Gair neu Idiom y Diwrnod - Word or Idiom of the Day

Also the GPC gives a Welsh word a day on Trydar (twitter)

https://twitter.com/gpcdictionary?lang=en

Word of the Day: prydyddiaeth ‘poetry’ - Prydydd - Poet

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Oh cool! Thanks for that! (Although it still won’t have Catrin’s lovely voice pronouncing words correctly! :wink:)

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I have such self-esteem problems with my mind sometimes that I sit on the bus that maybe I’ve longed for for 3/4 hour at a rain-splashed bus stop and I find myself musing on whether having a “mind like a sieve” is necessarily a bad thing… whether having a mind like a colander, or a riddle or a drag-net orthe filter on a vacuum cleaner has greater or lesser merits…

I think maybe it is a whole new field of philosophy and relative philology when one takes all languages and processing terminology and technical jargons of the world’s languages, dialects and pockets of culture in far-flung places into consideration…

With riddles you’re never short of some new aspect to consider… :wink:

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Ahhhh Jen, croeso mawr iawn i ti and thank you so much for your very kind words! I’m really chuffed that this thread is becoming useful and - I never thought it would become so popular. Remember, if you have any requests on which areas/subjects you would like me to tackle then please don’t hesitate to ask. :blush:

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Word of the Day 08/10/2018

Cyfnewid = Kuv-neh-wid
Cyfnewidio = Kuv-neh-wid-io
Cyfnewidfa = Kuv-neh-wid-va

Cyfnewid means to exchange, swap or to change or alter
Cyfnewidio means exchanging, changing or altering - note that it isn’t a word you’ll hear often
Cyfnewidfa means an exchange, as in place

Note that the word cyfnewid contains the word newid for change.

Ras gyfnewid is relay race. Cyfnewid in this context referring to the baton exchanging hands.

Y Gyfnewidfa Frenhinol - The Royal Exchange

cyfnewidfa lafur - labour exchange

cyfnewidfa ŷd - corn exchange

When using cyfnewid to mean swap, you’ll often near people just say newid for change, just as you would in English. For example you may go to a shop with something you have already bought and ask if you can change it for another item -

Gaf i newid hwn am rhywbeth arall? / Can I change this for something else?

Sound file -

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cyfnewid lyfrau? :crossed_fingers:t2::grinning:

Interesting words today. My Wife and I are participating in a local, I guess exchange is the word, where many families come together to sell items they no longer need, like high quality clothes my Daughter rarely wore, because she doesn’t like “girly clothes.” I guess “cyfnewidfa dillad” would be appropriate.

Also, I found it helpful for me to grab Catrin’s “Gair y Diwrnod” and put them in a Excel spreadsheet. Makes it a lot easier for me to learn the words. The spreadsheet has the word, pronunciation, definition, the SoundCloud link and any notes Catrin created. While I was making it, I thought it might be useful for others and Ivan with SSiW was very kind to post on SSiW’s Server for others to download. Once a month, I’ll update the spreadsheet. This version has words unto October 4. Hope you find it as helpful as I do.

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Diolch yn fawr! Many thanks!

Hey that’s awesome! Very helpful, thanks a lot!

By the way I use spreadsheets, too and I put together all the examples of sentences from Level 1 and 2 South. I’m not sure they may work for everybody 'cause I guess new courses are probably different, Northern levels are different, old courses are different…but if anyone would like a copy (or if @aran and the admins think it can be useful to share)…just let me know!
(they look like this)

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There’s a few apps available for creating flashcards if that’s your thing.

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I use Anki, but never for anything I learn on SSiW.

I use it to remember verbs or little phases I might be able to insert into the sentences that I’ve already learnt. With verbs it’s quite handy, because if you’re using ‘wnes i, bydda i’n, byddwn i, wna i…’ (or any of the sentences on Gisella’s spreadsheet above), you can just pop in your newly-learnt verb to make a completely new sentence :slight_smile:

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Word(s) of the Day 10/10/2018

World Mental Health Day 2018

Iechyd Meddwl = Yeh-(ch)id meth-ool
Iselder = iss-elle-dare
Iselder Ysbryd = iss-elle-dare us-brid
Gorbryder = gorr-bryd-err

Iechyd Meddwl means mental health

Iselder means depression

Iselder Ysbryd means depression

Gorbryder means anxiety

Sound file -

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Diolch, Catrin.

You have no idea how helpful these particular words are for me. Question about the words. You have two words for depression ( Iselder and Iselder Ysbryd ). What’s the difference? I know Ysbryd means spirit, so depressed spirit?

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There is no real difference to be honest, both are correct and both would be perfectly understood. It’s a matter of preference. Iselder as you may have worked out translates as lowness and ysbryd as you rightly said is spirit. So iselder ysbryd is a lowness of spirit.

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Word of the Day 12/10/2018

Un = een
Unig = in-igg
Unigol = in-igg-all
Unigrwydd = in-igg-roo-with
Undod = in-dod
Undeb = in-deb

Un means one

Unig means lone or lonely or only

Unigol means singular or single

Unigrwydd means loneliness

Undod means unity or solidarity

Undeb means union/an union or unity

Sound file -

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I’m still a bit confused when I try to make sentences with is/was/had and with that/which/who, so I’m using this as an opportunity to check a few of those at the same time! :grin:

So “unig” would be the right one for all these examples?

“the only one [who answered] was…”
“the only Welsh [I had ever heard] was”
“the only record [I had] was…”
“the only song [I know] is”

And can I start with “Yr unig” followed by Cymraeg, record, cân? (a bit like hen that goes before the noun?)
Or do I have to start with “mae” for “is”? And is it “oedd” for “was”?

Then for “who” I would think of “sy’n” but I don’t remember seeing it in sentences with past tense, that seemed to have “oedd” instead, but there seems to be too many “oedd” in the first sentence then!

And for the others it would be “bo(d)” for “that” (even if that is only implicit)?

Then “had heard” would be “wedi clywed”? (in the examples “had finished” was “'di cwpla”)
While “had” as in owning the record would be “ges i”?

See, I get a bit lost when I try to build sentences from scratch! :sweat:

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I get confused too and was about to say what I thought when I saw that Aran was typing a reply so, to avoid adding to the confusion, I’ll wait to see what he says.

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If it’s any consolation, I was all at sea by about halfway through your post, so I think your ‘problem’ there is more about over-complicating matters than your actual ability with the language… :wink:

In case it helps, here’s a couple of them:

Yr unig un wnaeth ateb oedd…
Yr unig record oedd gen i oedd…
Yr unig cân dwi’n nabod ydi…

Something about ‘yr unig Cymraeg’ sits wrong with me - without over-thinking it, I’d probably be more likely to say something like ‘yr unig gair o Gymraeg o’n i erioed wedi clywed oedd…’

:slight_smile:

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talking of unig

Could we have a post somewhere about positional context meaning?

Bachgen unig = lonely boy … is different for unig bachgen - only child … what else? :open_mouth:

Cas pethau … pethau cas? I forget the difference?

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cas bethau - hated things; pethau cas - nasty things
gwahanol bethau - various things; pethau gwahanol - different things

I can’t think of any others…

O, wait: hen ddigon - quite enough, and digon hen - old enough
and diweddar: late/deceased before the noun, and late/recent after the noun, e.g. Y diweddar Siôn Corn, erthyglau diweddar

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