“faint ‘s’”; not “fait ‘s’”.
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Hard to answer, really - sounds plausible, they’re definitely not quite the same as in English 
Thank you very much, Aran.
Ok here goes - first question… I’m on challenge 12 (lesson 11) and there is a ‘pattern’ I don’t really understand.
The statement in English is: I think I’d like to go now. And the welsh is: Dw i’n meddol y liciwn i fynd rwan. The next statement goes: I think I’d like to speak Welsh with you. Welsh is: Dw i’n meddol y liciwn i siarad cymraeg evo chdi.
What exactly is the ‘y’ connecting the sentences… and is it a ‘y’?
I hope this makes sense and someone can help me out! Diolch yn fawr!
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Yes I think it’s a y meaning ‘that’, just happens to be spelt the same as the y meaning ‘the’, but it’s often dropped or barely heard in speech
Hi John, thanks, that makes sense! Just good to clarify that it is actually an ‘y’. Take care. 
I’m on week 4 and although I am not doing too badly I get disheartened when my Welsh friends say something to me because I have so little vocabulary. Also trying to read notices in Welsh I don’t recognise any of the words! Should I be trying to supplement the challenges with learning extra vocabulary?
Don’t be disheartened - that’s perfectly normal. It takes a long time to build up a range of vocabulary.
Also, it’s worth remembering that notices tend to be written in formal Welsh, not colloquial spoken Welsh, so don’t worry too much about not being able to read those yet - that skill will come, but it will take time.
There’s no harm at all in supplementing the challenges - lots of people use duolingo for extra vocab, but equally you could do things like looking at materials and magazines produced for learners such as online resources like parallel.cymru , Y Wennol (@rob-evans-1 can tell you more about Y Wennol), magazines like Lingo, or even just listening and watching Radio Cymru and S4C. In the case of TV and radio, there will of course be huge amounts you don’t understand, but the trick is not to try and catch every word but just to let words wash over you, and gradually as you catch the gist of things, new words will begin to stick. But the main thing to remember is that learning vocab takes time - a lot of time - I’m still coming across new words 25 years in, even though I’m now ‘fluent’ 
You’re only a little way into your Welsh learning journey, but you’re doing fine
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As you’re on the course, the best way you can help yourself with this is to join the one-to-one and group conversation practice sessions as soon as poss! 
I can’t emphasise the importance and value of doing this (even though it feels awkward at first!). That’s where you’ll build your conversational muscles and also acquire the vocab you need for chatting!
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When you first learned your main language you weren’t particularly bothered that the only word you knew was ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’ and you managed to add new words as the weeks and months sped by. As you couldn’t read at that stage it would have been useless for your parents to give you a list of the words you knew. Because of your exposure to the language all around you an amazing amount of vocabulary built up in your head without you even realising. Perhaps later your parents would say something like " She started talking and suddenly we can’t stop her!". Your learning experience in adult life is no different other than you now are conscious of the vocabulary that you don’t have. Other people you talk to seem to be more able than you are. They were not always like that, it is just that they started speaking Welsh before you. There is a separation between the classroom, whatever form it takes, and the practical experience of communicating Welsh but in order to learn quickly the two need to go hand in hand. Communicating takes many forms - the first that comes to mind is having a conversation in Welsh, that can be stressful because you have to think on your feet. That can damage your confidence. The other forms of communication are listening, and Radio Cymru is excellent for this. Reading, at your own level gives you the advantage of being able to go at your own speed. There is no hurry, the words don’t disappear as soon as you read them! Writing is the other form giving you as much time as you can to form your sentences.
My monthly magazine, the Wennol gives you about 20 pages of stories and related vocabulary and all completely free of charge. There are two pages dedicated to those who are on the first rung of the ladder and it gives you the opportunity to try your hand at writing at your own level. It is through practice that you learn your vocabulary but remember that when you were at your early stages your brain worked out what different words meant. It did that by considering the context, your brain can still do that. If you want to give it a try then go to the beginners pages of the Wennol and read some of the stories but DON’T look at the vocabulary at the end. Sit back and think of the story and what it’s about and let your brain guess the difficult words. You will be amazed!
To be on the list to have the Wennol, and to have the January issue at once, just send your email address to bobwennol@ntlworld.com
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Just “finished” Level One Challenge 4 and still excited by it all, can you please advise on the following;
Having recognised that English (and) is Welsh (a) but Welsh (ac) when followed by a vowel,
[reference Level 1 Challenge 2]
Is there a similar rule, as to the reason for English (more) Welsh (mwy) when
its pronunciation appears to change from “mwoy” to “voy” in instances I cannot pin down ?
[reference Level 1 Challenge 4]
Finally, pushing my luck but I am on a roll, is there a misprint in the vocabulary [Level 1 Challenge 3] mis = a month, am fis = for a month, am tua mis = for about a month ?
Can live with it all no problem, sure it will sort itself out after all it’s only my fourth week.
(am fis = for a month.
However, the brilliant Aran has requested I ask a question, so unfortunately this is my contribution.
Diolch.
Yes, the rule here is that words beginning with m mutate to start with an f (a single f sounds like a v) after certain other words, so mwy becomes fwy. To list here all the words that cause it would take a lot of time, but don’t worry about it - your ears will learn to pick them out much faster than you think!
