A question I’ve been meaning to ask for ages. Pottering over some old course books I’ve always noted that they all seem to use the past tense of “BOD” fairly early on in the courses- fues i, fuest ti, fuodd o/hi…etc. I’m aware then that Fues i is - I was, I went…
Yet, I can’t remember covering this with SSIW was there a reason for that?
I steered clear of BOD as much as possible on the first SSiW course, which with hindsight I think was a mistake - just a hangover of the ‘avoid difficult stuff’ mindset in which I no longer really believe.
Having said that, the past tense of BOD hasn’t come up early doors in the new course either, but that’s because it hasn’t stuck its head up in any of the conversation models I’ve been trying to build, so there’s a bit more rhyme and reason to its absence…
When would you use these forms? I did a quick Google out of curiosity, and came up with this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/ysbyty_brynaber/lessons/language/lang16.shtml
Some of the examples they give are:
Fues i i Aberystwyth - I went to Aberystwyth
Fues i’n canu - I’ve been singing
Fues i’n lwcus - I was lucky
I think with what we’ve learned, I would say Es i i Aberystwyth - what’s the difference between Es i and Fues i, then?
And I guess with the second one, we’d use wedi bod for “have been,” so I can better understand this as a short form.
With Fues i’n lwcus, I guess I would have used the oeddwn i’n tense. Is there a difference in meaning?
Pan mi fues i yn Gymru ron i’n siarad aml efo Gareth.
I think the above implies:
When I was in Wales ( a completed moment/period of time) I was talking often to Gareth. (something I did constantly was ongoing)
joanie wrote: I think with what we’ve learned, I would say Es i i Aberystwyth - what’s the difference between Es i and Fues i, then?
I thought ‘es i’ could just be an even shorter form of ‘fues i’.
But I could be completely wrong though, since ‘es i’ covers the ‘I went’ construction, but I don’t remember using it for ‘I’ve been’ or ‘I was’. I’ve only learned the long form for the latter two…
Es i derives from “mynd” Es i Chatham…I went to Chatham
Fues i derives from “bod” Fues i yn Chatham…I was in/went to/have been in Chatham
I don’t think there is a direct English equivalent - it sort of says “I beed…”.
I went to the pub last night - Es i…
I was in the pub last night - O’n i’n…
I beed in the pub last night - Bues i …/(Mi) fues i …
All of which mean roughly the same thing.
I remember the bearded chap on hwb explaining there is no English equivalent, and its nearest meaning is “i be did”, so it’s something you did but aren’t any more, so i wonder if we could use it where we would say “i used to” in English.
Cheers J.P. (often wrong).
I think you use it when you did be doing something for a specific period of time that has finished.
And the choice of words might depend on how much you had to drink in the pub ;-).
I can’t think of a situation where there is no alternative to bues or fues i, so I tend to ignore it, but I suppose there must be times when nothing else will do?
My understanding is basically like Helen’s - it’s essentially an equivalent to “I’ve been” as opposed to “I was”. You would say “I’ve been walking all week before breakfast” because of the long time frame, but it’s not likely you would say “I’ve been walking yesterday before breakfast”. For this you would say “I walked yesterday” or “I was walking yesterday”. That’s the English cleared up, but do the Welsh Mi fues i, on i, dw i wedi, etc., work the same way? Hmmmmm, ponders while giving the impression of being wise…
I’m gradually coming across situations where to say “bues i” seems to work better than “O’n i” and it’s to do with whether you are describing a situation and going to say something more about it, or just stating a fact, e.g.
“O’n i yn y parc ddoe pan welais i’r dyn.”
“Ble buest ti ddoe?” “Bues i yn y parc.”
Not great examples, but I was talking with someone the other day about experiences in other countries and I noted that he used “Bues i” when he said where he was - a period of time with a definite start and finish.
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I think Dee has put here finger on it as far as usage in these parts is concerned. I often hear her “Ble buest ti ddoe” example. It used to (imperfect tense ) catch me out but I’m used to it now - see what I did there?
Yes, Dee is spot on - I have been told that if you say “I was in the park yesterday” using “O’n i”, Welsh speakers will be expecting you to tell them something else about it… “when I saw the man”.
If you use “Bues i…”, they will know that it was happening and has finished.
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Wnes i yn y parc.
Is that correct too? If so when would you use that? All these past tenses confuse me.
“Wnes i” means “I did”, so I wouldn’t use that in this context, sounds like “bues i” is the one…