Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

translation for “just as well”?

just as well we did that … ayyb.

Is that a - man a man a mwnci construct? :speak_no_evil:

just as well - llawn cystal

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Outrageous. :confused:

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Only fair, really…

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The children found it entertaining.

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And instructive, I hope…

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I use Bendith too

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Going back to Gareth’s posts above on “medru”, including the one with the image of the book -

Just to say that I heard “medru Cymraeg” (as in he has/knows/speaks? Welsh) on Radio Cymru’s Post Cyntaf this morning. I’m not sure who said it, possibly Dylan. Anyway, as confirmation he said it another twice within the same discussion. :slight_smile:

Another question: captioning images. How would you write something like the English sentence fragment “Butterfly sitting on flowers” that you might use to caption a photograph on Facebook or Instagram? Is it the same in Welsh?

“Pili pala eistedd ar blodau”?

Or do I need a “yn” in there?

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Yes, I think so, before the word “eistedd”.

Thanks. Wasn’t sure if the lack of a bod form changed anything.

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You need the yn if it’s a complete sentence like that, yes @stephenbranley, and also a soft mutation after ar:

Pili-pala yn eistedd ar flodau

You don’t have an yn if you rephrase it so that the eistedd is not in a complete sentence - so you could say:

Eistedd ar flodau - pili-pala

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Diolch, gareth!

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I just listened to the ‘chipmunk’-listening practice of Challenge 25 (Level 1) for the first time. I must admit that I avoided these listening practices because I was of the highly stupid opinion that I wouldn’t be able to follow anyway. Now, I’m totally flabbergasted! You know, it was way too fast for me to translate anything, but I did understand a lot anyway…instinctively. I gather that these chipmunks help to process spoken language faster - but do they also help the brain to process spoken language in the same way as one’s mother tongue much faster and earlier than usual?

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I am monitoring our general environs carefully with precisely that thought somewhat fretfully in mind.

I’m always a bit careful about ‘same way as mother tongue’ discussions… but I think we can be fairly confident that the overall process of forcing the brain to identify meaning from smaller and smaller clues certainly has similarities to how children process their first language - although in their case, their predictive ability is based on massive exposure, rather than accelerated content…

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Oh yes, children do learn their first language through massive exposure and they can see the spoken language ‘in action’…they can link the words, sentences and expressions to the things people do, to moods and emotions. I thought the similarity between how children acquire their mother tongue and the ‘chipmunks’ is the lack of a chance to translate and comprehend a new language through a language that is already there. Sure, this analogy is pretty shaky, since the words and sentences we hear in the chipmunks are already learned and have most probably been translated many times…but the brain’s way of processing this accelerated speech might be similar to how children process their first language, as you pointed out. It’s damn fascinating!

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My wife and I currently have the pleasurable duty of looking after our 11 month old grandson once or twice a week. We basically talk to him all the time when he’s not asleep, and I’m sure his parents do the same.

I was “listening to myself” talking to him earlier today and realised that even in a fairly short time, it involved a lot of words. So over the pre-school period in total, that must amount to a massive number of words a child can be exposed to. I’d always kind of known this in theory, but it’s a long time since our kids were at that stage, and it’s only just this recent experience that has really brought it home to me.

So I think adult learners definitely need to try to maximise their exposure as well; but I guess we all knew that already. :slight_smile:

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That’s very interesting, and I do try my best to maximise my exposure time. During work today, I listened to a Welsh audio book that is way out of my league and I was only able to grasp a few words. I wonder if it’s the words only one needs to be exposed to or is it the words and the actions, facial expressions and emotions of the speakers that helps one to ‘learn like a child’? :nerd:

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Now that’s a good question! :slight_smile:

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