Hi
I’m doing Challenge 13 (Level 1) and we’ve got ‘sy’n nabod’ …who knows. So far, so good. Then we have ‘Someone who knows you’ Which comes back as ‘Rhywun sy’n di nabod di’ Or it could be ‘Rhywun sy’n di nabod i.’…How come we’ve an extra sneaky little ‘di’ tucked in each side of ‘nabod’? Excuse spelling, but I can’t quite hear what it is. Can someone please tell me what I’m hearing and why? Thanks.
It’s “Rhywun sy’n dy nabod di” - basically, it’s a little quirk of Welsh where to use a possessive pronoun (your, his, hers, theirs etc.), you put a pronoun both before and after the thing being possessed. “Your water”, for example, would be “dy ddŵr di”. This pattern is also commonly used in phrases like “to see you” (dy weld di), “to know you” (dy nabod di) and so on.
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Crikey - so speedy - I LOVE this forum. Thanks so much - that’s really helpful. I know it’s a teeny thing, but if I know WHY it’s there, I can tuck it away in my tool box. 
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Note that you won’t always hear both of them 
Sometimes people will just use the bit in front of the thing being possessed, sometimes just the one after, sometimes both.
Don’t worry about it though
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Also true; I should have pointed that out. I believe both is more common in some parts of the south, but I could be mistaken.
I may be wrong, but I thought it was the north where it was more common to use both! I suspect that means it’s patchy. If you are actually in Wales, listen locally and go with the flow!!
Again, really, really helpful. I am in Wales, (moved here 5 months ago) in the South and my ears are open all the time! I’ve discovered there are ‘pockets’ of ‘Welshness’. Luckily, we live in a very deep pocket and I hear Welsh spoken every day, everywere. Not so much if we go 25 miles up the road to Brecon. The whole thing is fascinating.
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Croeso to the Forum! I can’t say welcome to Wales because I am in exile in Yr Alban (Scotland)! It is wonderful that you are one of the lovely people who want to learn our old language (hen iaith). This Forum is full of warm, helpful people. Hwyl fawr, which sort of means ‘have fun’ as well as ‘bye!’
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We said we’d move here when we retired. So when we did…we did! It’s beyond wonderful. It’s always been on my ‘bucket list’ to be fluent in a second language (well, you gotta have a dream!), I just never gave Welsh a thought. I gave myself time to unpack and settle and began learning about 7 weeks ago. I am loving it. I truly believe that if you are welcomed into a wonderful country by wonderful people - which we have - it’s just a common courtesy to take the time to learn the language…but what is spurring me on is the fact that it is a bit tricky! And I have to say many thanks to this wonderful website with its genius course and the super-friendly people who answer all my daft questions with good humour, grace and patience. Oh, and many thanks for the Welsh Channel and subtitles. 
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Do you have any friends/family back in England who might like to sign the petition for fair funding for S4C? 
Oohh…good idea. I’m on it!
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Diolch yn fawr iawn iawn! Thank you very very much!
Dim problem! Dw i’n happus dy helpu di. (Sorry if that means your mother is a gargoyle and I eat postage stamps!)
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