. Dw i’n mynd i drio siarad Cymraeg, ond fedra’ i ddim cofio sut – I am going to try to speak welsh, but I can’t remember how. Dw i dal angen ymarfer siarad – I still need to practice speaking. Dw i’n mynd i wella – I am going to improve.
Gwers 2
Vocabulary Introduced:
dweud – to say rhywbeth – something yn y Gymraeg – in Welsh beth (be’) – what ond – but rŵan – now o’n i isio – I wanted well i mi – I’d better a / ac – and hyd yn hyn – yet
Examples:
Dw i isio dweud rhywbeth yn y Gymraeg – I want to say something in Welsh. Ond fedra’ i ddim cofio sut i ddweud beth dw i isio dweud – But I can’t remember how to say what I want to say.
Gwers 3
Vocabulary Introduced:
dechrau – to start dw i newydd – I’ve just dw i wedi anghofio – I’ve forgotten dw i wedi bod yn dysgu – I have been learning am fis – for a month dw i wedi bod yn siarad – I have been speaking am tua mis – for about a month o’n i’n trio – I was trying bod – that [as in … that I need to…] bo’ fi – that I [as in … that I need to…]
Examples:
Dw I newydd ddechrau dysgu siarad Cymraeg – I’ve just started to learn to speak Welsh. O’n i’n trio dweud bo’ fi wedi bod yn dysgu Cymraeg am tua mis rŵan – I was trying to say that I have been learning Welsh for about a month now. Dw i wedi anghofio sut i ddweud rhywbeth – I’ve forgotten how to say something.
Gwers 4
Vocabulary Introduced:
rhaid i mi – I must, I’ve got to mwy – more mae dal rhaid i mi – I still must, I’ve still got to mae gen i – I’ve got, I have mwynhau – to enjoy y / yr – the cyfle – chance meddwl – to think licio – to like liciwn i – I would like efo chdi – with you
Examples:
Rhaid i mi ymarfer mwy – I must practice more. Dw i’n mwynhau dysgu Cymraeg ond mae dal rhaid i mi ymarfer siarad mwy – I enjoy learning Welsh but I still have to practice speaking more. Liciwn i ddweud bo’ fi newydd ddechrau siarad Cymraeg, ond dw i’n mwynhau ymarfer efo chdi – I would like to say that I have just started speaking Welsh, but I enjoy practicing with you. Dw i’n meddwl bo’ fi angen y cyfle i siarad mwy – I think that I need the chance to speak more.
Hold your horses with copying to the lesson pages! Gwaith gwych, Stu, diolch o galon - but we don’t want to be encouraging people to start focusing on the written word instead of the spoken word. I’m thinking that we provide ‘new word’ sound files that give them all as clearly as possible, with explanations of the sounds where we think they might not be clear, instead of an explanation of the spelling…
No, no, I’m extremely grateful to you for doing them, and we’ll definitely gratefully be including them as links from lesson pages - I’d just like a little more time to think about the balance between helping people understand the sounds and making it a little too easy for them to fall back into the familiar ‘read stuff first’ approach…
Seeing all those useful phrases has inspired me to run through the new course before bootcamp next week - now I’ve finished going through the vocab units again
Posting them in here is cool - although we’ve still got work to do to make sure that findability is good - but we’ll definitely want to make more official use of them than letting them be somewhere in here alone - which will definitely mean some kind of linking from lesson pages…
Helen, Steve survived an intense day where he got the first 10 done in one day - if you can spare a day or two like that before Bootcamp, it’ll certainly send you into the whole week on a little tsunami of new stuff!
I find it very helpful to see it written down. I like to have an image of the word in my head. I am not actively trying to learn to read or write, but just to have that association. fedra’ i ddim – I can’t - that got me researching trying to find out how it was spelled . I was thinking it was some form of “bod”, but then it dawned on me (things dawn on me very slowly) that it was a conjugation of Medru, but I still don’t understand why it changes to F as it’s not a mutation… or is it? Ok that’s a rhetorical question, you don’t have to explain it.
One thing I noticed just now - Pimsleur starts introducing reading at around the tenth lesson. I wonder if that might be a decent idea - as of lesson 11 of the new course (since that’s the one that begins the second unit), introducing written Welsh using the vocabulary introduced up to that point. I mean, at the pace the new course seems to be going at, they should have a fair idea of how to pronounce the various sounds.
Incidentally, Fedra is indeed a mutation, because in really old Welsh there was actually a word in front of negative short forms that causes the mutation that has since been dropped from modern speech. The short form questions mutate for the same reason.
Was just wondering if anyone had transcribed the new vocab for beyond unit 4. Was revising unit 7 and realised I still don’t know how to write “you said.”
Do you want those copying into the lesson pages themselves?