One of the words that cause the mutation m > f, however, is am, which answers your second question:
So, no, it’s not a misprint
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I have just completed week 3 …and it was with a very trembling hand that I ticked the “done” box!!
I just don’t seem to be quick, or confident enough, to complete my responses in the time space given in the lesson.
I know this sounds pathetic, but I could manage better if I had two weeks to complete each lesson…not one. How sad is that?
I will press on regardless and give it my best shot. Thank you for this opportunity to air my difficulties.
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@john-cotton the “one challenge per week” schedule in the weekly emails is only a suggestion. If you want to go more slowly and take 2 weeks to do a Challenge, that’s completely up to you. The main thing is not to get stuck somewhere trying for perfection before moving on. Each Challenge introduces you to some new material and gives you a chance to start practising it, but you’ll get more practice as you move through, so there’s no need to master it in the Challenge where it’s first introduced.
Don’t be afraid to use the Pause to give yourself a little more time initially. It can be useful to have your finger hovering over the Pause while you’re saying your Welsh, then just hit the button if you haven’t quite finished, but you hear the female Welsh voice starting up. That way you’re not using the Pause unnecessarily, and you’ll gradually find that you need it less and less.
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I have been working on Lesson 4 this week, a little bit behind I know but is anyone else having an issue with the recording keep sticking from around 15 minutes onwards?
@christine-stitfall-1 a few people have reported something similar and our Tech Developer is investigating what is causing it.
Would you mind sending an email to admin@saysomethingin.com describing what is happening, giving the exact day and time when that happens to you, and which Internet Service Provider you use.
That information will help him find a solution for the problem.
Hello again. A bit of an update and a question if that’s ok. After completing level one I took the plunge into level two and started doing multiple challenges a day rather than a maximum of two and also stopped repeating them as I was doing each challenge twice. Anyway I raced through level two in 10 days and seem to have stopped using the pause button along the way too without really noticing.
I toyed with the idea of doing the old course levels one and two but continued on with level three instead. I am finding it a bit of a step up and do wonder if I rushed over some things in level two too quickly. I’m certainly struggling with the composition of sentences in the negative at times and the ‘he told me to tell you…’ type sentences. Hopefully more practice will help.
What I do find rewarding is when a very long sentence comes up drawing on content from level one (or two sometimes) and I get it right almost without thinking. That really does convince me that I’ve made amazing progress in the short time I’ve been doing the SSIW course. I’m using Welsh with my 11-month-old at times now too when I know how to say what I want to say. However, she also hears me doing all the challenges as I take her out for a walk/nap so I’m fully expecting her first words to be ‘dyna plant i chi’ at some opportune moment in the near future!
In my haste to get started back in February I overlooked the 6 minutes a day course to get on with the challenges. I recently signed up to see what it was but as it takes me back to level one challenge one I’m guessing the slack access/opportunities would offer me the best way to progress as I’m already on level three?
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Hi Andrew - no, you haven’t gone too quickly - in fact, what you’re describing here is a very clearcut example of neurological adaptation to the learning process - the faster you’ve gone, the better you’ve got - getting free of the pause button is a great sign there.
So keep on doing what you’re doing! When you’ve finished Level 3, you might get some value from the old courses, but the main thing will just be to listen to as much Welsh as possible and take part in as many conversations as possible. You’re well on your way to becoming a very confident Welsh speaker 
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I used the same approach as you have and found it just as effective. Of course I don’t remember everything all the time, but the confidence from finishing the 3 levels so quickly is valuable, I think. I’ve just finished the Old Course Level 3.
I definitely recommend doing the Old Course (all 3 levels) once you’ve finished the New Course. The reason is that the New Course deliberately doesn’t provide a full treatment of some of the main elements you use, because it’s concentrating on only giving you the most common phrases you’ll need in conversation.
That means, for example, that the NC teaches you Na i and Nei di? for ‘I will’ and ‘Will you’, but doesn’t give you the rest of the tense (Neith o, Newn ni, Newch chi, Newn nhw), or if it does, it mentions them once and then never again…
The Old Course is much more systematic: you’ll practice the entire tense many times. The same applies to other tenses and to elements such as possessive pronouns. It also gives you a lot more practice with ‘yes’ and ‘no’, which everybody recognises is by far the hardest problem in learning Welsh 
.
Because it’s more limited in what it deals with, but it covers that ground more thoroughly, the Old Course is perfect revision and consolidation for what you learn in the New Course. In fact, I’d say that the New Course followed by the Old Course should be treated as a single course in two stages.
I would definitely request access to the Slack Channel – this is usually done through one of the structured courses like the 6 mins a day, but I don’t think that’s necessary if you’re paying the subscription. The 1 hour zoom sessions (at various levels) really test you at first, but they are very much worth it.
HTH…
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Diolch @aran , that’s very nice to hear! I’ve trusted the process so far and been amazed at how much I’ve retained so I will press on and see where it leads me.
I’ve started to listen to Radio Cymru on at Saturday afternoon during the football commentaries and the only way I can explain it is like seeing things slowly appear while walking through the mist when I start picking out words and phrases that I now know. It’s hugely satisfying when that happens.
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